No Longer HiddenAn Exhibit of Black Cloth Dolls 1870-1930

A Catalogue of the Exhibit

No Longer HiddenAn 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

Copyright © 2007 by Roben CampbellAll rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproducedin any form without wri en permission from the copyright holder.

Designed by Colin FayTitle photo by Kent BoyntonAll photos by Roben Campbell unless otherwise specified

ExhibitMarch 30 - May 13, 2007Sat & Sun 2 - 5 PM, Thu 7 - 9 PMHarvard Historical Society215 Still River Rd, Still River, MA

www.blackclothdolls.com

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

An exhibit cannot take place without an exchange of ideas and the support of many people and institu-tions. 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

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 charm-ing 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.

INTRODUCTION BY PAT HATCH

Doll #3

PREFACE

The impact of seeing my first black cloth doll at the home of Pat Hatch was extraordinary. What followed was a determina-tion 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 nine-teenth century world of the dolls and of doll making tradi-tions. 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 produc-tion ... has been ignored. Yet the evidence that slave women produced fabric, and that they quilted, sewed, and crocheted is irrefutable.”

Gladys-Marie Frye

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, reis-sued 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 rein-forced 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.

BLACK CLOTH DOLLS ON RECORD

THE AMERICAN GIRLS BOOK

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 BargeDolls: #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:

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.

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.

BLACK CLOTH DOLLS ON RECORD

THE FRUITLANDS MUSEUM DOLL

Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, Massachuse s, has a small col-lection 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’ fea-tures 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, Massachu-se s, and to Rochester, New York, where she sup-ported 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 pho-tograph 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 articu-lation. 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 well-constructed 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 FinestDolls: #16, #17, #3, & #1

Detail of Doll #3Note painted cloth

Detail of Doll #17Note molded features

Doll #18, Note inset eyes

Detail of Doll #20Note 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 produc-tion. Not surprisingly the largest portion of the dolls in the Hatch collection fall into these years. The most distinc-tive feature of the dolls of this period in the Hatch col-lection 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

Doll #19, Note painted cloth

Detail of feet

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.

A Pair of Ladies, Dolls: #10 & #9Detail of Doll #16

Note shoe bu on eyes

Shoe Bu on and Calico, Dolls: #21, #2, #22, & #23

DECLINE, 1910-1930

American manufacturing, including com-mercial doll making, increased greatly during World War I. Doll making stan-dards 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 SelvesDolls: #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 BeautifulBack 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

Turnaround, Doll #51

Detail of TurnaroundDoll #51, the Backside Face

VITAL STATISTICS

Doll #11890 - 1910Height: 22”Construction fabric: Black sateenFeatures- Embroidered; Ears a achedMouth: NeutralClothing: Linen dress and head capOther: Once belonged to renowned doll col-lector Lenon Holder Hoyt of Harlem

Doll #21890 - 1910Height: 21.5”Construction fabric: Fine black twillFeatures: EmbroideredMouth: NeutralHair: Astrakhan wigClothing: Red calico

Doll #31870 - 1890Height: 23”Construction fabric: Painted co onEyes: Inset painted glassBody: Wide-hippedHair: Astrakhan wig (Middle Period)Clothing: Finely dressed with pants of wool flannelProvenance: Possibly Florida

Dolls #4 & #5Circa 1900Height: #4, 19”, #5, 18.5”Construction fabric: Brown muslinHead: Lollipop shapedFeatures: Worn but embroideredHair: Knit and raveled yarn sewn on

Doll #61880’sHeight: 18”Construction fabric: Wool crepe with knit jersey legs and muslin underlayerFeatures: EmbroideredHair: Raveled yarn, which is yarn from kni ing that has been pulled out, creating a crimpy effectStuffing: Very firmly rolled rags

Doll #71890 - 1910Height: 18”Head: MoldedConstruction fabric: Co on jerseyFeatures: EmbroideredHair: Yarn sewn on

