Summary

Game type: 'Hide and Seek' (hiding game)
Alternative types: running games

Handwritten description of the hiding game 'Hide and Seek' compiled by Douglas Power, a student at Errol Street Primary School, for Dr Dorothy Howard on 25 August 1954. To play 'Hide and Seek', Power writes that a player is elected 'he', the seeker, and a base and boundaries are established. While the players hide, Power explains that 'he' counts to 100 before proceeding to find the hidden children. If 'he' finds a child, he races them back to the base. If 'he' beats the child back, they are considered 'caught'. Power notes that the last player to be caught assumes the role of 'he' in the subsequent 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 text written on one side of page only.

More Information