Of Pockets of Pearls and Doll Trivia

The Museum would like to thank Merna and Robin Throne for all their help with our new Facebook page, Dr. E'Doll Museum, and with our Twitter account. Our followers grow by the minute, and we are very pleased with our new look.

It has been a late spring cleaning at the museum, with a lot of books being sorted and arranged and dolls grouped and organized. Most of our china dolls are now residing on one settee, and these include local artists dolls, vintage and antique china heads and parian, Ruth Gibbs, some very early "dump babies" dug up in the ruins of German doll factories, some original creations, etc. Near them is a small shelf with a small collection of a friend's Nancy Ann and HP storybook dolls. There is a lot of planting of miniature gardens, dusting, packing, unpacking and repacking going on, too.

In part, we are saddened at the upcoming closing of our sister museum, The Rosalie Whyel Museum of Doll Art. We wish them luck, and do hope that they keep collecting privately.

Some short news and trivia; we will be presenting at MMLA this year, both our panel, A Literary Shelter for Misfit Dolls: Exploring Doll Play, and our paper on Dolls in Horror Films, are a go. This is a lot of work, but very exciting. We are indebted to the National Museum of Play for their on line Journal of Play and to our similar sources.

I have also been reviewing doll history, lately, and did not know that Charles Lindburgh was the best friend of the legendary Sam Pryor, former VP of Pan Am and noted doll collector. Pryor's collection is featured in several publications including the Dec. 1959 National Geographic, "The World in Dolls." Lindburgh, too, collected dolls, automatons and mechanical figures. Who knew? And, we have a porcelain Lindburgh doll, and a vintage Amelia Earhart.

Also, we hope to visit the home and doll collection of Eugene Field. I went to Eugene Field Grade School, as did my own son. Our principal had her own doll collection on display there, as was fitting. I did not know, however, that Fields' father, Roswell Field, was a lawyer, as is Dr. E by training, and that he represented Dred Scott. I've visited the courthouse before, and taught the case. We even have a house in my area where Scott stayed, but what a small world. Dolls are truly everywhere!

More triva: Chase Stockinet dolls, first made in 1893, were used as late as 1994 to teach hospital personnel. I had a student in one of my doll classes who used one, and she was called Mary Ann Chase [same first name as the student!]. I remember first grade books on nurses that showed drawings of them, too, in the mid sixties.

Also, the ball and socket joint for doll bodies was introduced in 1870. How interesting that these dolls are super popular today. Everything old isnew again. For more triva, see Betty O' Bennett's Collectible Dolls Facts and Trivia, vol.1 Hipp-Daniel, 1994.

Don't forget, the Bibiliography is on Amazon!! A Bibliography of Doll and Toy Sources, by Ellen Tsagaris.