Summary

Game names (and types): 'Musical Chairs', 'Musical Arms' (elimination games), 'Cat and the Mouse' (chasing game)

Handwritten descriptions of elimination and chasing games composed for Dr Dorothy Howard by Rosemary Hall, Juliette Brown and Prudence Butler, students at Clayfield College, in October 1954. Hall describes 'Musical Chairs', which appears under the category of 'Dance Games' together with 'Musical Arms'. She writes that 'Musical Chairs' is a popular party game. To play, chairs are lined up totalling one less than the number of players. The children circle the chairs dancing to music. When the music stops, players rush to procure a chair risking elimination if they are unsuccessful. Hall notes that she played this game in Brisbane in 1954. Brown describes 'Musical Arms' as a game requiring an uneven number of players, usually girls, dancing to music. When the music stops, players must locate a partner or be eliminated from the game. Brown writes that she played this game in 1953. Butler discusses 'Cat and the Mouse', which involves a circle of players linked by their arms. In the centre, a 'cat' is selected from the players who must to chase another child, the 'mouse'. Butler states that the game can be played by any number of children.

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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