Figure 1.-- Here we see a magic lattern slide showing boys playing what may be some kind of game,, It is a staged studio photograph, we think from the 1890s. The background is designed to depict a village rather than a city scene. Perhaps the b0ys are meant to be planning a tag game. Some magic latern slides have titles. This one had no information. While the scene is staged in the studio, the boys would not have been costumed. They look to be wearing their every day clothes.

We have heard of all kinds of ring and chase games like tag on the school yard and village green during the 19th century. Here the development of free state schools meant that these games this was much more common as the 19th century progressed and child labor declined. Many of the games have one thing in common, no equipment was needed. Thus everyone could play, poor as well as rich children. Hoop rolling was popular as was horsey and piggy back. Sports began to become important, but nevr reached the mania of modern times. Sports were developing for older boys, but only became widely played in the later-19th century. We have not, yet, however, found much imagery illustrating these fames. Photography was largely studio photography in the 19th century, even the late-19th century. And some of the images we have found do not make it clear what the children are playing. We can only guess, for example, that the boys here are about to play tag (figure 1). This is about the only part of a tag game that can be easily photographed, especially ith 19th century eqyuipment and materials. Other images leave us guessing what the children are doing like this city magic latern slide. Like this other nagic lattern image tke about the same time as the village tag game. Only with the appearance of the snapshot in the 20th century do we begin to get many photographs of children playing and the games they played. Another problem is that the English and other European photographic industriesv were not as developed as the American industry. Here it was largely a matter of economics and aptent law. We believe that there are drawings, but we have not yet succeeded in finding many.

Created: 2:02 PM 2/29/2020
Last updated: 2:02 PM 2/29/2020