In this paper, I describe the rhyme’s rise to popularity, its influence on American “club fist” game, and how toys by McLoughlin Brothers and Bliss Manufacturing related to oral and printed versions of the tale. For example, the building on the box for the McLoughlin Brothers’ card game resembled the illustration for the story in the 1877 Mother Goose. Both were half-timber L-shaped homes with projecting upper stories, a dormer, and two chimneys. The game, consisting of forty-two cards (one jack’s house, eleven possessions, and thirty object cards), were played in response to questions derived from the verse, which reflected a Scottish variation likely since John McLoughlin was a Scottish immigrant. In architect E. C. Gardener’s 1896 The House That Jill Built, after Jack’s Had Proved a Failure a series of unfortunate events befell the occupants, such as rats, water, fire. The title exemplified the author’s belief that women should have a say in their housing. The reference, then, took the meaning of an ill-built house in boys’ games like “Club Fist”, for instance. After asking where each item was, similar to McLoughlin Brothers’ game, boys would sing “I’ve built my house, I’ve built my wall; I don’t care where my chimneys fall.” A building toy by Rufus Bliss also called “The House that Jack Built” (1896) embodied this new meaning; it was a house, which was a puzzle to construct. Bliss already made many dollhouses, stables, and firehouses, however “The House That Jack Built” was the only toy building which came unassembled. It differed from the rhyme considerably by featuring figures like sheep, rabbits, and pigs. Yet, like Gardener’s book, it promoted the skills of girls and women in domestic design.
About the presenterFrederika Eilers
Frederika Eilers is a research assistant and PhD candidate in architecture at McGill University. She is researching the architecture of dollhouses to investigate relationships between modernisms, models, gender norms, playrooms, and toys. When she was recognized as a Étudiants-chercheurs étoiles from the Fonds de recherche du Québec Société et culture for her article “Barbie versus Le Modulor: Ideal Bodies, Buildings, and Typical Users” in Girlhood Studies (2012), journalist Jean-François Venne wrote: “Pour elle, la recherche doit nécessairement avoir un impact social.” Accordingly, her research intends to make the field of architecture more accessible to girls and women.
On the other end of the age spectrum, Frederika works as research assistant on “Re-imagining Long-term care” a SSHR MCRI grant lead by Pat Armstrong. Due to strong interest in material culture, she has been a research fellow at the Winterthur Museum (2011) and the National Museum of Play (2013). At McGill she also has been a co-convenor for two reading groups at the Institute for the Public Life of Arts and Ideas called “Designing Diversity” (2011) and “City and Memory” (2012). Recent conference papers include “Kitchen Technologies as Domestic Innovation in Dollhouses: modernization, modernism, and modernity from 1910-1940”, “Model House, Miniature Home: the do-it-yourself architecture of dollhouses and models of 1940-1980”, and “Room to Play: Ventilation, Cleanliness, and Individuality” (2013).
Previously, Frederika earned a post-professional master of architecture in the cultural mediations and technology program at McGill (2010) and a professional bachelor of architecture (2006) from Syracuse University. She worked at CSD Architects, Inc. (2006-2009), KPN Architects, LLC (2010-2011), LaBella Associates, P.C. (2005-2006), and Flynn Battaglia, P.C. (2004) designing educational facilities and long-term care which attained citations from the Maryland Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council and Design for Aging Review.