Fonds consists of two binders compiled by Dr. Henry H. Crapo when he was a Trustee with the Wasemquia Charitable Trust. The binders document the Vestris Prize Competition for Choreography in 1967 and 1968, which the Wasemquia Charitable Trust helped to sponsor. Fonds documents scheduling and planning for the competition, as well as lists of competitors and judges.

Correspondence addressed to and from Henry Crapo, discussing various topics such as invitations sent to renowned ballet dancers in the New York world to judge in the competition are included, along with press releases and letters to advertisement agencies to promote the competition. Other records in the binders include clippings from newspaper and magazines advertising the competition, as well as black and white photographs depicting trophies from the competitions and scenes of performance entries.

Fonds also includes a yellow patina bronze statue that depicts a caricature of Auguste Vestris, which acted as the central theme for the Vestris Prize competition. The statue portrays Auguste Vestris with an oversized head, wings, and a garland.

One manuscript copy (1 vol. 180 pp.) of excerpts from works by Pierre Jean Burette on the history of ancient dance and sport. The transcription is in an unknown hand and was copied from the work in the Bibliothèque de la ville de Boulogne-sur-Mer. From the library of Gustave Desrat.

The Doris Lewis Rare Book Room houses a sizeable special collection of rare materials related to the history of dance and ballet. The nucleus of the dance collection is the 150 items donated in 1975 by Dr. Henry Crapo, a former University of Waterloo faculty member. Dr. Crapo has continued to support the collection over the years.

Dr. Crapo's donation contains some rare and beautiful works on ballet: works by Negri, Caroso, Noverre, De la Cuisse, Arena, Dumanoir, Blasis and Bakst. The subject strengths of the collection reflect Dr. Crapo's interests in choreography and dance notation.

Of the seventeenth-century materials found here, some of the finest are Negri's Nuove inventioni de balli (Milan: 1604); Caroso's Nobilita di Dame (Venice: 1605), and Du Manoir's Le mariage de la musique avec la dance (1664).

The largest addition to the dance collection was the 300-volume collection acquired with the assistance of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council grant in 1982. This collection, with imprints ranging in date from 1687 to the mid-twentieth century, adds a new research dimension in the form of illustrated works containing lithographs and engravings of the period of the Romantic ballet. The provenance of the majority of works in this collection--a portion of the personal library of George Chaffee--a leading dance writer of the twentieth century, accounts in part for its strength. Many of the books Chaffee consulted in his research for his most famous writings on ballet are now a part of the Waterloo collections.

In 1985, another grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council made it possible for the Library to purchase over two dozen books supportive of the Crapo Collection.

Special Collections & Archives has prepared a digital exhibit featuring some of the items from the Henry H. Crapo Dance Collection.

Small notebook containing clippings of reviews, advertisements, and articles from Journal des Bals, La Danse and manuscripts of articles by G. Desrat regarding various types of dance (such as ancient Greek dancing, Scottish dancing, the cotillion, waltz, minuet, and the quadrille), along with handwritten notes. Also included are three leaves of documents relating to the origin of the notebook and sources of the article clippings contained inside.

Notebook containing diagrams of 84 contredanses with written annotations, circa 1780. Diagrams show the step by step movements of specific types of dances such as La Camille, Les Caprices de Chantenany, Les Cerises de Montmorenci, and Le Retour de Blanchard.

List of Contredanses included in Notebook:

1. La Camille
2. Les Deux Amies
3. La Zemia
4. La Labotiere
5. La Caprices Indiens
6. La Legere
7. L'Aufantine
8. L'été
9. La Nouvelle Etienne
10. La Nouvelle Monaco
11. L'Anglaise
12. Paule et Virginie
13. Lew Tembourins Picards
14. L'Union Intime
15. Les Trois Amis
16. La Champete
17. Les Caprices de Chantenany
18. Les Folies de Roncé
19. Les fête Villageoise
20. La Crécy
21. Les Plaisirs de Warennes
22. La Juno
23. La Petite Chasse
24. La Colbert
25. La Victoire de Cobourg
26. La Princesse d'Orange
27. La Rosalie
28. Le Duc d'Yorck
29. La Coalisée
30. L'arrivée du P. d'Orange
31. L'Espangnole
32. La Belle Elizabeth
33. Les Plaisirs d'Irlande
34. Carlalez [?]
35. La Julie
    4o. La Tulipano
36. Le Retour Autrichien
37. L'Arrivée de l'Empereur
38. Les Cerises de Montmorenci
39. La Yacinte
40. La Belle Annete
41. Les Bons Amis
42. La Simplicie
43. Les Plaisirs d'Alançon
44. La Figaro
45. La Fille à Nicolas
46. L'inconnu à la Redoute
47. La Belle Poûlé
48. Le Plaisir de Chatenet
49. La Satisfaction
50. La Chinoise
51. La Petite Charmante
52. Le goût du jour
53. La Guchen
54. Le Plaisir de Basque
55. La Pastorale
56. La Charboniere
57. Les nouveaux capricieu
58. La Redoute
59. La Vandeuie
60. L'Enfant Trompeur
61. La Petite Savoyarde
62. Luca
63. Les hannetons [?]
64. Le Depart Indien
65. La Chasse d'Amour
66. Les Dettes
67. La Nouvelle Eté
68. La Tarare
69. Le Portaille Anglois
70. Le Caprice de Erevan
71. Les Amourettes
72. Les Pantalon
73. La Neuville
74. La Monaco
75. L'Elisabeth
76. La Fête villageoise
77. L'Infortuné
78. Le Retour de Blanchard
79. [Untitled]