Name/Title
Topsy-Turvy DollEntry/Object ID
2017.14.1Description
Two-headed female doll connected at the torso. One head of the doll is African American, wearing a red and white floral-patterned dress and red headscarf. The other head is Caucasian, wearing a blue and white floral-patterned dress a white headscarf. When one side of the doll is held upright, her dress covers the other half of the doll.Context
Made from the antebellum period through the early twentieth century, dolls like this became known as topsy-turvy dolls due to their double-ended, inverted design. As objects of material culture, topsy-turvy dolls have provoked a great amount of interpretive controversy. Some scholars assert these dolls were used by white children to learn and reenact racial power dynamics of the plantation and Jim Crow South. Others assert that the dolls were given to Black girls to encourage them to practice caring for Black children and the white children of their enslavers or employers. Another interpretation put forth by scholars is that, during the antebellum period, these dolls served as a subversive outlet for enslaved girls to exercise power over their white peers. Questions remain, however, on whether possession of Black or white dolls by enslaved girls was forbidden. Equally likely is the possibility that topsy-turvy dolls were used by both Black and white girls.Dimensions
Height
14-1/2 inWidth
10-1/2 inDepth
2-1/2 in
