Nancy Green as Aunt Jemina

Nancy Green by Albert E. Price, Inc., 1984

A museum patron asked if I owned this porcelain portrait doll of Nancy Green, a duplicate in his collection. Because I did not, he sent me his duplicate doll.

This 16-inch portrait doll manufactured by Albert E. Price, Inc. in 1984 has a stuffed cloth body and partially stuffed arms and legs. The head, lower arms, lower legs, and feet are porcelain.

The Nancy Green doll has painted facial features and sculpted short hair underneath a white headscarf. The costume includes a red, green, and yellow plaid dress with a detachable white apron, white pantaloons, sculpted white socks, and sculpted black shoes. 

The Price company is known to have produced this doll in 1980 and 1984 to represent the formerly enslaved woman whose mammy-maid/cook advertising character helped promote R. T. Davis Milling Company's Aunt Jemima products. 

The front and back of the doll's dress tag identify the manufacturer and the production year.

The front of the dress tag identifies the doll's manufacturer.

The manufacturer and 1984 as the production year are on the back of the dress tag.

Born on March 4, 1834, the real Nancy Green became financially secure as "the advertising world's first living trademark" until her tragic death in a car accident in 1923 (Nancy Green).

The donor's doll, made in 1980 by Price, is installed in DeeBeeGee's Virtual Black Doll Museum. 

******

ADDENDUM

Advertising images of "Aunt Jemima" do not reflect the real Nancy Green's image.

The following question/comment was posted on the Dolls of Color Facebook page where a link to this blog post was shared the day it was published.

Comment/Question from MHH: What's the provenance on the name, please? Is it clear that the creator of the doll at the time named it so? Or did he call the doll "Aunt Jemima," and at some point after that, someone assumed "Nancy Green" and "Aunt Jemima" are synonymous, and renamed it? 

My curiosity is piqued. It's a lovely doll, but frankly, looks nothing like Nancy Green.

Answer: I reached out to the collector who donated this doll to me to inquire if Albert E. Price, Inc. actually named the doll Nancy Green "Aunt Jemima," or if he (the collector) chose that name. I have not received a reply; however, based on documented details the collector provided for other dolls in his extensive collection, Price probably assigned the name to the doll.

Assuming that Albert E. Price, Inc. named the doll after the original Nancy Green, its facial features resemble the real woman whose image is on her headstone and in a newspaper article here. Based on these images of the original Nancy Green, the doll resembles the woman it represents. 

The real Nancy Green is shown on the far left. Three Aunt Jemima product character illustrations follow.

Unfortunately, most people confuse illustrated caricature/character with the original woman who performed as Aunt Jemima in public appearances beginning in 1893 at an exposition because the advertising illustrations are America's ideal of the mammy archetype. 

References:

Nancy Green, The Original 'Aunt Jemima'

Nancy Green "Aunt Jemima" VBDM installation

Find a Grave Memorial Nancy Green

#blackhistory

#blackdollhistory

#Auntjemima

#Nancygreen

__________

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, so don't waste your time. To contact me directly regarding dolls or any of my posts, please use the contact form on the right of the home page, which is visible in "web view." A link to web viewing should be visible at the bottom of this page.

If you're not already a subscriber, visit, "like" and follow the Black Doll Collecting Facebook page or bookmark the Black Doll Collecting home page and visit on Tuesdays and Thursdays when typically new posts are published.

Check out what I am selling here. 
Check out my eBay listings here.
Please follow my sister blog Ebony-Essence of Dolls in Black.
*New*Visit/Follow DeeBeeGee's Virtual Black Doll Museum
Donate here to support this blog. Thank you!