Doll #81920’sHeight: 13.5”Construction Fabric: Co on jerseyEyes: Pale square flat pieceHair: YarnOther: Clothed in lace and ribbons

Doll #91890-1910Height: 18”Construction fabric: Co on jersey, with underlayer of black sateenFeatures: Embroidered, ears a achedMouth: NeutralClothing: Nicely dressedProvenance: Franklin, Tennessee

Doll #101890-1910Height: 17”Construction fabric: Co on cloth with center seamFeatures: Finely embroidered, ears a achedMouth: NeutralClothing: Polka dot dress, with black cap

Doll #111870 -1890Height: 13”Construction fabric: Co on clothConstruction: Well-proportionedFeatures: Cloth a achmentsHair: Astrakhan wigClothing: Green velvet suit with kid shoesDetails: Celluloid neck collar

Doll #121870 - 1890Height: 12.5”Construction fabric: Co on clothConstruction: Well-proportionedFeatures: Cloth a achmentsHair: Astrakhan wig

Clothing: Fine dressDetails: Kid shoe remnants

Doll #131910 - 1930Height: 6.25”Construction fabric: Brown silk jerseyEyes: Embroidered with slight side glanceHair: Raveled yarn sewn inStuffing: So to touch

Doll #141870 – 1890Height: 9.75”Construction fabric: co on clothFeatures: PaintedFeet: Side-pointing, knobs on heelsProvenance: Possibly North Carolina

Fruitlands Doll~ 1843Height: about 12”Construction fabric for head: brown clothBody: European made, similar to bodies of commercial china dollsFeatures: Simply embroideredBody fabric: Fine bleached co onHands and shoes of kid leather

Doll #151870 - 1890Height: 14”Construction fabric: Polished co onBody shape: Upside down pitchforkEyes: Inset with brassHands: StubsClothing: Calico skirt of vat-dyed indigoProvenance: Possibly Georgia

Doll #16~ 1890Height: 23”Construction fabric: Brown twill co onConstruction: SkillfulEyes: Shoe bu on with fine embroideryHair: Astrakhan wigClothing: Fine woolen sailor suitProvenance: Possibly VermontThe 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 #171870 - 1890Height: 21Construction fabric: Fine co on jerseyBody and Limbs: Well-shaped with center seamUnderlayer: White muslin and black sateenFeatures: Inset bu on eyes, appended earsHair: Embroidered on headClothing: Finely dressedProvenance: Possibly Philadelphia

Doll #181880’sHeight: 16”Construction fabric: Silk jersey with muslin underlayerBody and Limbs: Well-shapedEyes: Jet bead inset in celluloidHair: Astrakhan wigClothing: Finely dressed with silk underwear

Doll #19~ 1890Height: 23Construction fabric: Painted muslinConstruction method: Center seam for head and bodyFeatures: Embroidered and a achedHair: Astrakhan wigProvenance: Coastal Maine

Doll #201880’sHeight: 26”Construction fabric: Polished co on with white muslin underlayerUnderlayer: White muslinFeatures: Painted eyes now faded, nose a achedHair: Sheep fleeceStuffing: Very firm, possibly weighted with sand

Doll #211890 - 1901Height: 21”Construction Fabric: Black muslinFeatures: EmbroideredMouth: NeutralHair: Embroidered with thick dark yarnClothing: Red calico

Doll #221890 - 1910Height: 20”Head fabric: Brown co on knit crosswaysEyes: Shoe bu on with embroidered outlineMouth: NeutralHair: Astrakhan wigClothing: Red calico

Doll #231890 - 1910Height: 21”Construction fabric: black co on twillEyes: Shoe bu on on applied white muslin, embroideredMouth: NeutralClothing: Blue calico

Doll #241910 – 1930Height: 25”Construction fabric: Painted muslinFeatures: PaintedStuffing: Mixture of straw, co on, & otherProvenance: Amboy, Illinois

Doll #25Height: 27”Later periodConstruction fabric: Black muslin with white underlayerFeatures: Embroidered outline

