Black Doll History: Berry and Ross Doll Company

1918-1922 Berry & Ross, Inc. doll ad

I recently saw a Facebook post made by Black-Then about Berry & Ross, Inc., an early 1900s black-owned doll company. I traced the source of the Facebook post to an article by Harlem World Magazine wherein Berry & Ross, Inc. is described as "a black-owned doll company founded by Harlem residents, Evelyn Berry and Victoria Ross, located at 36 – 38 West 135th Street, in Harlem, New York. The company was founded in 1918 [and remained in business] until around 1929. These two women were the first African American female large-scale manufacturers of black composition dolls. The dolls appealed to both black and white children and were sold in large department stores in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, and a few other cities."

Women or girls working in a black doll factory in Harlem, 1929

I searched for additional information on Berry & Ross, Inc., and found the My Auction Finds post, "My Incidental Doll Collection," by Sherry Howard. Howard wrote, "In a 1919 ad in Crisis, the magazine of the NAACP, [Berry & Ross] noted that their 'Berry’s Famous Brown Skin Dolls' were 'designed and made by Colored Girls In A Factory Owned and Controlled By Colored People.' The dolls were sold in large department stores for 29 cents to $3.50 (for a 16-inch Doris with 'long flowing curls'). The company also sold dolls in Africa."

Howard's post continues, "'These are not the old-time, black face, red lip aunt Jemima colored dolls but dolls well made and truly representative of the race in hair and features,' stated a Berry & Ross ad in [The] Crisis in 1917."

This happy child holds a doll attributed to Berry & Ross

The doll held by the child in the photo above that is attributed to Berry & Ross appears to be made of composition.

At this link, the above photos are combined with colorization of the second picture.

I am fascinated to learn more about Evelyn Berry and Virginia Ross's initiative to manufacture Black dolls that were well received by everyone in the early 1900s. That major department stores in the US sold the dolls and that they were sold in Africa, is even more fascinating Black-doll history.

Sources:

"Berry and Ross, Inc., Black-Owned Doll Company by African-American Women." Black-Then,

July 20, 2021, https://blackthen.com/berry-ross-inc-black-owned-doll-company-african-american-women/. Accessed 21 July 2021.

"Colored Dolls" advertisement. New York Public Library Digital Collections.

https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47df-a16e-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99. Accessed 21 July 2021.

"Berry & Ross Doll Company In Harlem, NY 1918 – 1929." Harlem World Magazine. December 14,

2017, https://www.harlemworldmagazine.com/berry-ross-doll-company-in-harlem-ny-1918-1929/. Accessed 21 July 2021.

Howard, Sherry. "My Incidental Doll Collection." My Auction Finds. October 9, 2019,

https://myauctionfinds.com/2019/10/09/my-unintended-collection-of-black-dolls/. Accessed 21 July 2021.

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