No Longer Hidden - The Hatch Collection of Black Cloth Dolls

No Longer Hidden
An Exhibit of Black Cloth Dolls 1870-1930
A Catalogue of the Exhibit
No Longer Hidden
An Exhibit of Black Cloth Dolls 1870-1930
A Catalogue of the Exhibit
Photographs & Expanded Text
From the collection of
Pat Hatch
Curated by
Roben Campbell
Supported by
Harvard Historical Society
Exhibit
March 30 - May 13, 2007
Sat & Sun 2 - 5 PM, Thu 7 - 9 PM
Harvard Historical Society
215 Still River Rd, Still River, MA
www.blackclothdolls.com
Copyright © 2007 by Roben Campbell
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced
in any form without wri en permission from the copyright holder.
Designed by Colin Fay
Title photo by Kent Boynton
All photos by Roben Campbell unless otherwise specified
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
An exhibit cannot take place without an exchange of ideas and the support of many people and institutions. I am very grateful first to the Harvard Historical Society for sponsoring the exhibit and producing
this catalogue. I thank the Harvard Cultural Council for their support.
I thank Fruitlands Museum for the generous loan of their black doll, and Maud Ayson for facilitating
the loan.
I thank the following libraries for opening their collections and archival records to me: The American
Antiquarian Society in Worcester for access to The American Girls Book and The Liberator, the Phillips
Library of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem for allowing me to view the records of the Salem Female
Anti Slavery Society, and the Boston Public Library for their online access of The New York Times and
The Boston Globe before 1930.
I am also very grateful to the following people for sharing their collections with me and for taking the
time to discuss my project: Nancy Rexford for documenting astrakhan trim in Kursheedt’s catalogue
(1893), and Benne ’s Glossary of Textiles (1914), Ulysses Dietz, Curator of Decorative Arts of the Newark
Museum; Susan Haskell, Associate Curator at the Peabody Museum of Harvard University; Barbara
Whiteman, owner of the Philadelphia Doll Museum; and the members of the Black/Gold Doll Club of
Boston, especially their president Jacqueline Sco .
Without the collection of Pat Hatch this exhibit would not have taken place. I thank Pat for her unending
support, for allowing me to examine and photograph the dolls, and for generally pu ing up with me
for the last year and a half.
This book was designed by my son Colin Fay, who also designed the website, www.blackclothdolls.com. I
thank him for the generosity of his time and his fine eye.
Most of all, and with all my heart, I thank my husband David Fay for the countless ways in which he has
helped me realize the exhibit and this book.
Roben Campbell
Twin Sisters: Dolls #4 & #5
INTRODUCTION BY PAT HATCH
Collecting black dolls didn’t just happen. If there is such a thing as
a collecting gene, I have it. At a young age I was given a ki en.
That gave me the idea to collect cats and dogs. Instead I was given
scrapbooks and magazines to cut and paste and have all the cats and
dogs I wanted. It took no time at all for me to discover paper
dolls. So when I encountered my first black cloth doll, si ing
in the corner of an antique shop in Bolton, Mass., it was
love at first sight. That was 1973 and I had just opened a
shop of my own. It never occurred to me that one doll
would lead to a collection of 150 black cloth dolls.
Finding them was not something I could do as a
pastime. Black dolls were not just si ing out there.
I found one or two a year, at an antique show or
auction or house sale or antique shop. “Surprise”
is a word that came to mind each time I bought
one. I never thought many had survived. It is still
a thrill when I see one. It doesn’t have to be a
new one, just one of my own si ing on a shelf.
When I look at my collection of black dolls, I see
great folk art done by American women. I see form,
color, and a itude. I see the expression of love, both in the
making and in the use. Some of my dolls are fragile from
years of child’s play; for them their mere survival adds
another dimension. American black dolls have so much to
teach and that message should be ‘no longer hidden’.
This exhibit and the extensive research have changed my
collection. It is no longer a group of pre y faces and charming personalities. Roben has given the dolls’ ages, places in
history and reasons for their creation. She has given us the
scholar’s analysis of their elements and helped to make them
emotional statements atop a framework of cogent facts. For
me they have been reborn.
