Summary

Game names (and types): 'Animal Noises' (guessing game), 'Cats and Dogs' (imaginary play), 'Finding If She Loves Me' (play with plants/garden materials)

Handwritten descriptions of the games 'Animal Noises', 'Cats and Dogs' and 'Finding If She Loves Me' composed for Dr Dorothy Howard respectively by Brenda Holmes, Robbyn Vickery and Helen Laurie-Rhodes, students at Clayfield College, in October 1954. Holmes describes 'Animal Noises' as a popular party game. She writes that one child stands with their back to the other players, who take turns to make animal noises. The standing child must identify the player responsible for each sound. Vickery discusses 'Cats and Dogs', a game which involves two teams representing each animal searching for small objects. When a player locates an article, they either bark or meow. Laurie-Rhodes describes 'Finding If She Loves Me', which she classifies as a 'game of divination'. To play, the petals of a flower are picked in conjunction with reciting 'she loves me, she loves me not'.

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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