Summary

Game names (and types): 'Hockey', 'Football', 'Cricket', 'Softball', 'Basket Ball', 'Baseball', 'Tennis', 'Rugby', 'Bowls', 'Socker' [Soccer], 'Tunnelball', 'Table Tennis', 'Queenie', 'Donkey' (ball games), 'Boxing', 'Cock Fights', 'Wrestling', 'Swimming' (physical play), 'Chasy' [Chasey], 'Paper Chase', 'Arrow Chase', 'Scarecrow' (chasing games), 'Marbles' (marbles), 'Coits' ['Quoits'], 'Darts', 'Fiddlesticks', 'Skittles' (play with props/equipment), 'Hoppy' (hopscotch), 'Snakes and Ladders', 'Draughts', 'Ludo', 'Chinese Checkers' (board games), 'Skippy', 'French and English' (skipping games), 'Hidy' [Hidey], 'Hidy Chasy' [Hidey Chasey] (hiding games), 'Hide the Thimble' (seeking game), 'Keep It Off' (unknown type)
Alternative types: play with props/equipment, dramatic play, war games

Handwritten list of games compiled for Dr Dorothy Howard by Ian Ballantine, a student at Collier Primary School, in 1955.

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 list of games in pencil on lined paper. Text printed on one side only.

More Information