Philip Richardson Archive Collection

The collection includes :

Scrapbooks: 1 very large and delicate scrapbook containing material relating to Assemblies given by Theresa Cornelys at Carlisle House, Soho Square, 1763-1780; Indexed scrapbook containing 19th century and early 20th Century press cuttings on dancers from The Illustrated London News and other sources, compiled by Mark E. Perugini; Richardson's OBE Scrapbooks containing press cuttings and messages of congratulations following his appointment in 1951.

Notebooks: 6 notebooks containing a variety of press cuttings and articles related to Richardson's work 1921-1926; 1 notebooks containing handwritten notes for four chapters of 'The Autobiography of a Dancer'

Articles & Illustrations: from various publications, 1919-1950

Papers & Correspondence: including notices of 19th Century Assemblies in Richmond and London, 1804-1822

Programmes including "The Star" Ball and Ballroom Championship programmes (1925 - 1966); Blackpool Annual Dance Festivals (1946 - 1975); Butlin's Annual Re-Union Prgrammes, including the Amateur Veleta Challenge Trophy Competition

Co-founder of the Dancing Times, 1911, the Association of Operatic Dancing of Great Britain, 1920, and The Camargo Society, 1930. Richardson also founded and organized the "Sunshine" Charity Matinees and the All England Sunshine Stage Dance Competitions.
As an editor, Richardson contributed to a number of books and periodicals, but in 1946 he published A History of Ballroom Dancing (1910-1945) and in 1960, Social Dances of the Nineteenth Century .

Richardson's interest in the history of dancing led him to become an avid collector of rare books on the subject. His personal library collection was bequeathed to the RAD after his death in 1963.

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Detailed spreadsheet available at: Philip Richardson Collection