Dolls

History of Corn Corn began from a strain of the grass "teosinte" and s

till grows wild in parts of Mexico. The Aztec, Maya, and Inca peoples began to cultivate corn and, during the 1400s, corn growing spread to Argentina, Chile, and Canada. The Navajo, Hopi, and Pueblos eventually learned to grow corn. Christopher Columbus took seeds from Cuba to Spain in 1492 and by the late 1500s, corn was growing in Africa, Asia, southern Europe, and the Middle East.

Corn is also known as "maize." Corn is now one of the world's most important crops. The United States produces about two-fifths of the world's corn. Corn grows best in the Corn Belt, a region of the American Midwest, which includes Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana, Nebraska, Ohio, Missouri, South Dakota, and Kansas. Other major corn-producing countries include Argentina, Brazil, China, France, Mexico, and Romania.

Corn Husk Doll American colonists learned to grow corn from

the Indians and depended on corn as one their basic food staples during the 1600s and 1700s. The Indians also taught these early settlers how to make cornhusk dolls. The dolls could be made with corn husk clothing or real fabric scraps; plus, other decorative ornaments could be added to the corn husk doll to make it as beautiful as any little girl wanted.

Native Americans did not waste any part of the corn. Cornstalks were used for poles to support crops or as walking sticks or kindling for fires. Corncobs were used to make pipes or soaked in fat and used for fire starters. Cornhusks were also used to weave mats and make dolls. Corn silk was used for healing teas.

Corn Husk Doll The general idea that a doll would be a

lasting toy is not a belief of many Indian tribes. Even a very beautifully decorated cornhusk doll would be expected to fall apart. A cornhusk doll, like many playthings, would naturally disintegrate over time and as the child grew older, he or she would no longer need the toy anyway.

Some cornhusk dolls were used in sacred healing ceremonies. An Iroquois cornhusk doll was made to carry away the evil spirit of a dream, and the doll was later put back to earth after it had served its purpose. The Oneida tribe has a legend about why the cornhusk doll has no face.

Colonial mothers made dolls for their daughters from a variety of items that were available around the homestead. A wooden spoon featured a ready-made head for a doll, which could be adorned with paint for the face and hair, or with yarn for hair, or with fabric for a bonnet. The body was formed around the handle of the spoon and was probably made in numerous designs because each mother worked with items that were available to her. If the mother had a little extra time and the supplies, she might make arms and legs and use lace. If time was pressing, she might just wrap fabric around the handle in a way that it looked like a dress. For a young colonial girl, any doll was special.

Jamestown and Wooden Spoons

From inventory records, we know that the early Jamestown settlers brought wooden spoons to the New World. Native Americans whittled wooden spoons from laurel wood and sold them to the early settlers. Because the blunted knives imported from England around 1630 were hard to eat with, the colonists began using a spoon to steady their meat while cutting it. The early practice of eating with a knife involved a very sharp one or possibly two (this was before forks were invented), one to hold the meat and the other to cut up the food.

All colonists, rich and poor, used wooden utensils for nearly the first century they inhabited North America. Some wealthy families were able to procure metal utensils before the 1700s. All colonial kitchens were sure to have a wooden spoon, as this was a significant tool, along with wooden bowls, trenchers, and tankards. Even after metal knives, forks, and spoons were in common use, no kitchen was without a wooden spoon.

In Wales, a spoon was carved and given to a woman who was about to be married. She would hang this spoon on her wall as a message that she was "taken." The word "spooning" comes from the giving of a wooden spoon, usually carved, to the intended. Her suitor might carve a heart-shaped spoon which meant "I love you." A key-shaped spoon meant "You hold the key to my heart." A bell-shaped spoon meant "Let's get married." A wheel-shaped spoon meant "I will work hard for you." The carved wooden spoon given to a newly married woman was called a "love spoon." Some of the other patterns carved into a spoon had special meanings, such as a chain (a wish to be together forever), diamond (wealth or good fortune), cross (faith), flower (affection), and dragon (for protection).

In recent times, some brides have carried a wooden spoon tied with ribbons and flowers along with their wedding bouquets. Since a wooden spoon was absolutely one of the most useful items a newly married woman could have, a female friend would usually give the gift. The bride's mother, sister, and friends would make sure to provide her with the necessary kitchen utensils to "set up house."

