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Monday, May 31, 2010

Dr. Ralph Bunche and Eleanor Roosevelt Observe The First True ColoredDoll - Jet Magazine, November 8, 1951

I found this promotional picture of the 1951 Saralee doll by Ideal thanks to a fellow doll enthusiast. Thanks again, Bonnie and thank you, vieilles_annonces, for sharing your library of Jet and Ebony magazines on flickr.

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2 comments:

  1. Ms. LeoMay 31, 2010 at 5:40 PM

    I thought when I first saw this that it might have been the first black doll made by a black company but I have a book on black collectable black items that has dolls a lot older that this one. Most of them were made by whites too. What is it about this doll that makes this doll the first?

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  2. Black Doll EnthusiastMay 31, 2010 at 10:36 PM

    The Saralee doll is described in doll reference literature and in the original promotional advertising as the first anthropologically correct black doll. It was fashioned after the likeness of real black children whose images were studied to achieve the doll's ethnically correct features.

    Prior to this doll's creation, American-made black dolls typically were just brown versions of white dolls. Little thought went into creating dolls that looked like black children. Of course this trend continued, but Saralee set a precedent in America that black children need dolls that mirror their facial features as well as their complexion.

    Copy and paste the following URL into your browser to read more about the doll. (Scroll down to Saralee Doll Added to Museum.) http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/library/historymonth.html

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