The Aither Interview

I was recently interviewed by ‘The Aither’ about my black-doll enthusiasm and all things related to my passion. I am honored to be among other interviewees of 'The Aither,' which "exists to shine a light on the international art and culture underground. Covering topics such as art, comics, toys, music, films, fashion, video games, pop culture and history."

Read my interview here and please share your comments here and on their site.

Thanks in advance and thank you, 'The Aither' for your interest in my contributions to the doll community.

©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 Spam comments will not be published, so don't waste your time.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!

WTOP, Black Enterprise, Ebony

My virtual Black doll museum, DeeBeeGee's Virtual Black Doll Museum, has garnered a significant amount of positive media exposure thanks to an interview by Anchor/Reporter, Stephanie Gaines-Bryant of WTOP News Radio. 

Read Gaines-Bryant's WTOP News online article, here. Black Enterprise re-ran the article a day or so later here. If that wasn't enough (there is never enough positive exposure for a woman on a mission to shine a positive light on the significance of Black dolls to boost children's self-awareness and esteem, and for adults to also gain the same positive vibes from three-dimensional inanimate images that are positive representations of themselves), Savannah Taylor of Ebony magazine put her beautiful spin on the story and enhanced the article with lovely vintage photos. Read Ms. Taylor's article here. 

So this woman, this Black-doll enthusiast, author, founder and curator of DeeBeeGee's Virtual Black Doll Museum is feeling quite honored by the media coverage. May the exposure continue and awareness heightened that dolls are not just playthings, that there is a host of adult women and men who collect dolls designed for adult collectors, and women like me, who aim to preserve their historical significance. We are here and our dolls are, too. 

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!

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.

dbg

Off to Australia...

...two books, that is. I had promised to send a copy of my book to an artist that I met on eBay. She undercharged me for shipping, but did not want me to pay the extra amount owned. She mentioned my book and I offered to send her a copy. The promise was to send it "sometime this week." I was exceedingly busy yesterday, so was unable to mail it then.

As a result of our conversations via e-mail, she informed another collector about my book. The collector, who has a collection of over 1000 black dolls, purchased a copy of my book. So my "sometime this week promise," will become a reality in about 45 minutes when I arrive at the post office to mail not one, but two books "down under," to Australia.

What do I know for sure? I know that God is good and that he cares for me.

dbg

PS The remaining cover creased copies are slowly but surely flying out the door.

Dolls In Black...

"Silicone-Vinyl Alert" and "The Doll-Buying Gamble" are my most recent "Dolls in Black" blogs at the following URL.

http://dollsmagazine.com/dolls-blogs.html

There are other blogs at the above URL by other bloggers as well and older ones that I posted.

I'll post an update here soon. Until then, happy dolling!

dbg