Wooden spoons have been a common item throughout history and in nearly all cultures because most artisans could carve spoons and they were inexpensive to make. Is there a wooden spoon in your kitchen?

Fun Facts

Many sailors carved wooden spoons during long voyages.

A wooden spoon was listed as a necessary item for cake baking in the 1894 edition of "White House Cookbook" by Ziemann and Gillette.

Stainless steel utensils were invented in the 1920s. The earliest "love spoon" found (so far) is

displayed in the Welsh Folk Museum in Cardiff and is dated around 1667.

Clothes Pin Doll The clothespin began as a one-piece wooden

clothes peg made by hand. One of the traditional occupations of American gypsies, who first appeared in the 16th century, was the clothes peg maker. Gypsies from Scotland were also clothes peg makers. In 1820, wooden clothes pegs were manufactured by Lyon and Company. Their package of 48 clothes pegs sold for 17 cents. That's about like getting three clothes pegs for a penny. Other companies began manufacturing wooden clothes pegs and, between 1852 and 1887, the U.S. Patent Office granted patents for 146 different clothespins. It's amazing to find that there can be so many different designs for such a simple item as a wooden clothespin. In 1908 and, again in 1926, the U.S. Patent Office transferred thousands of patent models to the Smithsonian, including clothespins.

Manufacturing of Clothespins As early as 1857, Ezra B. Eddy began manufacturing wooden clothes

pegs at Table Rock in Canada. George and John Lewis started a clothespin factory in Maine in 1895 in an area they named Lewiston, which was rich in yellow and white birch. After the clothespins were manufactured, they were packed in boxes made from softwood sawn at the mill. In 1921 and 1922, the peg factory was dismantled and shipped to East River, Sheet Harbor, by horse and wagons. They had depleted the forests of the yellow and white birch and the destination for a new factory was Stewiacke. The machinery from the factory was stored in the warehouse but then the two brothers dissolved their partnership so John built the peg factory at Ship Harbor. Later, the peg clothespins changed in favor of the spring type. Another manufacturer located in Maine, the Penley Corporation, was started in 1923 and made clothespins until December 2002. Most of the one-piece wooden clothespins, which are really clothes pegs, are now packaged as "doll pins" and are made in China.

Wooden Penny Doll Jointed dolls made from wood and clay

have been found in ancient Greek and Roman tombs. Archeologists are not certain whether these items were children's playthings, or whether they had religious significance. One particular doll from ancient Rome circa 200 B.C. features jointed arms at the shoulders and jointed legs. Other types of wooden dolls follow the era of ancient dolls. Less than 30 primitive "stump dolls" from 16th- and 17th-century England still exist. Wooden "shoulder-heads" for dolls were made in many countries around the world and feature the doll head and chest from one piece of wood. Antique Doll World magazine reported one early American hand-carved wooden "shoulder-head" to have been made in Maine in 1810.

Penny wooden dolls are also known as "peg wooden dolls," "common wooden puppets," and "penny wooden." They were produced in Germany beginning in 1810, were very simple, and resembled a clothespin with simple peg joints. These dolls were fairly durable and could be carried around by little girls without the fear of breaking them. These dolls were readily available in English "cent shops" for a penny. A cent shop carried candy, cookies, small dolls, and other inexpensive toys for children, much like the American "dime stores" that appeared during the 1950s and 1960s. One resource notes a 2-inch high penny wooden doll, which is a lot smaller than the 7-inch doll sold by Historical Folk Toys. The earlier made small penny wooden dolls would have been easily available to many children in small quantities so they might afford a whole family of them. Of course, inflation has hit the wooden doll market since the early 1800s, and these dolls are no longer offered for merely a penny. Other dolls, even as large as 11 inches, of this same type have been made and feature round heads and carved noses.

Poppet "Poppet" is just another name for "doll." The

Medieval English word for doll was "poppet." The French word "poupette" meant the same and was derived from the Latin word "pupa." The Spanish word for puppet is "titere" and derived from the French word "petite," which means "little one." The stringed marionette puppet did not evolve until the 17th century. The German nickname for "Dorothy" was "doll" and as Germany had a great influence on the English, they began using the word doll instead of puppet or poppet by the 18th century.

