DOLLS OF YESTERDAY: A 1930s–1940s PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM OF AN ANTIQUE DOLL COLLECTION AND EXHIBITIONS

Item #1730

Large string-tied scrapbook measuring 10¾ x 14¾ inches, containing 31 black-and-white photographs ranging from approximately 3 x 4¾ to 8 x 10 inches. The photographs document an extensive collection of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century dolls, including china, bisque, wax, composition, and cloth examples, many dressed in elaborate period clothing. Most are carefully posed and professionally photographed, including individual portraits, front-and-back studies, and arrangements of multiple dolls. A few snapshots show dolls staged outdoors.

Especially notable are two large exhibition photographs: a department-store window at Barnard, Sumner & Putnam Co. in Worcester, Massachusetts, titled “Dolls of Yesterday,” and an elaborate public “Hobby Show” display containing scores of dolls arranged around an oversized toy soldier. The store window includes a National Recovery Administration Blue Eagle sign, dating that image to approximately 1933–1935. These photographs place the album within the developing American culture of antique-doll collecting and public hobby exhibitions during the Depression era.

Also included is a newspaper clipping about Sarah Josepha Hale, editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book and advocate for the national observance of Thanksgiving. Beside its statement that Hale wrote “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” an unidentified reader has written “Not true.”

The photographs are generally well preserved with good contrast; one has creasing and some images show light handling wear. The scrapbook is worn, with chipped and brittle page edges, and its leaves are detached from the binding. Approximately the latter half of the album is unused. An unusually cohesive and visually compelling photographic record of an early American doll collector and the public presentation of her collection.

Price: $300.00