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A pair of 19th-century male and female black dolls

Artist/Creator: unknown
Holding Institution: Historic Cherry Hill, Albany

This pair of 19th-century male and female black dolls are made of painted composition with wooden arms and legs and a kidskin-covered body, dressed in handsewn clothing with some machine-sewn restorations. The female doll is dressed in a set of knitted wool bloomers, black check silk skirt with decorative
silk banding around the hem and a printed cotton floral jacket. The male doll is dressed in black check wool trousers, a green velveteen coat with a satin partial
lining, collar and cuffs, a vest made from a peach colored silk as a cream-colored silk shirt and a decorative bowtie/caveat made from a strip red and cream plaid silk cloth. These dolls are associated with historically marginalized communities in their representation of Black figures and their association with Minnie Knapp, an African American ward-servant raised at Cherry Hill.

These dolls are significant both as rare 19th-century Black dolls and for their history of ownership and use in a New York household. The dolls strongly resemble German-made papier mâché “Milliners Model” dolls from the 1830s (which include a few Black examples), yet they appear to be composition dolls, a technique first developed in Germany in the 1850s. We believe that the dolls were used by children in the Cherry Hill household in the late 1850s and early 1860s, which would make these early examples.

The dolls are significant to the story of the representation of Black people (a historically marginalized community) and notably embody a respectful depiction of middle-class figures, rather than racist caricatures. This fact is all the more interesting in light of the dolls’ likely association of use and ownership with Harriet Maria “Minnie” Knapp, an African American child who was raised as a ward and servant at Cherry Hill after her mother’s death—by Harriet Maria Elmendorf, Van Rensselaer descendant and 3rd-generation mistress of Cherry Hill. Minnie Knapp called Harriet Maria Elmendorf “ma” throughout her life and occupied a pseudo-family status, particularly during childhood. Daguerreotypes and tintypes of Minnie as a child and a young women—accessorized and dressed in impeccably tailored clothing, represent a refined, middle-class appearance, interestingly mirroring the sort of identity represented by the dolls. The dolls are significant in their own right, but all the more so in their Cherry Hill context.

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"Mamie" Doll

Artist/Creator: unknown
Holding Institution: Bowne House Historical Society, Flushing

This doll is made of cotton fabrics with cotton stuffing, wool accents and cotton and wool garments. The figure is a black woman, with a dark brown twill weave cotton fabric skin. The hand-stitched doll is stuffed with heavy cotton wadding. The doll is dressed in several garments: a plaid dress with matching headscarf and shawl, a white cotton apron, a cream wool petticoat with red embroidery, a set of white cotton drawers, burgundy knit stockings, and a cotton eyelet collar

This doll as an important historical artifact in the Bowne House collection. The conservator states that 19th century black dolls, too often ignored in the past, are now seen as "evidence of the lived experience of the owners and makers as well as a reflection of the larger forces of slavery and its legacy and offer a unique a unique prism through which to view race, representation and black lives...". Their historical importance was recently recognized in a New York Historical Society 2022 exhibition entitled "Black Dolls" that focused not only on the historically marginalized black women who often crafted them, but white abolitionist women who sold or purchased them at anti-slavery fairs to raise funds for the abolitionist cause.

This doll personifies unexplored narratives relating to the Abolitionist Movement and Underground Railroad in New York in which residents of the Bowne House played a part and the Flushing 19th century free black community. Robert Bowne was one of the original founders of the New York Manumission Society; Bowne women founded the Quaker Flushing Female Association which participated in teaching inter-racial and former enslaved African American children in their schools and Sunday school; and Samuel Parsons and his three sons are known to have participated in an Underground Railroad network. Free black and mulatto domestic servants are believed to have resided at the Bowne House in the 19th century.

In 2021, Bowne House was designated by the National Park Service as a facility for research related to the Underground Railroad in the NPS Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. Residents have also been documented as both involved in the Abolition Movement in the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as the Underground Railroad in the 19th century. We have documents in our archives, as well as from other repositories, which evidence their involvement. These residents include Robert Bowne who was one of the original founders of the New York Manumission Society in 1785 and the African Free School in 1787; Bowne women who founded the Quaker Flushing Female Association ("FFA") in 1814 which met regularly at the house and provided an education to inter-racial and former enslaved African American children in their schools and Sunday school; and Samuel Parsons and his three sons (and likely their wives) who are known to have participated in a network of the Underground Railroad, including by raising funds to aid the movement of freedom seekers and hiding them on the Bowne Farm premises and adjacent properties of one or more Parsons sons until they could assist them in escaping to freedom. 
The Bowne House is one of three organizations (the other two being the New York Historical Society and the Museum of the City of New York) designated for the NYC Civics program. Educational tours are given to school groups and adults, both in person or virtually. This doll can help make the teaching of history relatable to younger children, as well as serve as a discussion point for issues of identity, race, stereotypes, slavery, the Flushing free black community, and the role women played in the Abolition Movement. Scholars and students will also benefit by the display of this doll in this context in that it will help to demonstrate how issues of race, representation, stereotypes, and slavery were addressed by marginalized and underrepresented African-American women craft artists in the 19th century and will present the fuller history of this marginalized community in New York State through their own lens and cherished artifacts.

Toys