Doll #3
PREFACE
The impact of seeing my first black cloth doll at the home of
Pat Hatch was extraordinary. What followed was a determination to learn as much as possible about the dolls and bring
them to a public audience. As with most objects of folk art
nothing was wri en about them during their time. Finding
any information about the dolls has been difficult and indirect
since objects of folk art are usually not appreciated as such,
and wri en about, until many years a er their popular run.
This catalogue is a photographic document of the exhibit, but
it also expands the text to provide more detail about the nineteenth century world of the dolls and of doll making traditions. But, the dolls stand alone. They have enormous vitality
and are a tribute to the unknown cra smanship of the past.
At the back of the book is a list of dolls by doll number with
their vital statistics.
History is not the past. History
is a story about the past, told
in the present…The past is
vast, and it is gone…Gone
u erly. We know the past only
through things that chance to
exist in the present: old books,
broken pots, disturbed memories.
Henry Glassie
Doll #36
THE DOLLS AS FOLK ART
As folk art the black cloth dolls developed from the juncture of human skill and modern technology - the
age old hand sewing tradition of women and the availability of factory made cloth. Objects of folk and
decorative arts o en follow a progression: an early period of high quality and originality, a middle period
of greater production and popularity but usually lower quality, and finally a period of decline followed by
disappearance. The dolls in the Hatch collection follow this same progression, ending when technology
and factory production finally eclipsed skilled handwork.
The dolls’ features in all three periods express an outlook that parallels the African American struggle
for equal rights, either by chance or circumstance. The features of the earlier dolls were individually
fashioned and more expressive, and the dolls were finely dressed. They have the strength, pride,
determination, and hopefulness of Emancipation and Reconstruction. By the 1890’s, o en called the
golden period of dolls, facial features became more neutral, and the dolls lost the upbeat quality of the
earlier period. Everyday clothing was more common. Even though there is great variety in doll making in
the last period, the bo le dolls exemplify the decline of the folk art tradition with their bu on eyes, co on
jersey fabric, and expressions of enduring patience, strength, and fatigue.
The dolls in the Hatch collection that most clearly illustrate the folk art progression can be divided into
three periods: The Earliest are the Finest (1870 - 1890), Everyday Calico and Shoe Bu on (1890 - 1910), and
The Last Stand: The Bo le Dolls (1910 - 1930).
DOLLS AND TECHNOLOGY
The single most important advance in technology brought on by the textile revolution was the availability
of inexpensive factory-produced co on cloth, followed by the development of the sewing machine. The
first mills in Lowell started operating in 1822 and were producing over a million yards of cloth per week
by 1850. Cloth dolls, white or black, would not exist without co on cloth as an inexpensive commodity.
The second advance that affected women’s lives was the 1847 patent for the sewing machine, and its
widespread use by 1870. Most of the dolls are made with factory cloth and most are at least partly
machine stitched. Other technological changes evident in doll construction were minor compared to these
two breakthroughs.
SEWING TRADITIONS AMONG WHITE AND BLACK WOMEN
Over the course of the nineteenth century the place of sewing in women’s lives changed greatly. In
1800 sewing was a daily household chore for all except the privileged few. By mid century sewing had
become a more genteel occupation of leisure involving embroidery and decorative work for the large
sector of white women in the rising middle class. By 1900, sewing diminished even more to become a
hobby or cra .
For black women in the antebellum years only the ten percent of female slaves who worked in households
were taught the skill of sewing. Immediately a er the war this percentage increased as the “great
silent army” of northern white women and black women entered the south, regularly teaching sewing
alongside reading. Women with sewing skills readily found employment as seamstresses, dressmakers,
and milliners. Skilled jobs in other areas were generally not open to African Americans. However, by
World War I, technology and the increased production of factory clothing had supplanted much of the
demand for skilled seamstresses in the United States. Not surprisingly, the production of black cloth dolls
also went into decline.
“The contribution of slave women to textile production ... has been ignored. Yet the evidence that slave
women produced fabric, and that they quilted, sewed,
and crocheted is irrefutable.”
