Girls and Their Dolls ~ Encouraging Doll Play

On page 422 in my book, Black Dolls A Comprehensive Guide to Celebrating, Collecting, and Experiencing the Passion, mini profiles of African American (AA) girls and their dolls are preceded by the following passage:

Doll play allows little girls to exercise their innate nurturing characteristics. During times of doll play, girls usually imitate or reenact the nurturing received from their mothers or other female caregivers. Healthy role play and doll play are vital to a child’s development. It is even more vital that doll ownership includes dolls that mirror a child’s image. Seeing one’s self in a positive light aids in the development of positive self-esteem and self-worth. When a little girl sees beauty in dolls that look like her, specifically an AA girl – dolls that have hair like hers, beautiful deep skin color like hers, facial features like hers – her form of beautify is personified and she is unfazed by anything to the contrary.  (Copyright 2008)

Last week, I watched the first part of the following 9-1/2-minute Youtube video. I viewed it in its entirety today and thought I'd share it here.  What are your thoughts?
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Preserving and Imparting Black-Doll History: I. Roberta Bell Dolls

I received the following e-mail inquiry from a Black Doll-E-Zine subscriber.

Hello All, [does] anyone have any information on Alberta Bell who was a Black Doll Artist out of Chicago? I believe she was a member of UFDC. Thank you in advance for any info you can give me.

My reply:

Thanks for writing me and prompting me to do mini research based on your question about "Alberta Bell" dolls. I knew the name rang a bell. Last night I conducted a cursory search for information about her before retiring to bed, but the results were unfruitful.


With dolls constantly on my mind and always wanting to increase my black-doll and black-doll artist knowledge, I woke up thinking about the Bell dolls and recalled having seen dolls by Roberta Bell and hearing Barbara Whiteman of the Philadelphia Doll Museum speak about her dolls.

This morning, I sadly discovered that the Philadelphia Doll Museum's website is no longer online. I was going to share the link to it with you because I believe some of Bell's dolls were featured on the website.


Some of Mrs. Bell's dolls are featured in Black Dolls an Identification and Value Guide Book II by Myla Perkins, Collector Books, 1995. The artist is listed as "I. Roberta Bell" in Perkins' book.

After sending my initial reply to the BDE subscriber, in an effort to preserve and impart black-doll history, I took the "liberty" of photographing two pages from Ms. Perkins' book, which illustrate additional Bell dolls (see above image).

According to Perkin's book II,

Ida Roberta Bell, 1904-1992, was the first black American elected into the prestigious organization of doll artists, NIADA, (National Institute of American Doll Artists).  She was inducted into the organization in 1970 as a result of the excellence of her Dr. George Washington Carver doll...

Bell was born in Nashville, Tennessee... and moved with her family to Kansas City... where she received her formal education.  She became an educator and retired from Chicago, public schools in 1969. 

Bell came from an artistic background.  Her father and brother were artists and sculptors.  When Roberta... was a young child, her father was upset at the fact that she had only white dolls to play with and once removed the pink and white bisque head and hands from a doll and sculpted black ones to replace them.

Bell first began making dolls in the early 1940s.  She used paper-mâché, oven-hardening clay, and cloth.  Wanting to perfect her craft, she took classes in mold making and painting facial features.  Her famous black Americans series were made by first modeling the head in plastilene.  A mold was then made and the head and hands were poured with brown porcelain slip.  The bodies are stuffed with sawdust.  All costuming was done by Mrs. Bell and was thoroughly researched for detail.

To quote Ms. Whiteman, from an online article (no longer accessible at previous URL link),

Whether for reasons of cost, the negative racial stereotypes presented in some manufactured dolls, or the fact that often black dolls were just an afterthought to white dolls, many blacks made their own dolls. 

I honor trailblazers like I. Roberta Bell, her predecessors, and the modern-day doll artists, who recognize the need for accurate portrayal of African Americans in doll form.

Update (12/28/2014) - The Philadelphia Doll Museum's website is back online.  I. Roberta Bell's well-known African American Historical Dolls owned by the museum can be seen at their website here.

