GERTRUDE LAWTON LIPPINCOTT:

An Inventory of Her Papers at the Minnesota Historical Society

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BIOGRAPHY OF GERTRUDE LAWTON LIPPINCOTT

Gertrude Lippincott (neë Lawton) was born in St. Paul (Minnesota) on June 29, 1913. She was educated at the University of Minnesota High School (Minneapolis, Minnesota). She attended the University of Minnesota, where she completed her Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology in 1935. She married Benjamin Evans Lippincott (1902-1988), a professor of political science at the University of Minnesota, in 1934. In 1943 she completed a Master of Arts in education with an emphasis on dance at New York University.

She studied dance at the University of Chicago, the University of Minnesota, Bennington School of Dance (Bennington College, South Hadley, Vermont), and New York University. She studied with Hans Wiener in Boston (Massachusetts), Leslie Burrows in London, and Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, and Hanya Holm in New York.

Lippincott began her professional dance career in 1937 when she founded the Modern Dance Center of Minneapolis, one of the first racially integrated dance studios in the nation. She toured with the Modern Dance Center from 1937 to 1942. She also founded the Studio Dance Group of the Minneapolis YWCA (Minneapolis, Minnesota) and the Dance Repertory Group (Minneapolis, Minnesota). From 1946 to 1966 she presented solo and group dance concerts throughout the United States. She performed, taught, lectured, and demonstrated at over two hundred and fifty colleges, universities, and communities. Often her audiences and communities had little or no previous exposure to modern dance. She danced at the YWCA in New York City, the San Francisco Dance League, Minneapolis Institute of Arts (Minneapolis, Minnesota), Baltimore Museum (Baltimore, Maryland), community arts festivals, women's clubs, and other performing arts organizations.

Lippincott was an artist-in-residence at Macalester College and Hamline University (St. Paul, Minnesota), assistant professor at Mount Holyoke College (South Hadley, Massachusetts), visiting lecturer at Mills College (Oakland, California), and an adjutant professor of theater at the University of Minnesota. Her residencies have included Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge, Louisiana), Colorado State University (Fort Collins, Colorado), Ball State University (Muncie, Indiana), Ohio State University (Columbus, Ohio), North Dakota State University (Fargo, North Dakota), Central Washington State College (Ellensburg, Washington), Brigham Young University (Provo, Utah), John B. Stetson University (DeLand, Florida), Redlands University (Redlands, California), and numerous other academic institutions.

Dance organizations have also been an important part of Lippincott's career. She participated in the founding of the Committee On Research in Dance (CORD) (1965), and was an early member of the National Dance Association. She held active memberships in such organizations as the American Dance Guild, Minnesota Dance Association, National Council of the Arts in Education (NCAE), the Congress On Research in Dance (CORD), and the Minnesota Independent Choreographers Association (MICA). Lippincott's articles on dance have been published in Dance Observer; Dance Magazine; the Journal of Art and Art Criticism; Impulse; the Journal of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation; DanceScope; and the Creative Dance Journal, as well as other professional journals.

Gertrude Lippincott suffered a stroke in 1995. She died June 2, 1996.

Biographical information was taken from the collection.

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SCOPE AND CONTENTS OF THE COLLECTION

The papers consist of correspondence, lecture notes, published articles, choreographic notes, manuscript music, sheet music, recorded music, scripts, costume concept drawings, photographs, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, and memoirs documenting the dance career of Gertrude Lippincott. The papers give a glimpse of her personal life as well, since the center of her activities was performing, teaching, or advocating modern dance. The correspondence files mix both personal and business correspondence. The scrapbooks are a rich inventory of her career. They contain program announcements, flyers, cards, correspondence, photographs, and newspaper clippings concerning her dance performances, choreography, dance troupes, and dance organizations.

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