Name/Title
DollEntry/Object ID
1954.15.17Description
Cloth doll wearing a brown dress and red headwrap. The doll is made from black knitted fabric, likely a stocking. The face is embroidered with black-and-white eyes, brown eyebrows, brown nose, and red lips. The dress is made from light brown woold printed in brown with a subtle vine design. Over the dress is an apron tied at the waist with two should straps. The doll's hands are secured at the front, just below the waist, and there is a bundle of reeds secured to one hand. She is wearing a red headwrap with white dots.Context
Made by Kate Dewey Squires in Montpelier, VermontAcquisition
Accession
1954.15Source or Donor
Dewey, Breta Brigham (1887-1968)Acquisition Method
GiftMade/Created
Artist
Squires, Kate Dewey (1864-1930)Place
City
MontpelierCounty
Washington CountyState/Province
VermontCountry
United States of AmericaContinent
North AmericaLexicon
Nomenclature 4.0
Nomenclature Primary Object Term
DollNomenclature Class
ToysNomenclature Category
Category 09: Recreational ObjectsDimensions
Dimension Description
OverallHeight
4-1/2 inInterpretative Labels
Label
"Mammy" imagery, such as that seen in this doll, was a racial caricature of African American women. It depicts a smiling, desexualized black woman whose role is caring for the white children of her enslaver. The image was created as propaganda, to put forward the claim that African Americans were happy in slavery. Though the imagery began before the Civil War as a backlash to abolitionism, it endured long afterward as a justification for the economic oppression of black women, depicting them as only fit for domestic labor.