Ms. Bell is shown in a screen capture from a May 1972 issue of Ebony magazine with some of her dolls representing historical African Americans, L-R, standing:  Harriet Tubman, Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, Dr. George Washington Carver, Crispus Attucks, W. C. Handy, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Sojourner Truth.  Ms. Bell holds her portrait doll of Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable.

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Dolls Magazine Voices of the Industry

I have joined with others in the doll industry to share thoughts on doll collecting -- what's new, what's old, what's desired, tips on collecting, and other doll related subject matter. My blogs are geared toward the black-doll collecting audience, but are written for anyone's informative enjoyment.

Follow my Dolls in Black blogs for Dolls Magazine at the following link.

Thanks!

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Brooke-Nicole's Ethnic Transformations

Are you interested in the art of reborning dolls? Would you like to get to know a reborn doll artist and see the remarkable dolls she transforms into lifelike babies? If you answered yes to either question, read my article on talented and highly-gifted reborn doll artist Brooke-Nicole in the February 2009 issue of DOLLS magazine.  (This issue can be backordered.)

If you are not already a DOLLS magazine subscriber, the digital edition is only $12.99 or the print edition (10 issues) is only $17.47 with the following code:  A94322.  Order online at http://www.dollsmagazine.com/ or call toll-free at 800-331-0038, Ext. 1.


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Black Dolls PowerPoint Presentation

I was invited to the October meeting of the Blue Bonnet Doll Club of Dallas to conduct a black-doll presentation. The meeting was held at the Fretz Park Library in Dallas, Texas. For the discussion I wrote a PowerPoint presentation that was viewed using the facilty's LCD projector. I brought along the "cover girls" (the dolls on the front and back covers of my book, Black Dolls: A Comprehensive Guide to Celebrating, Collecting, and Experiencing the Passion.) A few other additional dolls from the various nine chapters in my book also accompanied me to the presentation.

I requested that members of the Blue Bonnet Doll Club of Texas bring black dolls to the meeting. Many of the members complied. After my discussion, which focused on my book, I discussed the members' dolls.

Many of their dolls were quite interesting. They included a 14-inch Madame Alexander Cynthia, made for one year only, 1951. I informed or iterated to the members that Madame Alexander made three versions of Cynthia, the 14-inch size, the 18-inch doll, and the 22-inch doll. The 22-inch doll has been described by some as standing or 23 inches, and the 14-inch doll is often described as being 15 inches. I usually refer to the doll as being 14 inches because that is the tape measure-height of my doll.

An interesting sand-filled Mason jar, bottle doll with a stitched mammy face and an 1870s doll carved of wood by Joel Ellis were brought to the meeing by Laurie McGill, the former Region 3 UFDC Director.

Other members' dolls included:

• An approximately 26-inch composition mama doll that has an interesting acquisition story
• Reproduction Aunt Jemima and family, stuffed-vinyl set of 4 dolls
• 1950's stuffed-vinyl, high-heel fashion doll
• Daddy's Long Legs Mardi Gras doll
• SFJB and Unis France dolls
• Girl Scout doll by Avon
• Daisy Scout nesting doll that is part of a 5-doll Matrioshka doll set
• Gladys by Sylvia Natterer
• Caleb by Sasha Morgenthaler dressed in a hand-knitted pumpkin-colored Halloween sweater and khaki-colored pants

One member brought her trio of bisque babies made in Occupied Japan. These are dolls from her childhood. She shared that she carried these dolls almost everywhere she went as a child and people often gave her odd stares. She said she didn't care because her ownership and public display of black dolls was no different than a black child playing white dolls. She said it was just something about those dolls that she loved and still loves.

A modern reproduction of an Occupied Japan bisque doll with a character face was brought by another member.

The presentation was well-received by all parties. Several members provided their contact information with a request to be notified of the availability of my book. I am currently awaiting reprinted copies at which time book sales will resume.

For more information about the book, visit: https://blackdollcollecting.wixsite.com/dbg2

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