Gladys-Marie Frye
BLACK CLOTH DOLLS ON RECORD
THE AMERICAN GIRLS BOOK
Dolls became a key artifact of childhood in the nineteenth
century. Before the Civil War mention of black cloth dolls
per se is infrequent but does exist. Eliza Leslie’s American Girls
Book, published in 1831, gives general pa erns for making
two kinds of cloth dolls, a fine linen doll and a common
doll in the stump fashion without legs. She illustrates a black
cloth doll as an example of the la er type. Leslie suggests
the following doll making techniques for both kinds of dolls:
1) a reinforcement of wood or rigid substance and tightly
rolled fabric for the head/body connection, 2) a white
muslin underlayer, 3) a stuffing of rags and/or bran, 4)
arms, that are sewn on, using strong coarse thread, 5) an
overlayer of a finer fabric such as linen or wool crepe,
and 6) penciled or painted features. Her book, reissued many times, was last published in the 1860’s.
The construction fabric of Doll #6 is black crepe.
She has the thick wide neck typical of dolls reinforced as Leslie describes. Unlike the Leslie dolls
her features are embroidered, a distinction of black
dolls in particular. Originally doll # 6 could have been
a stump doll because her exceptionally short legs of silk
jersey were added at a later date.
Doll #6
BLACK CLOTH DOLLS ON RECORD
THE DOLLS AND FUNDRAISING
The great fund raising bazaars of the nineteenth century not only provided ways for women to give
financial support to causes of their own choice, but also gave women some influence and power in the
public sector. Sewing circles were held year round to produce piecework to sell at bazaars. Items for sale
included dolls of all types, and the dolls o en sold for significantly more than their market value.
Before the Civil War the female anti-slavery societies in the cities of the Northeast provided a venue for
a small number of black women and many middle class white women to come together to work for a
common cause. To their credit the Boston Female Anti Slavery Society bazaars raised over $65,000 in total
for the Liberator, the abolitionist newspaper run by William Lloyd Garrison.
Replica of Barge
Dolls: #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, & #14
Of particular interest are the efforts of the Salem Female Anti Slavery Society, one of whose founders was
Amy Remond, the wife of African American orator Charles Remond, who sponsored sewing classes for
black children. In 1841 member Mary Kenny wrote to William Lloyd Garrison to advertise their society’s
fourth annual fair:
At the entrance, upon the le , [a display on a table] were
arranged for the benefit of the colored youth and children
of this city. [sic] A barge splendidly carved by a native
of Africa, filled with dolls of various sizes, with the
inscription, “We Are Free” upon its pennant occupied
the centre of the table.
The boat filled with dolls from the Hatch Collection is a reenactment of the scene from the 1841 Salem
Female Anti Slavery Society fair. The replica is constructed with paper mache, and painted in black and
gold partly to capture the carved quality of the original but also in recognition of the Black/Gold Doll
Club of Boston.
The canoe-like barge is an enlarged replica of a model carved by a Liberian that was given to the Boston
Maritime Society, who then donated it to the Peabody Museum of Harvard University in 1869.
BLACK CLOTH DOLLS ON RECORD
THE FRUITLANDS MUSEUM DOLL
Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, Massachuse s, has a small collection of cloth dolls that were owned by the Alco children.
Fruitlands was the name of the socialist experiment of Bronson
Alco in 1843. As an abolitionist he would have supported the
annual bazaars run by the Boston Female Anti Slavery Society;
therefore, the presence of a black cloth doll in the collection
is not surprising. The body of the doll is constructed of
bleached muslin and white kid leather, similar to bodies
imported from Germany at that time. The dolls’ features are embroidered simply, and her hair is a fur
skin wig.
