Summary

Game type: 'Hang the Man' (word game), Hangman
Alternative types: paper and pencil games

Handwritten description of the word game 'Hang the Man' compiled by an unidentified student at East Fremantle Government Primary School, for Dr Dorothy Howard between 1954-1955. The author describes 'Hang the Man' as a game requiring two players, paper and a pencil, which can be played anywhere year round. To play, one child thinks of a word and marks dashes for each letter it contains on the sheet of paper. The opponent must guess letters from the word, accumulating one line of the 10 possible lines forming an illustration of a hanged man for each error. The author has provided an illustration of a completed hangman. If the opponent correctly guesses the word before the illustration of the hanged man is complete, the players exchange roles.

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

Handwritten game description in blue ink on lined paper. Features a hand drawn diagram in blue ink along left portion of page; text written on one side of paper only.

More Information