Part of the goal of the spring outing I recently posted about was to play parlor games with The Footwork & Frolick Society at the Boutwell House in Groton, MA. This was a fun public outreach event during which we invited guests at the open house to join us in parlor games from the mid-19th century.

Many parlor games from this period are somewhat sedate and word based. Others are more active, such as passing a ring around a ribbon in a circle while someone in the middle tries to guess who is hiding the ring.

There is also a game in which a person has to go around to everyone in the room and ask for something to take on an imaginary journey. It can get a bit silly as people add items to the imaginary traveling trunk.

I didn’t participate in every game, but I greatly enjoyed observing guests having fun even when I wasn’t actively participating.

A second dress of mine made it out of the closet to attend this event, too! You can read all about the construction of Georgina (a cotton print dress from 1858 pictured below) in this past post from 2013.

Even the volunteers at Boutwell House enthusiastically joined in with our games, providing a wonderful atmosphere for guests.

I had great fun, and even laughed myself into tears trying to do a quadrille figure ‘blindfolded’ (we did it with our eyes closed). There is video evidence of this amusing attempt here, on the F&F Instagram page. Yes, dancing a quadrille blindfolded is, in fact, an official published parlor amusement from the mid-19th century!

Photo credit for the last four photos: Steve Lieman