Summary

Game type: autograph album rhymes
Alternative types: vows, rhymes, verses, language play

Typed transcriptions of autograph album inscriptions copied from an album loaned to Dr Dorothy Howard by Glenys Henderson, a student at East Camberwell Girls Secondary School, in 1954-1955. The document features 17 vows, rhymes, and verses written by different authors between 1908 and 1916. The authors include the following: Aunt Clare, M. Warry, Rita Giovesi, Ethel Lees, Ruly Harris, Elaine Zelman, A. Sinclair, Elsie Fairbairn, Camiller [sic] Himmler, Carola Iser, Rosie Constantine, Eleanor Hughston, J.B. Leith, Peggy Rees, Dora Iser, A.R., and E. Millam. The inscriptions include vows of remembrance, practical advice, and declarations of love and friendship.

Autograph albums are the small diary-sized notebooks popular with Australian children in the first half of the 20th century. According to Dr Howard, autograph albums represent a private, secretive space in the world of children. Dr Howard states that the albums are characterised by a variety of inscriptions annotated by the owners and their peers.

One of a collection of letters describing a children's game 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 annotations in black ink on paper. Text printed on one side only.

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