Detail of Fruitlands Doll
Fruitlands Doll
BLACK CLOTH DOLLS ON RECORD
HARRIET JACOBS, A BLACK DOLL MAKER OF THE PAST
The story of Harriet Jacobs (1813 - 1897) represents the
African American doll maker of the past as a seamstress/
dressmaker. A household slave in Edenton, North Carolina,
she learned how to sew as a child. When she fled to the
north in 1842, she found work with the Willis family of
New York City, although her position was not secure
because of her fugitive status. She escaped slave
catchers many times fleeing to Boston, Massachuse s, and to Rochester, New York, where she supported herself as a seamstress and also used her
sewing skills to champion the abolitionist cause.
In 1852 the Willis family bought her freedom,
and in gratitude Jacobs made three black cloth
dolls for their children. The dolls appear in a photograph in Jean Fagan Yellin’s Harriet Jacobs, A Life.
These dolls seem to follow the same doll making
standards set by to Eliza Leslie. The Jacobs’ dolls
resemble Doll #15 in the Hatch collection. The body
shape is an upside down pitchfork. The arms of
Doll #15 were cut, and then sewn back on for
movability, and end in stubs without hand articulation. The dolls are also very finely dressed.
Worth noting, in 1861 Jacobs published her
slave narrative for which she is best known,
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Wri en by
Herself. She was also active in relief work
during the Civil War and Reconstruction.
Doll #15
DOLL CLASSIFICATION
The range of dolls in the Hatch collection is enormous. Some are “Sunday” dolls that were wellconstructed and have been carefully played with over the years. Yet these dolls too have suffered the
passage of time, their cloth has become fragile, sometimes threadbare, and the cloth color has o en faded.
Some dolls are so “love-worn” and have been repaired so many times that they bear li le resemblance
to their initial state. Despite the dolls’ condition it has been possible to identify three periods within the
changing standards of doll making between 1870 and 1930.
THE EARLIEST ARE THE FINEST, 1870-1890
The characteristics of each time period are clearly defined even if they overlap. The earliest dolls in the
Hatch Collection display the highest quality of cra smanship. They are finely dressed in wool, velvet, or
linen, and their clothing is o en sewn directly onto their bodies. The construction cloth was o en treated,
either polished or painted, for greater durability. Many of the dolls follow Eliza Leslie’s guidelines:
Interior structural support, a muslin underlayer, and firm stuffing. In addition the dolls’ heads are
molded allowing for more expression: inset eyes of painted glass or brass, separate a achments for nose,
mouth and ears that are glued or sewn on, and a partial or full center seam down the face through
the neck. Hair is made of fur skin wigs or horsehair, commonly used for ma ress stuffing, which is
then sewn on.
The Earliest Are the Finest
Dolls: #16, #17, #3, & #1
Detail of Doll #3
Note painted cloth
Detail of Doll #17
Note molded features
Doll #18, Note inset eyes
Detail of Doll #20
Note remnants of painted eyes
Doll #20
Favorites, Doll #54
Favorites, Doll #44
Favorites, Doll #52
Favorites, Doll #54
THE GOLDEN PERIOD OF DOLLS, 1890-1910
The Golden Period of dolls was the culmination of the
nineteenth century surge in doll popularity and production. Not surprisingly the largest portion of the dolls in
the Hatch collection fall into these years. The most distinctive feature of the dolls of this period in the Hatch collection is the type of hair wig. The hair wigs were cut
from the same yardage as Victorian fashion trim, which
was woven from the fleece of the dark-colored Astrakhan
sheep of Astrakhan, Russia. Imports to America were
highest in the 1890’s, and then fell off sharply in 1907
when American and Russian relations deteriorated.
Suit with astrakhan trim from the
Boston Daily, October 18, 1885
Detail of Doll #3, Astrakhan hair wig
Detail of feet
Doll #19, Note painted cloth
THE GOLDEN PERIOD OF DOLLS, EVERYDAY CALICO AND SHOE BUTTON, 1890-1910
Shoe bu on eyes and calico clothing reflect
the spirit of the middle period, marked by
the variety of construction materials that
made production easier and less costly.
Shoe bu ons were patented in 1887.
Black sateen, sometimes known as “poor
man’s silk” became available at about
the same time. What is important is
that the overall look of dolls changed
in the “golden period”. Dolls’ faces
became less expressive, even though
finely embroidered features were
more common. The straight mouth
was the rule, and dolls were
dressed in everyday clothes of
calico rather than finery. Older
dolls from former times were
sometimes refurbished with
new faces.
