Summary

Game names (and types): 'Hide and Seek', 'Bang', 'Sardines' (hiding games), 'Animal Noises' (guessing game), hidie

Handwritten descriptions of hiding and guessing games compiled for Dr Dorothy Howard by Jill Paterson, Helen Tait and Jan Overell, students at Clayfield College, on 15 October 1954. Paterson describes the hiding game 'Hide and Seek', which is played by two teams of children. To play, one team hides while the opposing group counts to 500 before attempting to find those hidden. Tait describes the hiding games 'Bang' and 'Sardines'. 'Bang' requires more than two players. One child counts while the other players hide. If caught, a child is taken to the 'home' base by the seeker. The captured child can be freed by other players and re-hide. Tait describes 'Sardines' as a game requiring more than three players. She writes that one child hides, while the other children count. When a seeker locates the hidden child, they must join them in their hiding place. Overell discusses the guessing game 'Animal Noises', which can be played by an number of children. She writes that players sit in a circle except for one child, who stands outside the ring with their back to the group. Taking in turns, the seated children make animal noises and the standing child must guess the identity of the player responsible.

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 descriptions in blue ink on lined paper. Features text by three different authors; text printed on both sides of page.

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