Name/Title
DollEntry/Object ID
1992.5.1Description
Reproduction doll wearing a Civil War-era ball gown. The ball gown is striped mint green with pink buds and white lace. The doll's face and body are ceramic. The doll has blonde hair in an updo featuring a string of pearls. The doll has blue eyes and is wearing pearl earrings.Context
Dressed in the typical style of a wealthy woman from the mid-1800s, this doll, named "Desiree," was made by Mrs. Priscilla Haines Hoyt (1917-2021). Born in Cuba, Priscilla moved to the United States when she was around eight years old to live with her aunts and grandmother in Connecticut. Although she originally trained to be a stenographer, Pricilla ultimately pursued a passion she cultivated as a child—sewing—and graduated from The McDowell School of Dressmaking and Design in New York City in 1937. After graduation, she worked for Singer Manufacturing Company in New York before returning to Cuba, where she worked a few odd jobs and spent time with her parents. Upon the start of World War II, Priscilla briefly relocated to Philadelphia to volunteer with United Service Organizations (USO). It was there that she met her future husband, Edward Hoyt (1919-1998). The two married in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1947 and made the capital city their home in 1949, after Edward completed university studies in New York. An extension of her passion for sewing, one of Priscilla’s hobbies was creating porcelain and cloth dolls and their costumes.Made/Created
Artist
Priscilla Haines Hoyt