Actually, a poppet was any doll that was probably made from cloth. Many dolls resembled puppets with only a fabric handle under the dress to hold on to. There is no particular pattern for a poppet so references to poppets may describe many different cloth dolls. The word "poppet" was used in early America and is referenced in the book "Sarah Morton's Day" by Kate Waters. This book is about a day in the life of a Pilgrim girl.

Pew Baby or Handkerchief Doll During the Civil War (and at other times

when supplies were scarce), dolls were made from handkerchiefs for little girls. These "handkerchief dolls" were carried to church and did not make noise if they were dropped. They were also known as one of the "Sunday toys" that children were allowed to play with only on Sundays, along with Noah's Ark, Jacob's Ladder, Buzz Saw, and other quiet toys. Some mothers would put sugar cubes or candy in the head of the handkerchief doll for a youngster to suck on to keep the child quiet during the long church service. Other names for the handkerchief doll are: "church doll," "church babies," "pew doll," "pew babies," and "prayer doll."

Rag Doll The pocket folk doll belongs to a group of dolls known as "rag

dolls" or "cloth dolls." The simple pattern used is called a "pancake style pattern" because it is flat on both sides. The miniature doll may have first been made as a baby for a larger doll or just because the materials at hand would only make a small doll. The history of dolls dates back to ancient Greek and Roman times. Many dolls were just playthings for girls, but some dolls had religious significance. Cloth dolls can probably be traced to when woven cloth was invented, but none exists today because fabric disintegrates over time.

Miniature dolls were made for dollhouses that date back to the 1500s. There are records from the 1800s showing that many dollhouses came from Germany. Some of the earliest miniature dolls were made from wood or wax. Later, they became more elaborate and were made from glazed china and bisque.

Let your students show their creative ways with doll-making. During colonial times, dolls were made of all sorts of things. They were made from pine combs, corn husks, rags, and even socks. Dried apples were even sometimes used as a face. It is lots of fun to make sock-dolls with your students. Each child will need: one sock, two rubber bands, and rags for stuffing, glue, scissors, buttons, ribbon, and assorted material. The students will need to cut off the old sock right above the heel. They will then stuff the sock with rags. Then they will need to pull the bottom of the sock together and close it with a rubber band. To form the neck, they will need to squeeze the sock a few inches from the end opposite the rubber band. Then they will secure a rubber band over the section being squeezed to separate the head from the body. Then they can glue the button eyes and material for clothing. Be sure to make room for your students to display the toys they created.

Black Folk Doll Dolls have been created for children in nearly

every culture. Handmade cloth rag dolls would have been popular in the early American colonies since porcelain dolls from Europe were very costly. Slave children in the southern plantations were not allowed to play with white dolls. So many children were made black dolls by their relatives using unwanted fabric. Surviving black rag dolls have been found in "Underground Railroad" hideouts where black slaves hid on their escape routes to the north for freedom. A child would not have been able to carry much and, in a hurry, could have dropped or misplaced a doll in the dark. Since there is not much history written on handmade black cloth dolls, much information is relied on from oral history that has been passed down or from the actual dolls that were found.

Post Civil War – Black Dolls After the Civil War, black women had few opportunities available to

them, except dressmaking, so some of them became very skilled seamstresses. They would use the leftover scraps from the beautiful clothes they made for their customers to make elaborately dressed dolls. Beginning in 1893, the E.I. Horseman Company manufactured a black Baby land Rag Doll named "Dinah." This doll was featured on a U.S. 32-cent stamp in 1997. A "Black Mammy" cloth doll was produced around 1900 by the Baby land Rag Company, which also made black dolls with lithographed faces. Patterns for black dolls were produced during the first half of the 1900s. Some of these vintage patterns are still available. Most of these dolls are the cherished possessions of individuals, and some are even featured in museums. Many of these dolls have become collectibles and are considered to be valuable folk art today.

Topsy Turvy Doll Considered a controversial doll by some,

the authentic Topsy-Turvy doll features a black doll with a headscarf on one end and a white doll with an antebellum-style dress on the other end. The black doll could represent a maid, slave or servant and the white doll could represent the master's child or the mistress of the house.

The original Topsy-Turvy dolls were created before the Civil War in the Southern United States on plantations where slavery was prominent. Arguments arise as to whether the dolls were made for the slave children to play with or whether they were made for the white children who lived in the plantation house.