Detail of Doll #16
Note shoe bu on eyes
A Pair of Ladies, Dolls: #10 & #9
Shoe Bu on and Calico, Dolls: #21, #2, #22, & #23
DECLINE, 1910-1930
American manufacturing, including commercial doll making, increased greatly
during World War I. Doll making standards of the past loosened. Dolls became
larger and felt so er. Co on jersey and
bu on eyes were the rule, and hair was
usually of yarn.
Later Dolls, Dolls: #24 & #25
Later Dolls, Dolls: #26, #27, #28, #29, & #30
THE LAST STAND, THE BOTTLE DOLLS, 1910-1930
Bo le dolls may have originated in Germany; however by the twentieth century they were popular in
Western Europe and America. The dolls consisted of bo les filled with sand or shot over which heads of
co on jersey or other fabric were sewn, usually with bu on eyes and embroidered features, allowing the
dolls facial expression. As door stops, they were the perfect medium to intercede between the past and the
future, and seem to express a patience and understanding.
The Last Stand, The Bo le Dolls
Dolls: #31, #32, #33, #34, #35, #36, & #37
OUR BODIES OUR SELVES
Bodies of the cloth dolls vary tremendously. It is easy to overlook dolls whose features have worn off, or
who have been redressed with more contemporary fabric. Although cloth doll pa erns were occasionally
published in magazines such as Harper’s Bazar and Woman’s Home Companion, widely read by middle class
women, few of the black cloth dolls follow these pa erns. The bodies of these dolls reveal the heart of
what a cloth doll is: fabric sewn together, modeled, to make a child, or other person, happy. If a body is a
good body, it is used over and over again, as in Doll #40.
Our Bodies Our Selves
Dolls: #38, #39, #40, #41, & #42
BLACK DOLLS ON RECORD IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
THE DOLLS AND THE POLITICAL CLIMATE
Movements in folk and decorative arts usually develop independently of the social and political climate
of their time. The small but lively tradition of black cloth doll making began to thrive in the 1870’s just
as Reconstruction was failing miserably. The dolls represented in the Hatch collection were made for
about fi y years, the same fi y years as the most appalling record on African American human rights.
Twenty years a er the dolls disappeared an African American couple, Kenneth and Mamie Phipps Clark,
conducted research to measure black children’s self-esteem using dolls, research that aided the reversal of
the national policy of segregation in the Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.
A er Civil Rights legislation was passed in the 1960’s, black dolls slowly began to reappear in flea markets
and antique shops where they are now collectors’ items.
COLLECTORS AND COLLECTING
Playing with dolls has been a pastime of children for two hundred years, but dolls have also been the
pastime of adult collectors, both for amusement and appreciation of workmanship. Dolls have depicted
personages of the past, have been fashion templates, and have been given as tokens of good will.
The preservation value of cloth doll collections cannot be overemphasized because cloth is so perishable.
Dolls not given special a ention quickly deteriorate. Many of the dolls in the Hatch collection are in
remarkable condition considering their age. Regardless of who their makers were, mothers or aunts,
women supplementing their living with a co age industry, or women raising funds for reform or charity,
the dolls of this collection have been gently played with by their original owners, then treasured and
preserved with care by their descendants before passing into formal collections.
Pat Hatch saw her first black cloth doll in the antique shop of a friend in 1973. The doll had a striking
presence. She had no hair, and her features were so worn as to be almost unnoticeable. She was large
and so and looked as though she had been loved very dearly by some child. Pat purchased the doll.
She found another several years later and slowly her collection grew. What Pat saw in that first doll is at
the heart of her collection: these dolls were made with love both in their creation and in the care taken
of them through the years.
