Thankful Heritage Museum's "Black Butterfly" Proud and Beautiful AA Doll Collection

Description: "African American Dolls Dating from 1892 to Present - History & Advertisements, Cloth Dolls, Paper & Standup Dolls, Marionettes & Puppets, Entertainment, Shindana Toys, Sports Figures, Military, Disney, The World of Black Barbies

This video was posted on YouTube on August 22, 2025. It is unclear if the dolls are currently on display at the High Point Museum in High Point, North Carolina, or if this was a past exhibit.

(Thank you, blog reader Nicholas, for sharing the link to this video.)
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©Black Doll Collecting/dbg

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

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Restringing and Repainting a Magic Skin Doll

A circa 1940s Composition and Magic Skin doll by Ideal

Made of composition for the head and latex (Magic Skin) for the body, this formerly white doll's body darkened with time. When I purchased it in the 1990s, someone had begun painting the head, but the head color did not match the body color. I finished the head painting with a similar lighter brown because I had clothing made that covered the body. 
Recently, I discovered the doll's head needed restringing. After I restrung the head, I decided to give it an even color, and I made a few other minor repairs, which are outlined in the following video.

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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Treasures Inside the National Black Doll Museum of History and Culture

PBS's Treasures Inside the Museum steps into the back rooms of more than a dozen museums throughout Southern New England, delving into their treasured collections and uncovering pieces that often remain hidden away.

Season 6, episode 5,  "National Black Doll Museum & Little Compton Historical Society"

features The National Black Doll Museum of History and Culture and The Little Compton Historical Society. 

"The National Black Doll Museum reveals history through an extensive collection of dolls from all over the world. Learn about how they were made, by whom, and for what purpose. 

"The Little Compton Historical Society chronicles the region’s past with exhibits that reflect the rural landscape. Artifacts include pieces from the indigenous peoples and colonial homes."

Watch this episode 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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A Princess Tiana Styling Head Makeover

A rescued Princess Tiana Styling Head

While shopping at a local thrift store for wooden frames for my husband's artwork, I also browsed the toy section, of course. I saw a Princess Tiana styling head, picked it up, walked around with it, put it back, then got in line to pay for a frame. Before paying, I went back to the toy section, grabbed the styling head, and paid for both items. 

The head remained in a shopping bag in a basket on top of the dryer in the utility room for two or three months before I finally decided to detangle the hair. In my mind, I thought it was going to be a big chore to do. I was pleasantly surprised that it was not. The photo video below outlines what was done.

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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.

__________

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, go to the About page (visible in the web view mode); find and use the email link.

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.

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President Issa and Tennis Champ Venus

Barbie The Movie President Issa Rae and Inspiring Women Series Venus Williams

Two new Barbies are available on Amazon. Issa Rae, in her role as President Barbie in the Barbie movie, and the recently released Venus Williams from the Inspiring Women Barbie collection

If you're not a Prime member, ordering either or both dolls qualifies for free shipping because both are above $35. Check them out at the links below:

Barbie The Movie President Issa Rae

Barbie Inspiring Women Series Venus Williams
 

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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.

__________

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, go to the About page (visible in the web view mode); find and use the email link.

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.
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Defa Lucy Studio

A Defa Lucy Studio doll

This 11-1/2-inch articulated vinyl doll from the Defa Lucy Studio series posed for in-the-box and released-from-the-box photos. 

I always take photos of the dolls in their original boxes before (or if) they are removed to keep as a reference of their original manufactured state.

Photographing dolls with the flash on in boxes with plastic box covers usually causes flash glare, which was the case with these photos.

Once released from the box, she struck a few poses and modeled with a Defa Lucy Fashion Girl that arrived in 2024. 

The still-boxed Defa Lucy on the left was one of my first purchases in 2024.

The Fashion Girl and the Studio doll use the same head sculpt. Their hair, makeup, and fashions differ.

Next, the new doll tried on two different shoe colors to wear with her original two-piece fashion (a yellow knit cropped turtle neck sweater and metallic turquoise shorts) because the light blue boots didn't work well for us. 

The yellow high-heeled sandals match her sweater.

The turquoise heels match her shorts.

We thought a complete outfit change was in order. With the retro Clueless (movie/TV series) look in mind and a black and white skirt suit selected, we found the following black boots and shoe options that this lovely lady modeled before making a final "what to wear" decision.

Black boots, closed-toe high heels, similar closed-toe wedge heels, and a pair of open-toe heels were the options. 

Wearing the black and white tweed skirt suit with a faux leather bandeau tank top and black opaque hose, she models the boots and holds a clutch that I made years ago from a kid leather glove.

She tried on the closed-toe high-heels next with a shimmery silver hat embellished with a silver flower, netting, and feathers.

The hat with the black and white bow on the far right in this photo is the hat I wanted to pair with the black and white tweed suit, but unfortunately, I was unable to find it at the time I wrote this post.

