On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions
AFTER HER BRAVE AND HARROWING ESCAPE from enslavement, Harriet Jacobs was employed in New York by Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806-1867), a well-paid writer and magazine editor who worked with Edgar Allan Poe and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Jacobs, who titled her 1861 autobiography “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” made Black dolls wearing cotton dresses for Willis’s three daughters. Leo Moss, a handyman in Macon, Ga., fashioned white commercially produced dolls into Black dolls, using layers of papier-mache and boot dye to change their features, hair, and skin to make them look like the people in his family and community.
More than 200 objects and Black dolls dating from 1850 to 1940 are on display at the New-York Historical Society, including dolls by Jacobs and Moss. Nearly all of the handmade, cloth dolls featured in the exhibition were made by African American women for their own children or white children in their charge. The Black dolls offer a unique, historic view of race, representation, and play, insights that are explored throughout the show in sections such as Slavery and Abolition, Growing Up with Jim Crow, The Art and Craft of Dollmaking, Child’s Play, and Race Play.
The Jacobs dolls come from an unnamed private collection and 110 dolls are drawn from the private collection of Deborah Neff, whose expansive holdings, including examples by Moss, were the focus of a traveling exhibition a few years ago. In addition to antique dolls, the current presentation includes a selection of commercially produced 20th-century dolls, period photographs that provide context and documentation of the dolls, courtesy of Neff, as well as related ephemera from the New-York Historical Society and other sources.CT
“Black Dolls” is on view at the New-York Historical SocietyMuseum & Library in New York, N.Y., from Feb. 25-June 5, 2022
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LEO MOSS (d. 1936), Doll with Tears, Macon, Ga. circa 1922 (manufactured body, cotton, papier-mâché, glass), “Mabel Lincoln 1922” handwritten on label sewn to torso. | Collection of Deborah Neff, Photo by Ellen McDermott Photography
Installation view of “Black Dolls,” New-York Historical Society Museum & Library, New York, N.Y. (Feb. 25-June 5, 2022). | Courtesy New-York Historical Society
Dominique Jean-Louis, associate curator at the New-York Historical Society Museum & Library, provides insights about the history that can be gleaned from the more than 100 dolls on view in the “Black Dolls” exhibition she co-curated. | Video by New-York Historical Society
Installation view of “Black Dolls,” New-York Historical Society Museum & Library, New York, N.Y. (Feb. 25-June 5, 2022). | Courtesy New-York Historical Society
HARRIET JACOBS (1813-1897), Dolls Made for the Willis Family Children, circa 1850-60 (mixed fabrics, metal). | Private Collection, Photo by Glenn Castellano
Installation view of “Black Dolls,” New-York Historical Society Museum & Library, New York, N.Y. (Feb. 25-June 5, 2022). | Courtesy New-York Historical Society
Doll in Feed Sack Dress, 1900-25, Possibly Indiana (mixed fabrics, paint). | Deborah Neff Collection, Photo by Ellen McDermott Photography
Installation view of “Black Dolls,” New-York Historical Society Museum & Library, New York, N.Y. (Feb. 25-June 5, 2022). | Courtesy New-York Historical Society
Installation view of “Black Dolls,” New-York Historical Society Museum & Library, New York, N.Y. (Feb. 25-June 5, 2022). | Courtesy New-York Historical Society
Doll in Gentleman’s Top Coat, 1860-70, Milton, Mass. (mixed fabrics, leather, brass, glass). | Deborah Neff Collection, Photo by Ellen McDermott Photography
GORDON PARKS (1912-2006), Untitled (Doll Test),” Harlem, N.Y., 1947. | © The Gordon Parks Foundation, Courtesy of The Gordon Parks Foundation
Pair of Dolls with Corduroy Knickers, circa 1895-1915, Possibly New Hampshire (mixed fabrics, leather, animal fur, porcelain). | Deborah Neff Collection, Photo by Ellen McDermott Photography
Installation view of “Black Dolls,” New-York Historical Society Museum & Library, New York, N.Y. (Feb. 25-June 5, 2022). | Courtesy New-York Historical Society
Unidentified photographer, Woman and Children with Black Cloth Dolls, 1942 (gelatin silver print). | Deborah Neff Collection
Installation view of “Black Dolls,” New-York Historical Society Museum & Library, New York, N.Y. (Feb. 25-June 5, 2022). | Courtesy New-York Historical Society
CYNTHIA WALKER HILL (1771-1848), Doll Representing an Enslaved Man, circa 1840-48 (cotton, silk, glass, wire, pearl). | New Bedford Whaling Museum, Gift of Mrs. M. Motley Sargeant, 1953.1.2
Installation view of “Black Dolls,” New-York Historical Society Museum & Library, New York, N.Y. (Feb. 25-June 5, 2022). | Courtesy New-York Historical Society
Installation view of “Black Dolls,” New-York Historical Society Museum & Library, New York, N.Y. (Feb. 25-June 5, 2022). | Courtesy New-York Historical Society
Topsy-Turvy Doll, 1890-1905 (mixed fabrics, paint). | New-York Historical Society, Gift of Katharine Prentis Murphy, 1961.30. Photo by Glenn Castellano
Installation view of “Black Dolls,” New-York Historical Society Museum & Library, New York, N.Y. (Feb. 25-June 5, 2022). | Courtesy New-York Historical Society
Doll in Blue Skirt, 1890-1900 (mixed fabrics, metal). | Deborah Neff Collection, Photo by Ellen McDermott Photography
Installation view of “Black Dolls,” New-York Historical Society Museum & Library, New York, N.Y. (Feb. 25-June 5, 2022). | Courtesy New-York Historical Society
Installation view of “Black Dolls,” New-York Historical Society Museum & Library, New York, N.Y. (Feb. 25-June 5, 2022). | Courtesy New-York Historical Society
Newspaper advertisement: “Pick Out Your Great Big Beautiful Doll,” Nashville Globe, October 17, 1913. | Courtesy New York Historical Society
Doll with Apron, Late 19th century (mixed fabrics, mother of pearl, beads). | Deborah Neff Collection, Photo by Ellen McDermott Photography
Pleasant Company/American Girl, Addy Walker doll, circa 1993 (plastic, mixed fabrics). | New-York Historical Society, Gift of Nicole Wagner & Wagner Family, 2019.32. Photo by Glenn Castellano
Installation view of “Black Dolls,” New-York Historical Society Museum & Library, New York, N.Y. (Feb. 25-June 5, 2022). | Courtesy New-York Historical Society
Installation view of “Black Dolls,” New-York Historical Society Museum & Library, New York, N.Y. (Feb. 25-June 5, 2022). | Courtesy New-York Historical Society
BOOKSHELFTwo fully illustrated volumes document Deborah Neff’s Black doll collection. “Black Dolls” was published to coincide with the Mingei International Museum show in San Diego, Calif., in 2015. Edited by antique dealer Frank Maresca, the volume includes essays by Margo Jefferson, Lyle Rexer, and artist Faith Ringgold. Accompanying the Paris show in 2018, “Black Dolls: The Deborah Neff Collection,” includes contributions by Deborah Willis, Patricia Williams, Robin Bernstein, Madelyn Shaw, Helene Joubert, in addition to an excerpt from a late 1970s oral history interview with doll maker Nellie Mae Roe (1900-1982). The writings in the book are published in both French and English. “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” was first published in 1861. Also consider, “Black Dolls 1820-1991: An Identification and Value Guide” by Myla Perkins.
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