OTHER DOLLS
Small is Beautiful
Back Row, Dolls: #43, #44, #14, #45, & #13; Front row Dolls: #46, & #47
Two is Company, Dolls: #12 & #11
Two Is Company, Dolls: #48 & #49
Topsy Turvy, Doll #50
Topsy Turvy, Doll #50, Downside
Detail of Turnaround
Doll #51, the Backside Face
Turnaround, Doll #51
VITAL STATISTICS
Doll #1
1890 - 1910
Height: 22”
Construction fabric: Black sateen
Features- Embroidered; Ears a ached
Mouth: Neutral
Clothing: Linen dress and head cap
Other: Once belonged to renowned doll collector Lenon Holder Hoyt of Harlem
Doll #2
1890 - 1910
Height: 21.5”
Construction fabric: Fine black twill
Features: Embroidered
Mouth: Neutral
Hair: Astrakhan wig
Clothing: Red calico
Doll #3
1870 - 1890
Height: 23”
Construction fabric: Painted co on
Eyes: Inset painted glass
Body: Wide-hipped
Hair: Astrakhan wig (Middle Period)
Clothing: Finely dressed with pants of wool
flannel
Provenance: Possibly Florida
Dolls #4 & #5
Circa 1900
Height: #4, 19”, #5, 18.5”
Construction fabric: Brown muslin
Head: Lollipop shaped
Features: Worn but embroidered
Hair: Knit and raveled yarn sewn on
Doll #6
1880’s
Height: 18”
Construction fabric: Wool crepe with knit
jersey legs and muslin underlayer
Features: Embroidered
Hair: Raveled yarn, which is yarn from
kni ing that has been pulled out, creating
a crimpy effect
Stuffing: Very firmly rolled rags
Doll #7
1890 - 1910
Height: 18”
Head: Molded
Construction fabric: Co on jersey
Features: Embroidered
Hair: Yarn sewn on
Doll #8
1920’s
Height: 13.5”
Construction Fabric: Co on jersey
Eyes: Pale square flat piece
Hair: Yarn
Other: Clothed in lace and ribbons
Doll #9
1890-1910
Height: 18”
Construction fabric: Co on jersey, with
underlayer of black sateen
Features: Embroidered, ears a ached
Mouth: Neutral
Clothing: Nicely dressed
Provenance: Franklin, Tennessee
Doll #10
1890-1910
Height: 17”
Construction fabric: Co on cloth with center
seam
Features: Finely embroidered, ears a ached
Mouth: Neutral
Clothing: Polka dot dress, with black cap
Doll #11
1870 -1890
Height: 13”
Construction fabric: Co on cloth
Construction: Well-proportioned
Features: Cloth a achments
Hair: Astrakhan wig
Clothing: Green velvet suit with kid shoes
Details: Celluloid neck collar
Doll #12
1870 - 1890
Height: 12.5”
Construction fabric: Co on cloth
Construction: Well-proportioned
Features: Cloth a achments
Hair: Astrakhan wig
Clothing: Fine dress
Details: Kid shoe remnants
Doll #13
1910 - 1930
Height: 6.25”
Construction fabric: Brown silk jersey
Eyes: Embroidered with slight side glance
Hair: Raveled yarn sewn in
Stuffing: So to touch
Doll #14
1870 – 1890
Height: 9.75”
Construction fabric: co on cloth
Features: Painted
Feet: Side-pointing, knobs on heels
Provenance: Possibly North Carolina
Fruitlands Doll
~ 1843
Height: about 12”
Construction fabric for head: brown cloth
Body: European made, similar to bodies of
commercial china dolls
Features: Simply embroidered
Body fabric: Fine bleached co on
Hands and shoes of kid leather
Doll #15
1870 - 1890
Height: 14”
Construction fabric: Polished co on
Body shape: Upside down pitchfork
Eyes: Inset with brass
Hands: Stubs
Clothing: Calico skirt of vat-dyed indigo
Provenance: Possibly Georgia
Doll #16
~ 1890
Height: 23”
Construction fabric: Brown twill co on
Construction: Skillful
Eyes: Shoe bu on with fine embroidery
Hair: Astrakhan wig
Clothing: Fine woolen sailor suit
Provenance: Possibly Vermont
The horse is constructed around an interior
wooden skeleton, stuffed with co on, and
covered with brown woolen flannel. He has
bu ons on the bo om of his feet for hoofs.
