Summary

Game names (and types): 'Releasings', 'Fingers', 'Comic Strips', 'Chasings', 'Hospital Touch', 'Punishments' (chasing games), 'Sticks', 'Strides' (jumping game), 'Brandings', 'Keep The Ball', 'Poison Ball', 'Donkey', 'Pig in the Middle', 'Who is it?' (ball games), 'Statues' (elimination game), 'One Potato, Two Potato...' (counting-out rhyme)
Alternative types: running game, language play, play with props/equipment, counting game, choosing game

Typed game descriptions compiled by J.J. Brownlee, a teacher at an unnamed Intermediate High School in Queanbeyan, addressed to Dr Dorothy Howard on 16 October 1954. Brownlee provides a thorough description of his research methodology, the geographical setting and climate range of the school, and the children's play areas. He discusses the children interviewed, which included Andrew Satrapa, Edward Royal, Les Manwaring, Peter Spendelove, Mary Morton, Rhonda Moore, Joy Moore and Mary Woods. Dividing the games into categories of boys and girls, Brownlee describes the relevant terminology, the rules, and the seasons or conditions during which each game is played. He also includes detailed, annotated diagrams for several of the games.

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

Typed game descriptions in black ink on paper. Includes six sheets; printed one side only. Handwritten annotations and diagrams in blue ink overall. Text underlined in red ink overall.

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