This is the closed-toe wedge-heeled shoe; except for the wedge heel, this shoe is similar to the previous shoe. 

Except for the boots, either high-heeled shoe would have worked well, but we chose the open-toe high-heeled shoe as illustrated next. (Note that she does not have cankles--the stockings are bunched around one ankle, which gives that appearance.)

The selected shoe.

The open-toed shoe is more classic than the other options, which is why it was selected.

This stylish lady took an additional close-up.

Her facial sculpt reminds me of Madame Alexander's Paris Williams. 

A couple of days after writing this post, before it was published, I read online reviews of the black stockings, which indicate they can cause staining to some dolls' legs. So I edited the post to include the following action I took.

I soaked the stockings in boiled water until the water cooled.

I removed the stockings and soaked them in a mug of boiled water until the water cooled. I wrung out the water and let them air dry overnight before putting the stockings back on the doll. The doll lay flat as shown in the above photo during this process, and another doll temporarily borrowed her hat. 

Redressed Barbie Looks dolls #10 (Simone) and #21 (Heidi) posed with Defa Lucy for a height comparison. Simone borrowed Defa Lucy's hat for the photo.

After the stockings were replaced, I took the above height comparison photo of Simone (Barbie Looks #10), Defa Lucy, and Heidi (Barbie Looks #21) to illustrate the Defa Lucy doll's average 11-1/2-inch height. (Simone looks good in the temporarily borrowed hat, which she eventually returned.)

Related Posts

Defa Lucy Fashion Girl

Lisa and Dionne

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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.

__________

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, go to the About page (visible in the web view mode); find and use the email link.

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!

I'm a Pretty Little Black Girl, Two

I'm a Pretty Little Black Girl Mia is an 18-inch-tall doll designed by Betty K. Bynum and manufactured by Madame Alexander.

Released in 2015, I purchased the first I'm a Pretty Little Black Girl Mia in June of that year as a birthday gift for my then-10-year-old niece. I had planned to buy another one for my collection, and recently completed that task after finding one for a very reasonable price. The second doll did not include the box, which I don't need or desire since I've already seen and photographed my niece's never-removed-from-box doll; and as I always say, "I collect dolls, not boxes." 

Mia is a pretty little black girl doll.

Mia is as adorable outside the box as I remembered. I recorded her spreadsheet details as follows:

Description

18-inch vinyl doll with a brown cloth mid-body, rooted black hair styled in two fat plaits with curly ends, brown sleep eyes with attached bristle eyelashes and painted upper and lower eyelashes, closed mouth with puckered lips. The yellow and pink sleeveless top with a ruffled hemline is worn with pink cuffed Capri pants and pink platform-heeled sandals.

Other

Mia represents the main character in the book, I'm a Pretty Little Black Girl by Betty K. Bynum.

For this picture, Mia posed with the separately sold book written about her.

I purchased the book for my collection the day after Mia was purchased. The book arrived first, which heightened my anticipation for the doll's arrival. She came the following day.

Mia has settled in nicely and found two other 18-inch Madame Alexander doll friends. They took several photographs together. 

Mia befriended Patience and Passion, two of the first 18-inch Madame Alexander dolls that entered the collection in 2011 and 2009.

Passion, the doll on the left, is from the Friends Boutique 18-inch Madame Alexander doll series. Her vinyl legs are posable. Patience, the doll on the right, is from the Friends 4 Life 18-inch Madame Alexander doll series.  They are both redressed in fashions sewn by my husband at my request. 

 

Passion, Mia, and Patience pose for a close-up photo.

I used a lighter background for the last two photos of the girls after they assumed this accidental pose that I thought was cute. 

I moved the dolls from one chair to another, and their placement was a pose that I wanted to capture, especially with Pretty Little Black Girl Mia asserting her dominance. 

This close-up photo captures their final pose before they returned to their display area.

Related Links

I'm a Pretty Little Black Girl! Mia

I Had No Plans

Praises for Dresses He Made

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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.

__________

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, go to the About Me page (visible in the "web view" mode); find and use the email link. 

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.

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Porcelain Pete

This is a 10-inch all-porcelain doll marked "MANDY."

A 10-inch porcelain doll marked "MANDY" on the nape of the neck arrived dressed only in an off-white lace-trimmed knit sweater. In need of more appropriate clothes, I redressed him and made shoes to fit his feet. 

Pete wears a gray camouflage hoodie and shorts with gray felt slides.

Porcelain Pete is seen in a comparison headshot with Horsman's all-vinyl Pete from 1957

While the head is marked "MANDY" and "Lauretta 1980" is incised on the back, it is clear that this doll is a modern porcelain reproduction of Horsman's 1957 doll, Pete. Horsman also made a girl in 1957 named Polly.

The two Petes pose with Horsman's Polly.

My original Pete and Polly were installed in the Virtual Black Doll Museum on December 8, 2021. Porcelain Pete is in a separate installation. View the reproduction doll's 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, 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.

