Summary

Game name (and type): 'Cracking the Whip' (running game)

Handwritten description of the running game 'Cracking the Whip' composed for Dr Dorothy Howard by an unknown child, presumably a student at Ceduna Higher Primary School, circa March 1955. According to the author, 'Cracking the Whip' involves one to ten girls or boys. The players form a line according to height with the smallest child at the end. The author writes that the children run in a line until the first player suddenly stops, stepping to the side. This action causes the following children to swing around as illustrated in the annotated, hand drawn diagram featured below the text.

One of a collection of letters describing a children's games 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 game description in blue ink on lined paper. Features hand drawn diagram in blue ink below text; borders in red ink. Text printed on one side only.

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