Item HT 41199 Document - Ian Ballantine, to Dorothy Howard, Description of Marbles Game 'Eye Drop', 1955

Summary

Game name (and type): 'Eye Drop' (marbles)

Handwritten description of the marbles game 'Eye Drop' composed for Dr Dorothy Howard by Ian Ballantine, a student at Collier Primary School, in 1955. To play, Ballantine writes that a ring shaped like an eye is drawn on the ground and marbles placed in its centre. Standing above the ring, players throw marbles in an attempt to knock out those placed in the ring. Ballantine provides a detailed, hand drawn and coloured diagram with annotations to accompany his description.

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 pencil on lined paper. Features detailed, hand drawn and coloured diagram at centre of lower portion. Text printed on one side only.