Betye Saar's Black Dolls

Screen shot from NYH

Screen shot from NYH

An exhibition of Betye Saar's Black dolls will open on May 8, 2026, at the New York Historical. The exhibition will extend through October 4, 2026.

Buy tickets and learn more here.

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All photos and text are copyrighted and cannot be used elsewhere unless permission is granted by the author.

©Black Doll Collecting/dbg

There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
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Thank you for reading. Comments that are not spam are appreciated. Spam comments will not be published. To contact me directly, use the About page link, which is also visible in Web View mode, find, and use the email link.

Visit and follow DeeBeeGee's Virtual Black Doll Museum for detailed installations of antique, vintage, modern, and one-of-a-kind black dolls. http://virtualblackdollmuseum.com

Composition Repair and Sandals for Scootles

Circa 1920s composition Scootles by Cameo, designed by Rose O'Neill (the Kewpie doll designer), looks almost perfect, but she had a few issues.

For years, I've desired an original 1920s composition Scootles, but passed on the few I've seen for sale for various reasons. I knew eventually, the right one would find me.

After viewing her online pictures, she was almost perfect except for some troubling areas where the composition had separated at a seam and had lifted in a couple of other areas. After the seller discounted the original asking price for me, I decided to bring Scootles home, and I'm happy about that decision.

What was done to repair my adorable dimple-cheeked, double-chinned Scootles is captured in the video below:

Scootles has been repaired and is wearing her new handmade sandals in this picture.

She is so adorable!  Each time I look at this little gem, I smile. She was so worth the wait. 

Read Scootles' Virtual Black Doll Museum installation here. 

__________

All photos and text are copyrighted and cannot be used elsewhere unless permission is granted by the author.

©Black Doll Collecting/dbg

There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________

Thank you for reading. Comments that are not spam are appreciated. Spam comments will not be published. To contact me directly, go to the About page (visible in the web view mode); find and use the email link.

Visit and follow DeeBeeGee's Virtual Black Doll Museum for detailed installations of antique, vintage, modern, and one-of-a-kind black dolls. http://virtualblackdollmuseum.com

A Cute Potato Head Doll

A new doll, a dress, and shoes

What the website described as a "potato head" doll is the newest addition to my collection. A clone or knock-off of Nine d'Onil's 9-inch Mia, this doll arrived wearing only black vinyl Mary Jane shoes, as illustrated in the first picture. I ordered and received the brown and tan dress and brown faux-leather T-strap shoes, illustrated above. 

Because she did not have socks, and dolls wearing closed-toe shoes without socks is one of my pet peeves, I made her a pair of socks using two fingers cut from a white cotton glove.

She models her white socks and brown faux-leather T-strap shoes.

The clip-on hair bow was included with the dress. The dress package also included a pair of black vinyl Mary Jane shoes.

These shoes were in the dress package. The doll also arrived wearing an identical pair.

I love the closely-rooted microbraided hair.

Before deciding to purchase this doll, I had placed several versions into my cart. Realizing I did not need all four or five dolls in my cart, the microbraided hair was the deciding factor for choosing this doll. 

My two branded Nines d'Onil dolls posed with the new girl in the final AI-generated photo.

They display well together in real life, too!

The middle Mia, shown above, now wears a pair of the black Mary Janes that were included in this order. Originally, she had bare feet.

Related Posts

Mia by Nine d'Onil

Nines d' Onil Little Mia

Mother's Day Doll

__________

All photos and text are copyrighted and cannot be used elsewhere unless permission is granted by the author.

©Black Doll Collecting/dbg

There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________

Thank you for reading. Comments that are not spam are appreciated. Spam comments will not be published. To contact me directly, use the About page link, which is also visible in Web View mode, find, and use the email link.

Visit and follow DeeBeeGee's Virtual Black Doll Museum for detailed installations of antique, vintage, modern, and one-of-a-kind black dolls. http://virtualblackdollmuseum.com