Doll #17
1870 - 1890
Height: 21
Construction fabric: Fine co on jersey
Body and Limbs: Well-shaped with center
seam
Underlayer: White muslin and black sateen
Features: Inset bu on eyes, appended ears
Hair: Embroidered on head
Clothing: Finely dressed
Provenance: Possibly Philadelphia
Doll #18
1880’s
Height: 16”
Construction fabric: Silk jersey with muslin
underlayer
Body and Limbs: Well-shaped
Eyes: Jet bead inset in celluloid
Hair: Astrakhan wig
Clothing: Finely dressed with silk underwear
Doll #19
~ 1890
Height: 23
Construction fabric: Painted muslin
Construction method: Center seam for head
and body
Features: Embroidered and a ached
Hair: Astrakhan wig
Provenance: Coastal Maine
Doll #20
1880’s
Height: 26”
Construction fabric: Polished co on with
white muslin underlayer
Underlayer: White muslin
Features: Painted eyes now faded, nose
a ached
Hair: Sheep fleece
Stuffing: Very firm, possibly weighted with
sand
Doll #21
1890 - 1901
Height: 21”
Construction Fabric: Black muslin
Features: Embroidered
Mouth: Neutral
Hair: Embroidered with thick dark yarn
Clothing: Red calico
Doll #22
1890 - 1910
Height: 20”
Head fabric: Brown co on knit crossways
Eyes: Shoe bu on with embroidered outline
Mouth: Neutral
Hair: Astrakhan wig
Clothing: Red calico
Doll #23
1890 - 1910
Height: 21”
Construction fabric: black co on twill
Eyes: Shoe bu on on applied white muslin,
embroidered
Mouth: Neutral
Clothing: Blue calico
Doll #24
1910 – 1930
Height: 25”
Construction fabric: Painted muslin
Features: Painted
Stuffing: Mixture of straw, co on, & other
Provenance: Amboy, Illinois
Doll #25
Height: 27”
Later period
Construction fabric: Black muslin with white
underlayer
Features: Embroidered outline
Doll #26
~ 1910
Height: 24”
Construction fabric: black sateen
Features: embroidered
Hair: Astrakhan wig
Stuffing: firm but pliable
Provenance: possibly Belchertown, MA
Doll #27
1910 - 1930
Height: 25.5”
Construction fabric: Brown co on jersey, feet
of black sateen
Features: Bu on eyes
Doll #28
1920’s
Height: 27”
Features: bu on eyes, straight mouth
Doll #29
1920’s
Height; 28”
Construction fabric: Brown silk jersey
Underlayer: partial, white
Features: Bu on eyes with white stitching
Hair: Yarn sewn on and braided
Doll #30
Circa 1910
Height: 23”
Construction fabric: Brown silk jersey
Underlayer: Multi layers
Features: bu on eyes, straight mouth
Hair: Yarn sewn on
Doll #31
1910 – 1930
Construction fabric: Brown silk Jersey
Mouth: Straight, embroidered
Eyes: Paper reinforcements
Head covering: Straw hat
Doll #32
1910 – 1930
Construction fabric: Black silk jersey
Eyes: Bu on
Mouth: Straight, embroidered
Doll #33
1910 – 1930
Construction fabric: Black co on jersey
Features: Bu on eyes
Doll #34
1910 – 1930
Height: 11.5”
Features: Painted
Doll #35
1910 – 1930
Height: 13.5”
Construction fabric: Co on jersey
Features: Bu on eyes
Doll #36
1910 – 1930
Height: 13.25”
Construction fabric: Brown co on twill
Features: Embroidered with silk
Doll #37
1910 – 1930
Height: 14”
Construction fabric: Black co on twill
Features: Bu on eyes
Details: Lace-trimmed head covering
Doll #38
1890’s
Height: 17”
Eyes: Shoe bu on
Body: Hourglass waist popular in 1890’s
Arms: A ached to body with strong thread
in several stitches, common to earlier dolls
Doll #39
1890 - 1910
Height: 20”
Construction: Reshaped in 1890’s with hourglass waist
Underlayer: White muslin
Features: Painted
