The Tremaine Arkley Croquet Collection Prize, established in 2015, is awarded annually to the best research paper featuring the collection. We spoke with Mariah Dear, a fourth-year UBC student and the second winner of the prize. Mariah is majoring in Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice and will graduate in May 2018.
What made you want to write a series of poems instead of a traditional research paper?
I’m minoring in English literature, and as much as I love to write academic essays, I much prefer writing of the creative kind! I love poetry – I considered doing Creative Writing in some facet for my undergraduate degree – and am the president of UBC Slam Poetry, the main poetry hub at UBC. I have been trying to work on and improve my poetry for ages, and this seemed like a fun and quirky new topic to write on, all while getting to apply for a prize.
You wrote ten poems with ten accompanying images. How did you select the images that you wrote about?
I selected the images by pure instinct. I didn’t look through the complete collection (there are hundreds of images) – but instead, I looked at probably around 100 or 150 of the images and selected the ones that grabbed me at first glance. Most of those were unique for some funny or unique reason – I was intrigued by some of the humorous postcards.
Do you have a favourite spot or branch in the Library?
My favourite spots in the library are anywhere by windows. I love to be around books but I thrive on natural light. I find I can’t get anything done in the basement, but when I’m spread out on a table looking out onto campus, I get a lot done.
The rural rush hour (1919) by L. M. Glackens, courtesy of UBC Library’s Open Collections.
The Rural Rush Hour, by Mariah Dear
this is they type of croquet
I always knew
fat and crazy and normal
wild and made out of bent wire
I like it frantic and happy
like the courting when it is done
the ladies let their hair fall
the goats chew their white hats
nana bakes a pie and everyone eats
it on their laps in the cramped backyard
New and ingenious idea for croquet (1867), courtesy of UBC Library’s Open Collections.
Men Will Flirt,
And So, Let Us Make Hoops of Them!, by Mariah Dear
three sassy women
stand like sisters with small sinister smiles
and tap the balls through arches
of dress pants and leather belts
three sassy women
hear the low moan humming
deep in the throats of these respectable figures
and they know that if they say it with just the right
infliction these men will eagerly be bridges
Mr. Stafford, darling, would you stand with your legs just there?
and he does,
and the women grin and bludgeon the balls
so pristinely through the arches, they are good
at sport, so we know that when the red and yellow
crack into these grinning men’s shins
it is no goofy accident
three sassy women
win their match and head inside for
a glass of wine and prepare the men
some tea
About the collection
The Arkley Croquet Collection contains more than 1,400 items from the 1850s to 1950s. The collection includes oil paintings, watercolours, illustrations and fine art as well as photographs, prints, books, advertisements, comics and other materials related to croquet. The images show the rise in the game’s popularity in England and America in the 19th and 20th centuries. The collection also offers a fascinating glimpse at gender roles, as croquet was one of the first games that men and women played together.