Colour printed cotton handkerchief for a child made in England in the 1960s

Square cotton handkerchief decorated with coloured figures and with a yellow boarder around the sewn edges. The main picture shows a young mouse character running into a road trying to catch a ball. Bearing down on him is Minnie Mouse driving a blue car while Mickey Mouse on the pavement is looking alarmed. The scene is captioned in red capital letters Don't Chase a ball onto a Busy Road. There are two other smaller pictures, one of daisy Duck walking a dog and one of Mickey Mouse acting as a lollipop man. Between these two is the lettering in red of Mickey Mouse's name and Safety First hankies printed in black capital letters on a red triangle.

Given by Hilary Webster

The handkerchief belonged to the donor, born Hilary Jane Brooks in 1954.

This handkerchief belonged to a girl born in 1954 but was never used. It is part of a series of Mickey Mouse Safety First Hankies and would originally been part of a boxed set. It features Mickey Mouse and his friends all displaying aspects of road safety.

The early 1960s was a time of heightened road safety awareness with the introduction in England of the Tufty Club, an organisation based around a squirrel character, Tufty, who featured in children's stories written for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. It was a time of engaging children using well known characters.

B.291-2011