Topsy Turvy With one identity on one side and an

opposite identity when flipped, slave children could have played with their prohibited black doll and then flipped it to the white doll when the master was around. Others believe that the double-ended dolls were made for white children with the black doll used as a maid for their other dolls.

Stephanie V. Siek writes that this doll "was a mirror of the African-American woman's life. She took care of white children, but had children of her own -- the white child is present when the black child is invisible, the black child is present when the white child is invisible."

Topsy Turvy Kimberly Wallace-Sanders has explored

the possibility that Topsy-Turvy dolls were made by the black mammies to represent the two categories of children they took care of: the white master's children verses their own. After the Civil War, the white side of the doll was identified as that of a child, while the black doll suggested the black mammy caretaker.

Black and White Topsy-Turvy dolls began to be mass manufactured after 1900. One of these dolls made in 1901 was purchased with the advertisement: "Turn me up and turn me back, first I'm white, and then I'm black." The Baby land Rag company produced a Topsy-Turvy doll with a hand painted face in 1901. Later, wooden Topsy-Turvy dolls were made with jointed arms.

Nursery Rhymes Topsy Turvy Doll

Regardless of the doll’s history, it is a very unique doll and many storybook and nursery rhyme characters have been based on it since its inception. These upside down dolls have been used to teach the differences between the characters, showing contrasts between two opposites, good or bad, rich or poor, average and prominent, innocent and evil, subservient and authoritative.

During the mid 1900s, McCalls, Vogart, Redline and Butterick pattern companies began producing their own Topsy-Turvy Doll patterns. Vogart's pattern in the1940s was titled, "Topsy and Eva Doll--One doll with two change about faces." Redline's pattern in the 1940s was called Topsy and Eva. McCalls' 1940's pattern #1014 was for an "Upside Down Doll," but both dolls were white. Some of these historic patterns are now available as copies.

3 faced Topsy Turvy Doll Some of the dolls that were made in the mountain

regions of North Carolina in the1970s featured one doll head on one side and 2 to 3 doll heads on the other side, like Goldilocks and the Three Bears (with three heads), or Little Red Riding Hood on one side and Grandmother on the other side, but with the wolf on the back side of grandmother. Even Hansel and Gretel appeared with two heads (the children) on one side of the doll and the evil witch on the other. Some of these dolls are featured in a book titled, "How to Make Upside-Down Dolls" by John Coyne and Jerry Miller, published in 1977, which features patterns and instructions for ten upside-down dolls. The introduction in this book mentions the Crafts Unlimited group and craft cooperatives that the doll makers in the Appalachian area belonged to. Many of their dolls were sold in New York City and Chicago. John Coyne states, "This book is the first time any of these upside-down dolls have been shown in a 'how-to' fashion."

We don't know if the original Topsy-Turvy dolls were used in a teaching manner or whether they were just played with. Only a very few of these flip-flop dolls remain from the early 1900s. Several are located in museums and others are in private collections.

Symbolic Valerie Borey who holds a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from the

University of Minnesota and an M.A. in the Social Sciences from the University of Chicago writes: "Although the Topsy-Turvy doll had changed substantially in design since the pre-war years in the American south, it retained its essential capacity to emphasize the differences between the powerful and the powerless. For this reason, it is a doll uniquely able to detect and reflect cultural tensions as they changed with the times and economic conditions. As if a looking glass into the American social order, the two-headed, reversible, upside-down doll is able to turn things, well, topsy-turvy. In this sense, it is more than a doll--it is a symbol of power, of resistance, of secrecy, and of revolution."

Yarn Doll Yarn dolls were made during the

Colonial America period from homespun yarn. Yarn was one of the first products to be industrialized in North America. The Coats and Clark Company in the United States first marketed Red Heart Yarn in September, 1936, and the first acrylic yarn in 1959. Making yarn dolls became a popular pastime, and the yarn doll was listed as a craft activity in one of the earliest Brownie Scout Hand Books. Yarn Dolls are a fun and easy craft project that is perfect for a group activity or an individual.

Apple Dolls

Apple Dolls are folk dolls originating from early rural America when settlers made dolls from whatever was at hand. Apple dolls are made by carving a face in an apple and drying it. Due to the different effects drying produces, no two dolls are alike.