Summary

Game names (and types): 'Paper Chase' (chasing game), 'Blindman's Bluff' (hiding game), 'The Egg and Spoon Race', 'Walking Over Eggs' (play with props/equipment)
Alternative type: running game, blindfold games

Handwritten descriptions of a chasing game, a hiding game and two games involving eggs compiled for Dr Dorothy Howard by Patricia Dodd, Rosemary Hall and Julianne Hodgson, students at Clayfield College, on 15 October 1954. Hall describes 'Paper Chase', which involves one player leaving a trail of paper pieces as they run away. Other players seek out the 'trail-layer', whose path is often confused by false trails. She also discusses 'Walking Over Eggs', a game she saw played in Brisbane in 1953. To play, she writes that five eggs are lined up a foot apart. A player is blindfolded and the eggs replaced secretly with non-breakable items. The blindfolded player must step between the eggs, fearing they will crush them. Hodgson describes the hiding game 'Blindman's Bluff', which involves a blindfolded player seeking the other, hidden players using only their hands. Dodd describes a popular party game, 'The Egg and Spoon Race'. To play, children line up with an egg on a spoon. Players attempt to run to the finishing line of the course without the egg falling to the ground.

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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