Summary

Game names (and types): 'Skipping', 'Old Mother More' (rope skipping games), 'Shooting the Marbles', 'Checkers' (marbles)
Alternative type: rope skipping rhymes, language play, play with props/equipment, board games

Handwritten descriptions of rope skipping games and two marbles games composed for Dr Dorothy Howard by Brenda Holmes, Patricia Watson, Marilyn Skinner and Suzanne Hughes, students at Clayfield College, on 15 October 1954. Holmes describes 'Skipping' as a game played by girls. To play, two children turn a rope between them while other players skip over it reciting various rhymes. Holmes transcribes an example of an accompanying rhyme which begins: 'I'm a Girl Guide dressed in blue...'. Watson discusses another rope skipping game called 'Old Mother More'. She describes it as a game used to discover who Mother More's daughter will marry, copying out the accompanying rhyme. Skinner describes the marbles game 'Shooting the Marbles', which requires a board covered with nails. She includes two, small, hand drawn diagrams to illustrate the game's layout and discusses the rules. Using a ring, players shoot marbles through the maze of nails scoring points. Skinner writes that the game can be purchased ready-made. Hughes discusses the marbles game 'Checkers', describing the appearance of the board used. She writes that players move their marbles across the board, one step at a time, in order to reach their opponent's side.

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 four different hands; text printed on both sides of page.

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