Doll #26~ 1910Height: 24”Construction fabric: black sateenFeatures: embroideredHair: Astrakhan wigStuffing: firm but pliableProvenance: possibly Belchertown, MA

Doll #271910 - 1930Height: 25.5”Construction fabric: Brown co on jersey, feet of black sateenFeatures: Bu on eyes

Doll #281920’sHeight: 27”Features: bu on eyes, straight mouth

Doll #291920’sHeight; 28”Construction fabric: Brown silk jerseyUnderlayer: partial, whiteFeatures: Bu on eyes with white stitchingHair: Yarn sewn on and braided

Doll #30Circa 1910Height: 23”Construction fabric: Brown silk jerseyUnderlayer: Multi layersFeatures: bu on eyes, straight mouthHair: Yarn sewn on

Doll #311910 – 1930Construction fabric: Brown silk JerseyMouth: Straight, embroideredEyes: Paper reinforcementsHead covering: Straw hat

Doll #321910 – 1930Construction fabric: Black silk jerseyEyes: Bu onMouth: Straight, embroidered

Doll #331910 – 1930Construction fabric: Black co on jerseyFeatures: Bu on eyes

Doll #341910 – 1930Height: 11.5”Features: Painted

Doll #351910 – 1930Height: 13.5”Construction fabric: Co on jerseyFeatures: Bu on eyes

Doll #361910 – 1930Height: 13.25”Construction fabric: Brown co on twillFeatures: Embroidered with silk

Doll #371910 – 1930Height: 14”Construction fabric: Black co on twillFeatures: Bu on eyesDetails: Lace-trimmed head covering

Doll #381890’sHeight: 17”Eyes: Shoe bu onBody: Hourglass waist popular in 1890’sArms: A ached to body with strong thread in several stitches, common to earlier dolls

Doll #391890 - 1910Height: 20”Construction: Reshaped in 1890’s with hour-glass waistUnderlayer: White muslinFeatures: PaintedBody shape: Upside down pitchfork

Doll #401890 - 1910Height: 23.5”Central body: Linen burlap painted blackConstruction of face and limbs: Black sateenStuffing: Firm

Doll #41Height: 19.5Construction Fabric; Silk JerseyConstruction: AtypicalStuffing: So

Doll #421890- 1910Height: 19”Construction: White muslin underlayer par-tially covered with black co on knitStuffing: Firm

Doll #431910 – 1930Height: 7.5”Bo le dollConstruction Fabric: Silk jersey, purl sideEyes: Shoe bu onHair: Remnant

Doll #441910 -1930Height: 8.5”Features: Bu on eyes

Doll #451910 – 1930Height: 8”

Doll #461910 -1930Height: 7”Head fabric: Knit jersey crosswaysFeatures: Embroidered

Doll #471910Height: 6”Features: Singly stitchedOther: From doll pa ern in Ladies Home Journal, Dec. 1910

Doll #481890- 1910Twin to #48Height: 18”Construction fabric and underlayer: Black muslinFeatures: Finely embroideredHair: Astrakhan wig

Doll #491890- 1910Height: 18”Construction fabric: SateenFeatures: Finely embroideredHair: Astrakhan wig

Doll #50~ 1900Type: Topsy TurvyConstruction fabric: SateenFeatures: Printed

Doll #511910 – 1930Type: TurnaroundHeight: 13”Features on black side: Bu on eyes, with embroidered mouth and noseFeatures on white side: Penciled in

Doll #52~1920Height: 19.5Construction fabric: Brown jerseyEyes: Bu onMouth: Embroidered, straightHair: Yarn sewn to head and braidedClothing: Blue dress with red yoke

Doll #53~ 1900Height: 20”Construction fabric: Brown wool twillFeatures: Embroidered in white outlineMouth: Slight smile with teethHair: Fur skin

Doll #541920 – 1930Height: 16.5”Construction fabric: Co on jerseyFeatures: Simple embroidered outlineHair: 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.

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