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Australian Children's Folklore Collection
Image: String Game
Source: Museum Victoria
The Australian Children's Folklore Collection (ACFC) is one of the largest and most significant archives of its kind in the world, reflecting Australia's cultural and regional diversity. It is the first Museum Victoria collection and one of the first collections in Australia to have been recognized through listing on the UNESCO Australian Memory of the World Register. It documents children's verbal folkloric traditions from the 1870s to the present. It includes more than 10,000 card files and over 1,000 pages of letters recording children's games, rhymes, riddles, jokes, superstitions, taunts and chants; over 300 traditional and homemade play artefacts; photographs and audiovisual material; and field and research studies.
The ACFC germinated with research in the 1970s and 1980s by Dr June Factor (then an academic at the Institute of Early Childhood Development) and Dr Gwenda Davey. Armed with pad and pencil, tape recorder and camera, they conducted field research to document Australian children's play. As their research progressed they gradually acquired other material, both contemporary and historic. The Australian Children's Folklore Collection was formally established in 1979. Dr Factor was invited to join the founding members of the Australian Centre at The University of Melbourne in May 1989 as a Senior Research Fellow. She brought the Australian Children's Folklore Collection with her to the Centre, and agreed to have it housed for a period in the University of Melbourne Archives. In 1999 she donated the Collection to Museum Victoria.
A unique aspect of the ACFC is the Australian archive of pioneering American scholar, educator and ethnographer Dr Dorothy Howard. From 1954 to 1955, Howard travelled across Australia, collecting and documenting children's games and verbal lore in cities, country towns and small rural communities. It was the first large-scale attempt to collect, analyse and discuss our children's lore and language, and it laid the foundations for research into children's folklore in this country.
The Australian Children's Folklore Collection brings to Museum Victoria a direct and personal voice from children at play.
Items per page: 10 50 (showing 1 - 10) 121 items
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Slingshot - Tree Branch, circa 1980-1983
Alternative Name(s): Shanghai, Catapult Slingshot made from a forked tree branch with a rubber band. Made circa 1980-1983. Found on the steps of the Institute of Early Childhood Develo ...
From: Kew, Australia Images: 3 -
Spinning Top - Marcello D'Amico, Wooden, 1954
Wooden spinning top made by Marcello D'Amico in 1954 in small village on the island of Stromboli, Italy when he was fourteen years old. Marcello's father was a builder so he had access ...
Images: 2 -
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Board Game - 'Around the Commonwealth by Aeroplane', circa 1910
Games board depicting map of Australia with red line drawn linking cities and towns around the coast. Manufactured by the National Game company. The game was owned by the donor's family ...
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Rattle - Wood, circa 1910s-1950s
Alternative Name(s): Baby Rattle Wooden rattle made in Maryland, USA, circa 1910s-1950s. This object forms part of the Dorothy Howard Collection, contained within the Australian Childr ...
Images: 2 -
Spinning Top - Fighting, Wood & Metal, circa 1970s-1990s
Alternative Name(s): Fighting Top, Tetsudo, Iron-clad Top Wooden and metal fighting top from Japan, donated by Mrs. Masumi Jackson in 1994. It is part of The Australian Children's Folk ...
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Whistle - Clay, Russia, 1980
Clay whistle made in Leningrad, Russia, in 1980, by a school pupil aged about 8 years, as part of primary art curriculum. The design is based on traditional peasant pottery Leningrad, ( ...
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Knucklebones - Sheep, Aboriginal Children's Play Project, circa 1945-1960
Alternative Name(s): Jacks Collected during the Aboriginal Children's Play Project by Paula King, Researcher. Given to Paula by Barbara Impey (later Hoppner), then aged 52, who played ...
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Card - Gold Pass, Museum Victoria, 2000-2010
Ten year Gold Pass admitting the holder, Dr June Factor, and up to five guests free entry to Museum Victoria's three venues: Melbourne Museum, Scienceworks Museum and Immigration Museum ...
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Spinning Top - Tonala, Mexico, 1962-1963
Alternative Name(s): Finger Top In 1962-63, during sabbatical leave, American folklorist Dr Dorothy Howard undertook research in Tonala, a pottery village in Mexico. She had for many y ...
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Spinning Top - Wood, Tonala, Mexico, 1962-1963
Alternative Name(s): Peg Top In 1962-63, during sabbatical leave, American folklorist Dr Dorothy Howard undertook research in Tonala, a pottery village in Mexico. She had for many year ...
Images: 2
