Summary

Game type: 'Musical Chair', 'Donkey's Tail' (party games)
Alternative types: games with music, play with props/equipment, elimination games, blindfold games

Handwritten descriptions of the party games 'Musical Chair' and 'Donkey's Tail' compiled by Brian Hussey, a student at Errol Street Primary School, for Dr Dorothy Howard in August 1954. To play 'Donkey's Tail', Hussey explains that each player is blindfolded and given a pin with a tail attached. He writes that players are spun around five times before they attempt to correctly place the tail on an illustration of a donkey placed on a wall, providing a hand drawn diagram to illustrate his description. Hussey states that this continues until a child successfully places the tail. He also describes 'Musical Chair', explaining that players form a circle around a row of chairs, providing a hand drawn illustration to clarify the set up. Hussey notes that there is always one less chair than the total number of players. To play, he writes that players move around the chairs while music is played. When the music is stopped, players race to secure a place on a chair. Hussey states that if a player fails to claim a chair, they are eliminated from the game.

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 paper. Features borders ruled in red pencil and two hand drawn illustrations in pencil on front and back; text written on both sides of page.

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