Change and Continuity in the Play History of American Children

Children at play. This phrase evokes memories from all of our childhoods, and often prompts us to make comparisons between our own childhoods and what we see children doing today. How did children play in America's past? Visions of hardworking farm and factory child laborers may come to mind, or conversely, of an idyllic freedom to wander the fields and forests with other children, engaging in imaginary pursuits.

Dr. Howard Chudacoff, George L. Littlefield Professor of American History and Professor of Urban Studies at Brown University has extensively researched and documented children's play throughout the history of the United States. What follows from his research, Children at Play: An American History, is a fascinating look at the continual conflict between parents' and society's insistence that play be structured and supervised to teach morals and models of behavior, and children's desire to be free of supervision in the natural world, devising their own games and imaginary play. Book signing to follow lecture.

Presented by the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History and Connecticut Archaeology Center, part of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at UConn. 860-486-4460 www.mnh.uconn.edu

Dr. Howard Chudacoff, Brown University
Biology/Physics Building, Storrs campus, Room 130
No registration required - Free
Adults and children ages 8 and above. Children must be accompanied by an adult.