Caroline Furness Jayne
Encyclopedia
Caroline Furness Jayne was an American ethnologist. She wrote the best-known book on string figure
s, String Figures and How to Make Them: a study of cat's cradle
in many lands, 1906.
The daughter of the Shakespearean scholar Horace Howard Furness, and a graduate of Philadelphia's Agnes Irwin School
, she became the wife of Horace Jayne
, a biology professor at the University of Pennsylvania
. Her brother, William Henry Furness III, received his M.D. from the same university and was an "extensive traveler" and a fellow of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain.
Her string figure mentor was Alfred Haddon, a Cambridge ethnologist who began the introduction to her book by noting that "in ethnology ... nothing is too insignificant to receive attention". He then goes on to defend the research invested in the unpromising amusement of string figures. Jayne, an extensive traveler herself, was the first to create a popular study of string figures building on dry academic papers which had appeared in journals like The Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology and the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society as well as in a variety of foreign language anthropological journals. (These are listed in her Bibliography (pp. 396-98) and include papers by Dr Haddon (six) and 42 other researchers.)
String Figures and How to Make Them was first published in 1906 by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York (ISBN 0-8446-2318-0), and was reprinted by Dover Publications, New York in 1962 (LCCN: 62-51880); later reissues have ISBNs 0-613-81171-2 and 0-486-20152-X. It included figures illustrating every game and 16 portraits of players.
The Jaynes lived in Philadelphia in a city house at 19th & Delancey Sts., designed by her uncle, the architect Frank Furness
. Their son, Horace H. F. Jayne, became the first curator of Chinese art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
, and later was director of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
and a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
.
String figure
A string figure is a design formed by manipulating string on, around, and using one's fingers or sometimes between the fingers of multiple people. String figures may also involve the use of the mouth, wrist, and feet. They may consist of singular images or be created and altered as a game, known as...
s, String Figures and How to Make Them: a study of cat's cradle
Cat's cradle
Cat's cradle is a well known series of string figures created between two people as a game. The name of the entire game, the specific figures, their order, and the names of the figures vary. Versions of this game have been found in indigenous cultures all over the world—from the Arctic to the...
in many lands, 1906.
The daughter of the Shakespearean scholar Horace Howard Furness, and a graduate of Philadelphia's Agnes Irwin School
Agnes Irwin School
The Agnes Irwin School is an all-girls', non-sectarian, day school for students in grades PreK-12. The School has been a leader in girls' education since 1869, when it was founded by Miss Agnes Irwin of Philadelphia. Agnes Irwin, a great-great-granddaughter of Benjamin Franklin, later became the...
, she became the wife of Horace Jayne
Horace Jayne
Horace Jayne was an American zoölogist and educator. He was born in Philadelphia, was educated at the University of Pennsylvania , and studied biology at the universities of Leipzig and Jena in 1882–1883 and at Johns Hopkins for a year...
, a biology professor at the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
. Her brother, William Henry Furness III, received his M.D. from the same university and was an "extensive traveler" and a fellow of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain.
Her string figure mentor was Alfred Haddon, a Cambridge ethnologist who began the introduction to her book by noting that "in ethnology ... nothing is too insignificant to receive attention". He then goes on to defend the research invested in the unpromising amusement of string figures. Jayne, an extensive traveler herself, was the first to create a popular study of string figures building on dry academic papers which had appeared in journals like The Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology and the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society as well as in a variety of foreign language anthropological journals. (These are listed in her Bibliography (pp. 396-98) and include papers by Dr Haddon (six) and 42 other researchers.)
String Figures and How to Make Them was first published in 1906 by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York (ISBN 0-8446-2318-0), and was reprinted by Dover Publications, New York in 1962 (LCCN: 62-51880); later reissues have ISBNs 0-613-81171-2 and 0-486-20152-X. It included figures illustrating every game and 16 portraits of players.
The Jaynes lived in Philadelphia in a city house at 19th & Delancey Sts., designed by her uncle, the architect Frank Furness
Frank Furness
Frank Heyling Furness was an acclaimed American architect of the Victorian era. He designed more than 600 buildings, most in the Philadelphia area, and is remembered for his eclectic, muscular, often idiosyncratically scaled buildings, and for his influence on the Chicago architect Louis Sullivan...
. Their son, Horace H. F. Jayne, became the first curator of Chinese art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is among the largest art museums in the United States. It is located at the west end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park. The Museum was established in 1876 in conjunction with the Centennial Exposition of the same year...
, and later was director of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, commonly called The Penn Museum, is an archaeology and anthropology museum that is part of the University of Pennsylvania in the University City neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.-History:An internationally renowned...
and a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
.