Summary

Game names (and types): 'Jacks' (knucklebones), 'Dog and the Bone' (running game)
Alternative type: play with props/equipment, games with sticks, games with found objects

Handwritten descriptions of different games involving bones and two riddles compiled for Dr Dorothy Howard by Nancy MacLennan and Jan Drake, students at Clayfield College, on 15 October 1954. MacLennan describes 'Jacks', which requires five knucklebones and is usually played on the floor. She writes that players throw the knucklebones into the air, catching them alternatively in their palm or on the back of their hand. As the game progresses, more knucklebones are added into the play until all five are thrown and caught. Drake describes 'Dog and the Bone', which involves two teams of equal numbers and is played outdoors. The players are allocated numbers and line up opposite the opposing team as indicated by Drake's hand drawn diagram. In between the teams, a bone is placed. A number is called out and the corresponding players must run to grab the bone before their opposition reaches it. On the reverse two riddles are transcribed; however, no author is recorded.

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 two different hands; text printed on both sides of page. Features hand drawn diagram on lower portion of page.

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