Item HT 41179 Document - Lenore Harding, to Dorothy Howard, Description of Ball Game 'Drunken Sailor', 1955

Summary

Game name (and type): 'Drunken Sailor' (ball game)
Alternative type: ball bouncing, ball bouncing rhymes, games with actions, language play

Typed description of the ball bouncing game and accompanying rhyme 'Drunken Sailor' composed for Dr Dorothy Howard by Lenore Harding, a student at Collier Primary School, in 1955. Harding describes how 'Drunken Sailor' is played, providing details of the physical actions associated with each verse of the rhyme. In each verse, particular words are a cue for players to throw the ball into the air.

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

Typed game description on two card-sized papers. Text printed on one side only.