Summary

Game names (and types): 'Hide and Seek', 'Hide Go Seek', 'Hidey Go Seek' (hiding games), 'Eeny Meeny' (counting-out rhyme), 'Queenie' (ball game), 'Drop the Hanky' (circle game), and the unnamed rhyme 'I went to the pictures tomorrow...' (rhymes)
Alternative types: choosing game, language play

Handwritten letter describing several children's games played in England and Australia composed by 25 year old Christine Brown and addressed to Dr Dorothy Howard in October 1954. In Brown's letter to Dr Howard, she refers to an enclosed list of games played by her 9 year old brother Harold in Brisbane. Brown writes that both she and her father, aged 50, have annotated the list to indicate the games played during their respective childhood's in England. Unfortunately, a note accompanying this letter states that Brown's enclosed list was not located. Nonetheless, Brown highlights several of the games included on her list in the contents of her letter, making particular reference to alternative wording and national variations.

One of a collection of letters describing a children's game written to children's Folklorist Dorothy Howard between 1954 and 1955. Dr Howard came to Australia in 1954-55 as an American Fulbright scholar to study Australian children's folklore. She travelled across Australia for 10 months collecting children's playground rhymes, games, play artefacts, etc. This letter, together with the other original fieldwork collected by Dr Howard during this period, is preserved in the Dorothy Howard Collection manuscript files, part of the Australian Children's Folklore Collection (ACFC), Archive Series 3. The ACFC is an extensive collection documenting children's folklore and related research.

Physical Description

Handwritten letter in black ink on paper. Includes two sheets; text printed on one side only. Handwritten annotation in blue ink in Dr. Howard's hand runs vertically along right side of first page of letter.

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