Summary

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

Handwritten description of the paper and pencil game 'Hangman' compiled by Albert Argent, a student at Errol Street Primary School, for Dr Dorothy Howard on 22 August 1954. Argent describes 'Hangman' as a game which any number of players can play in any location year round. He explains that one child chooses a sentence, which is marked out with 'x's' as illustrated by the accompanying diagram. The other players must guess the sentence by calling out different letters. Argent does not explain that each incorrect letter accumulates one mark forming the illustration of a hanged man; however, he has included a diagram of the completed illustration. Argent states that he plays 'Hangman' with his family.

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 pencil along lower portion; text written on one side only.

More Information