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Creator
Dougherty, John, 1910-1988
Call number
(S) *MGZMD 137
Physical description
5.75 linear feet (12 boxes)
Language
English
Preferred Citation

John Dougherty Collection, *MGZMD 137. Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Repository
Jerome Robbins Dance Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.Restrictions apply

John Dougherty was a dancer, dance historian and dance critic who spent most of his life affiliated with Ruth St. Denis and the Denishawn School. He was a student at Denishawn in the 1920s and later, served as secretary and literary adviser to Ruth St. Denis. He also taught dance and wrote for Dance News magazine. The John Dougherty Collection contains Dougherty’s own materials, mostly from 1960-1975, as well as correspondence, documents and original writings of Ruth St. Denis dating from the final period of her professional career, 1960-1968.

Biographical/historical information

John Dougherty was born in 1910 in Pennsylvania. He was a scholarship student of the first resident class at Denishawn House, 1928-1929. He made his professional debut dancing with the company Ted Shawn took out in the spring of 1929, beginning with the week at Atlantic City, ending at Carnegie Hall where he danced as one of the silhouette figures in the world premiere of Shawn’s Mevlevi Dervish. Dougherty entered the university of Pennsylvania in 1930 and received his B.A. degree in 1934, and his M.A. in 1938. Despite studying literature, Dougherty remained affiliated with dance throughout his life.

Dougherty was a staff correspondent in Southern California for Dance Magazine from 1956 until 1965. In 1960, he began lecturing on dance history at University of California at Los Angeles and served as a consultant and moderator for dance festivals and performances. Dougherty partnered with Ruth St. Denis in 1965 for her last company appearance, The Blue Madonna of St. Mark’s. Dougherty also trained the dancers for the Ruth St. Denis performance at Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County sponsored by Atheneum Arts Foundation. John Dougherty was St. Denis’ secretary and literary adviser during this last phase of her professional career. He wrote publicity for her, assisted with the operations of the Ruth St. Denis center, and worked to collect the writings of Ruth St. Denis for publication.

In 1966, Dougherty wrote the script, Denishawn Revisited, a retrospective of the Denishawn Era. In 1967, he trained dancers, and staged Denishawn Revisited at UCLA where he danced Ted Shawn’s Invocation to the Thunderbird as the finale to the show. Dougherty also produced another retrospective of the Denishawn era, Denishawn Festival, at UCLA in the 1970s. From 1971 to 1976 he lectured at SSU Fullerton. Dougherty worked with Ted Shawn in 1969 to help catalog materials relating to Mr. Shawn’s personal life and career, including his costumes and fabric collection. At this time Dougherty taped and transcribed interviews with Shawn, which were used by Walter Terry to write Shawn’s biography. Dougherty wrote reviews of dance, and books for Dance News in the 1970s. He died in Los Angeles, California in 1988.

Scope and arrangement

The John Dougherty Collection consists of correspondence, writings, research notes, dance programs, and clippings from newspapers relating to John Dougherty, his personal experience and interested in the Denishawn School of dance, and his professional career working for Ruth St. Denis. The collection is unique because it contains a significant amount of material relating to the thought and dance of Ruth St. Denis. The collection’s two series reflect the split between materials relating to Dougherty’s own work, and Dougherty’s output as Ruth St. Denis’s secretary and literary adviser. The collection covers the years 1904-1980, with the majority of the materials dating from the 1960s detailing the final years of Ruth St. Denis life and career. Dougherty’s close relationship with Ted Shawn and Charles Weidman are evident in his correspondence.

The John Dougherty collection is arranged in three series:

  • Series I: John Dougherty Professional Papers
    1925 - 1988

    The materials in this series relate to John Dougherty’s life and career as a dancer, instructor and critic.

  • Series II: Ruth St. Denis
    1904 - 1968

    The materials in this series relate directly to the professional and personal activities of Ruth St. Denis in last stage of her life from 1960 to 1967, when John Dougherty served as her personal secretary and literary adviser. The papers included in this series were created and collected as a result of this relationship.

  • Series III: Oversized Materials
    1906 - 1967, undated

    The oversized materials contain clippings from John Dougherty scrapbook, music scores and photographs of Ruth St. Denis. There is also a folder of unidentified photographs of dancers.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

The John Dougherty Collection was purchased in 1993 from Charles Apfelbaum Rare Books & Collections.

Processing information

Processed by Thomas Lannon; Machine-readable finding aid created by Thomas Lannon.

Related Material

See also the John Dougherty Papers, University of California, Irvine, Special Collections and Archives for related materials on Dougherty's activities in California

Using the collection

Location

Jerome Robbins Dance Division
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023-7498
Third Floor

Conditions Governing Use

For permission to publish, contact the Curator, Jerome Robbins Dance Division.

Access restrictions

Some collections held by the Dance, Music, Recorded Sound, and Theatre Divisions at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts are held off-site and must be requested in advance. Please check the collection records in the NYPL's online catalog for detailed location information. For general guidance about requesting offsite materials, please consult: https://www.nypl.org/about/locations/lpa/requesting-archival-materials Photocopying prohibited.