Scope and arrangement
The Wentink collection dates from 1966 to 1981. Most items are dated and identified. The collection comprises two boxes of paper materials created during his time working as an archivist at the New York Public Library.
Materials related to Wentink's publishing include research, interviews with dancers, reproductions of photographs, notes, and drafts. Most of Wentink's publishing is related to the archives that he stewarded at the New York Public Library, but also include some writing on dancing for the choerographer, George Balanchine and the 50th anniversary of the Rockettes. The drafts of writing sent to Wentink are related to dance, particularly ballet in Poland, and an outline for a dance encyclopedia and background on the theatre critic H. T. Parker.
The Doris Humphrey collection has much of its planning documentation, including detailed planning papers that describe the collection from the subseries level, and at times the folder level. There is an inventory of Humphrey's correspondence from 1891 to 1958, also included in the register. The register functions as a very detailed finding aid. It provides scope and content notes, biographical information, a detailed chronology of events from Humphrey's correspondence, a description of the series and its organization, a folder list, and an index of all people, titles, and subjects mentioned in the collection. Besides the Humphrey collection, the only other research in this grouping is related to dance notation. There are no materials related to the Ruth Page collection.
A large portion of the collection consists of subject indexes from other books about dance and ballet. These were then used as reference information for an extensive set of alphabetized index cards with dance terminology, performances, and artists. It is unclear if this work was for general reference or research for a book titled Balletomania: a quizzical potpourri of ballet facts, stars, trivia, and lore. Balletomania was published in 1981 and features, as the title suggests, quizzes and answers to assorted ballet trivia. Subject cards are in alphabetical order but subdivided by size. Not all cards have added information beyond the subject heading.