Summary

Game type: autograph album rhymes, oaths, parodies and satire on adult behaviour
Alternative type: language play

Handwritten autograph album rhyme, a sworn oath, and rhymes parodying adult behaviour compiled for Dr Dorothy Howard by Robin Davies, Wendie Russell, and Pamela Kinlock, students at Clayfield College, on 15 October 1954. Davies transcribes a sworn oath, which begins 'Honest true black and blue...'. Russell records two rhymes classified as parodies and satire on adult behaviour including: 'One bright day in the middle of the night...' and 'I went to the pictures on Sunday...'. Kinlock copies out the autograph album rhyme 'Dainty and fleet, the maiden sweet...'.

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 written by three different hands: text printed on both sides of page.

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