This collection is the product of two life-long loves, dance and photography. Carol Halsted's background in dance and her husband's involvement in fine art photography spurred her on to collect the unusual, the beautiful and the significant in this art form. carol Halsted is Chairperson of the Department of Music, Theatre and Dance and Professor of Dance at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. She began her career in dance at a neighborhood dance studio in Toledo, Ohio at age three and continued her dance studies through college. After graduation from the University of Michigan, Carol ventured to New York City where she studied modern dance with Charles Weidman, Martha Graham and many others. Marriage took her back to the Midwest and finally to Michigan where she began her teaching career at Oakland University in 1970. She continued to dance with the Festival Dancers, a local modern dance company, and began graduate school at Wayne State University, where she received her Masters and Doctorate in Education.

Shortly after moving to Michigan, her husband, Tom Halsted, opened the 831 Gallery (now known as The Halsted Gallery) for the exhibit and sale of fine art photography.

The art of photography was just beginning to gain recognition in the late 1960's and The Hasted Gallery was one of the first in the United States, or in the world. Thus began Carol Halsted's career collecting dance photographs.