On Children's Games in NYC, 1914

JF Ptak Science Books  Post 2724

It was the provocative and strong cover art was the work of Maurice Becker, 1889-1975, ( who "...was a radical political artist best known for his work in the 1910s and 1920s for such [seminal] publications as The Masses and The Liberator"--Wikipedia) that drew me into this pamphlet. John Collier's¹ The City Where Crime is Play, a Report by The People's Institute² is a slim pamphlet with an odd and I thought metaphorical title, though it turns out that this is exactly the subject of the work. Collier collected data from 400 or more collectors who made what sounds like fairly unscientific surveys of children's games in the Middle West Side of Manhattan on how kids played and the possible connection between that "play" and crime. He evidently finds something there, some sort of correlation that I do not understand and really don't need to, presently, though the games that he collected where of interest. In general though The People's Institute and Collier worked for the social welfare, and especially so for immigrants (Collier going on to become the Commissioner of Indian Affairs under FDR), and perhaps this was a simple work to parents on keeping a watchful eye out on the kids so that their play didn't veer into truancy, or something along those lines.

 

In some ways the listing of children's games and gamey-truancy and petty crimes, as well as the quality of the morality of their play puts me in mind of the vast and complex paintings of the Netherlandish Renaissance master Brueghel the elder in depicting the very busy town life and children's games of 16th c Holland. The 80 or so identified games in the Brueghel are indeed games, and is a more complete identifier of children's activities in 1560 than the lists that appear in the Collier work.  Sending out hundreds of people to observe or question kids about the games they were playing on the streets of Manhattan in 1914 sounds a bit like a time capsule, and so the connection to Brueghel, who definitely painted a time capsule encyclopedia of the games children played.Collier's is not nearly as complete, and Brueghel made no connection to crime 

Notes

1. John Collier (May 4, 1884 – May 8, 1968), a sociologist and writer, was an American social reformer and Native American advocate. He served as Commissioner for the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the President Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, from 1933 to 1945. He was chiefly responsible for the "Indian New Deal," especially the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, through which he intended to reverse a long-standing policy of Cultural assimilation of Native Americans.” “From 1907 to 1919, he worked as secretary of the People's Institute, where he developed programs for immigrant neighborhoods, emphasizing pride in their traditions, sponsoring lectures and pageants, and political awareness...”--Wikipedia

2. "The People's Institute was founded in 1897 by Charles Sprague Smith to teach the theory and practice of government and social philosophy to workers and recent immigrants in New York City. It sponsored lectures, classes, concerts, and other community activities at Cooper Union and throughout New York City, though principally on Manhattan's Lower East Side. The Institute ceased operations in 1934. The People's Institute is recognized most often for its contribution as a community educational center for working class adults and immigrants. It sponsored lectures, craft guilds, art and music leagues, a training school for community workers, and adult education classes in history, social science, literature, as well as nutrition and health...The Advisory Council comprised over forty [strong]  individuals including Lyman Abbott, R.R. Bowker, Nicholas Butler Murray, Andrew Carnegie, R.W. Gilder, Samuel Gompers, Jacob A. Riis, Jacob H. Schiff, Anson Phelps Stokes, J.G. Phelps Stokes, Oscar S. Straus, and Lillian D. Wald."--Historical note on the People's Institute Archives at the NYPL.