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A Topsy Doll from the UK

An 11-inch Topsy from Enfield, England, needed repairs.

An 11-inch circa 1930s Topsy arrived from Enfield, England on 07/22/2025 in need of repair. It was offered to me by the daughter of the original owner. It has been her childhood doll. The daughter believes her mother made the doll's dress.

I retrieved the package on 07/28/2025 and began working on the doll the next day. Using her original hand-knit dress, after thoroughly sanitizing and hand-washing it, I gave it "Patrick Kelly" embellishments using buttons from a button tin that my mother gave me several years ago. All necessary doll repairs were completed by 08/01/2025: retouching and sealing missing paint from the head, extremities, eyes, mouth, and teeth, and restringing. Topsy is now incorporated into my collection with similar dolls. The details of the repair are captured in the following video (posted previously on Instagram and Facebook). 

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Three US-sold (and/or made) Topsy dolls pose with the repaired UK Topsy.

Many antique and vintage black dolls made in England and other parts of Europe often had ebony complexions similar to the repaired doll. They obviously sold well there. The repaired doll is my first composition Topsy of this size and complexion, known to be made or sold in the United Kingdom. Most composition Topsy dolls sold in the United States during the same time (1920s-1930s) had light to medium brown skin tones, as illustrated in the group photo above. Except for early 1900s stereotypical dolls sold in the US, merchants must have felt that lighter-complexioned black dolls would sell better here than deeper-complexioned dolls. 

Related Links

Moments in Black Doll History: Topsy Dolls

Patrick Kelly ~ a Son of Ellis Inspired Post

Topsy Dolls Found in Early Sears Catalogs

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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.

__________

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!

Beach Barbie 2021 and 2018

Barbie Deluxe Style Wave 2 Christie

The latest frenzied, gotta-have-it buzz from Barbie collectors is to purchase the Barbie Deluxe Style Wave 2 Christie shown above. The doll is described as "rare" by Mattel, who partnered with Target to sell it only in select stores (not online). The Target boycott for me is still ongoing. No corporate ploy to get me back inside their stores will work, and I'm definitely not paying the 100+ dollars that secondary market scalpers are asking for a 20-something dollar doll.

Additionally, I am only impressed with the deluxe doll's more subtly screened 1987 Christie face sculpt and the complexion and hair color combination. The metallic pink dress made of low-quality synthetic materials is very unappealing. But the lovely face sculpt reminds me of a Beach Barbie that I had seen when I tried to identify a different Beach Barbie someone gave me a couple of years ago. So, I conducted an Internet search for "Beach Barbie" and found the 2021 Beach Barbie that uses the same 1987 Christie face sculpt as Deluxe Style Wave 2 Christie. The beach doll's cost was $7 and some odd cents and would serve my purpose.

©2021 Beach Barbie

©2021 Beach Barbie close-up

©2021 and ©2018 Beach Barbies use the 1987 Christie head sculpt (left) and the 2014 "Cassandra or Crystal" head sculpt (right). The Cassadra/Crystal sculpt was first used on the 2015-released Fashionista dressed in a tribal-print romper.

The two lovely beach ladies posed for this close-up.

I've never been a fan of painted-on doll clothes. I had already dressed the 2018 doll after it was given to me, but I wanted to redress her and find something for the newer doll to wear. First, I needed to gather shoes for their flat feet.

These were the only available shoe options.

Next, I gathered clothing to match the shoes.

These were the clothing choices.

Each doll tried on an outfit as illustrated next. 

The dress and shoe combination on the left was a possibility. The turquoise dress was not. I didn't like the shoes with it, and there wasn't another suitable shoe option available.

Neither of these outfits called our names. The dress on the right is made for a petite Barbie.

The swimsuit pattern is seen through the yellow dress. So, it was out. We liked the style, fit, and shoe combinations of the dress on the right.

These were the last two choices. We liked the dress and shoe combination on the new doll, but did not like the fit of the jeans and the exposure of the swimsuit pattern underneath the vest on the right.

These two Sparkle Girlz fashions were selected. Note that the dress and shoes the new girl wears are what the 2018-released doll wore when I dressed her a couple of years ago.

Here is a final close-up of the two dressed Beach Barbies.

I decided to use my 4K digital camera to take the following comparison photos. Just as I suspected, my old camera takes much better photos.

Full-length photo taken with a 4K digital camera.

Close-up photo taken with a 4K digital camera.

Old and New Christie Comparison Photos

I concluded this "doll play" session by taking comparison photos of 1980s-released Christies with the 2021-released Beach Barbie that uses the same head sculpt. 

This photo was taken with my older camera. Mattel used less makeup on the new Christie (in the center), which gives her a more youthful appearance than the 1980s, heavily eye-shaped dolls.

This photo was taken with my 4K camera.

Photos taken with my old camera required minimal editing and produced more natural-looking pictures. The 4K photos required more editing to lighten and sharpen.

Do you agree that the newer Christie looks younger than the original 1980s Christie?

__________

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!