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Story: Farm families

Playing cards

Playing cards

Families in the country were often a long way from organised recreation, so they had to make their own fun. Here a family group on the West Coast play cards around their tent around 1894.

Using this item

Macmillan Brown Library, University of Canterbury

Reference: CP 8410

Permission of the Macmillan Brown Library, University of Canterbury, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Emma Dewson and Jock Phillips, Farm families – The colonial family – new conditions, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/19820/playing-cards (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Emma Dewson and Jock Phillips, published 1 March 2009.