Virtual Museum Subject Guide
Forman-Brunell, Miriam. “Interrogating the Meanings of Dolls: New Directions in Doll Studies.” Girlhood Studies 5, no. 1 (June 26, 2012): 3–13. doi:10.3167/ghs.2012.050102.
Forman-Brunell addresses the long history of trivializing girls and the devaluing of youth has led to a disregard of dolls as legitiimate scholarly documentary evidence. Reference is made to the role played by doll research in the 1954 landmark desegregation decision in education, however this event did not foster further doll research. The author explores influences on the acceleration of doll research during the 1990s. She attributes this to girls' and cultural studies, multiculturalism, and commercial doll successes. She further considers the ambivalence and agency generated by dolls in girls and young women.
Hix, Lisa. “Black Is Beautiful: Why Black Dolls Matter.” Collectors Weekly. Accessed June 28, 2014. http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/black-is- beautiful-why-black-dolls-matter/.
This article explore the world of doll collectors, makers and consumers. All discuss the importance of Black dolls in the development of self esteem; particularly for girls of the African diaspora. A budding filmmaker, doll artists, authors and collectors are interviewed regarding the Black doll movement, and its signficance to American culture and history, and society as a whole. Collectors discuss historical cultural practices of dollmaking throughout the world. The practice of using available materials such as gourds, fruit, vines and grass were very common on Southern plantations. As was the creation of the controversial Topsy Turvy doll, which continues to evoke many theories as to its original role and implications. Other dolls included replicas of child owners, as well as African dieties which were used for spiritual practices.
Mandrona, April Renée. "Handmade Identities: Girls, Dolls and DIY." Girlhood Studies 5.1 (2012): 98-120.
This article examines the connection between two discrete areas of inquiry—the study of dolls as it relates to the identity of young girls, and the contemporary DIY (do-it-yourself) craft movement. The author identifies how the activity of DIY doll-making might be useful for thinking about what it means to be a girl in relation to its offering a departure from the hyper-commercialized, ready-made dolls of the twenty-first century. The commercial doll has existed alongside its counterpart, the homemade doll, since the beginning of industrialization. In different ways both forms of the doll have played a significant role in the lives of young girls and they continue to shape both collective and individual identities associated with what we think of as being a girl. Tracing the act of doll-making and the residual influence of craft movements in her own childhood, the author explores the notion of dynamic identity formation. She examines doll-making as a medium for artistic creation and narrative development with the potential to transform girlhood identities.
Martin, Michelle H. "Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood from Slavery to Civil Rights by Robin Bernstein (review)." Children's Literature Association Quarterly 38.1 (2013): 96-101.
The reviewer, children's and young adult literature chair at the University of South Carolina in the School of Library and Infomration Science, critiques Bernstein's use of Uncle Tom's Cabin's relationship of Eva and Topsy during slavery. She considers the work's further influence on cultural impact, and how various artifacts of popular culture such as plays, toys, figurines, handkerchiefs, came into existence. This dichotomy began with the making of Topsy Turvey dolls on southern plantations. It further led into the maufacturing of these black dolls in the 1900s; which were made to invite abuse and rough play. In 1915, Johnny Gruelle created Raggedy Ann. Bernstein argues that Gruelle's creation of Raggedy Ann was morphed from the Topsy notion, and a combinaton of the Golliwogg, the stage image of Topsy in Tom shows (minstrels), and the Scarecrow of Oz - "An amalgamation of "Golliwogg, pickaninny, and mammy dolls". Bernstein also considers the way that cloth and other non porcelain dolls invited rough play and causual violence that was reflective of white girls' racist attitudes towards blackness. During the onset of the nineteenth centruy, dolls mainly taught their owners to sew, by the twentienth century, they taught owners to pretend". By the early 1900s, enterprises such as the National Negro Doll and E.M.S. Novelty Companies were advertising in perioicals. Dolls were playing a major pivotal role in racial uplift. Bernstein further adds that the new Negro adults encouraged cuddle games with dolls, not floor games, since cuddling invoked innocence, and the later encouraged rough play from which black children needed to distance themselves.