Summary

Game name (and type): 'Cops and Robbers' (imagination game)
Alternative types: play with props/equipment, role-playing games

Handwritten description of the imagination game 'Cops and Robbers' written for Dr Dorothy Howard by an unidentified student at Double View Government Primary School, presumably on 25 March 1955. The author writes that players are divided into groups of 'cops' and 'robbers', noting any number of children can play. To play, a number of items are required including paper money, pieces of glass for jewels, a box to store the valuables, guns for the policemen, and guns and masks for the robbers. The author states that the robbers must try and steal the box of money and jewels from a room without being caught by the police. If caught, the robbers are jailed.

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 description in pencil on lined paper. Features borders ruled in red pencil; text printed on one side only.

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