Body shape: Upside down pitchfork
Doll #40
1890 - 1910
Height: 23.5”
Central body: Linen burlap painted black
Construction of face and limbs: Black sateen
Stuffing: Firm
Doll #41
Height: 19.5
Construction Fabric; Silk Jersey
Construction: Atypical
Stuffing: So
Doll #42
1890- 1910
Height: 19”
Construction: White muslin underlayer partially covered with black co on knit
Stuffing: Firm
Doll #43
Doll #51
Doll #44
Doll #52
1910 – 1930
Height: 7.5”
Bo le doll
Construction Fabric: Silk jersey, purl side
Eyes: Shoe bu on
Hair: Remnant
1910 -1930
Height: 8.5”
Features: Bu on eyes
1910 – 1930
Type: Turnaround
Height: 13”
Features on black side: Bu on eyes, with
embroidered mouth and nose
Features on white side: Penciled in
1910 – 1930
Height: 8”
~1920
Height: 19.5
Construction fabric: Brown jersey
Eyes: Bu on
Mouth: Embroidered, straight
Hair: Yarn sewn to head and braided
Clothing: Blue dress with red yoke
Doll #46
Doll #53
Doll #45
1910 -1930
Height: 7”
Head fabric: Knit jersey crossways
Features: Embroidered
Doll #47
1910
Height: 6”
Features: Singly stitched
Other: From doll pa ern in Ladies Home
Journal, Dec. 1910
Doll #48
1890- 1910
Twin to #48
Height: 18”
Construction fabric and underlayer: Black
muslin
Features: Finely embroidered
Hair: Astrakhan wig
Doll #49
1890- 1910
Height: 18”
Construction fabric: Sateen
Features: Finely embroidered
Hair: Astrakhan wig
Doll #50
~ 1900
Type: Topsy Turvy
Construction fabric: Sateen
Features: Printed
~ 1900
Height: 20”
Construction fabric: Brown wool twill
Features: Embroidered in white outline
Mouth: Slight smile with teeth
Hair: Fur skin
Doll #54
1920 – 1930
Height: 16.5”
Construction fabric: Co on jersey
Features: Simple embroidered outline
Hair: None
GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
Foner, Eric (ed.), America’s Black Past, A Reader in Afro-Amerian History, Harper & row Publishers, New
York, New York, 1970.
Frazier, E. Franklin, The Negro Family in the United States, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago,
1966.
Frye, Gladys-Marie, Stitched from the Soul, Slave Quilts from the Ante-bellum South, , Du on Studio
Books, New York, 1990.
Glassie, Henry, Material Culture, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana, 1999.
Gordon, Beverly, Bazaars and Fair Ladies, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 1998.
Jacobs, Harriet A. Incidents in the Life of a Slave girl Wri en by Herself, edited with an introduction by
Jean Fagan Yellin, Harvard uUiversity Press, Cambridge, Massachuse s, 1987, 2002.
Jeffrey, Julia Roy, The Great Silent Army of Abolitionism, Ordinary Women in the Antislavery Movement,
the University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1998.
Mellon, James, Bullwhip Days, The Slaves Remember, The Story of Rosa and Jack Maddox, Weidenfeld
& Nicholson, New York, 1988.
Noble, John Darcy, Selected Writings of John Darcy Noble, Favorite Articles from Dolls Magazine:
1982-1995, Portfolio Press, Cumberland, Maryland 21502, 1999.
Noble, John Darcy, A Treasury of Beautiful Dolls, Weathervane Books, New York, 1971.
Vincent, Margaret, The Ladies’ Work Table, Allentown Art Museum, Allentown PA, 1988.
Wideman, John Edgar, My Soul Has Grown Deep, Classics of Early African American Literature, Running
Press, Philadelphia, 2001.
Yellin, Jean Fagan and C. Van Horne (ed.), Harriet Jacobs, A Life, Basic Civitas Books, New York, NY
2004.