Dolls are probably the oldest known toys in existence, with every human culture having some type of doll to represent the human form. Aside from being children’s playthings, dolls also serve as power objects, representing ancestral figures and are therefore carriers of culture. Often thought to possess magical powers, in some cultures dolls are used in spiritual rituals and rites of passage.
A Black doll is a doll of a black person. Black doll manufacture dates back to the 19th century, with representations being both realistic and stereotypical. According to Nashormeh Lindo, a doll collector, artist, and educator, “A doll can be seen as an innocent plaything, a cultural marker, or a work of art. All children play (and some adults too!) To play is to learn.”
A disk-headed Ashanti Aku’aba fertility doll from Ghana, West Africa.
Early Manufacturing and Representation
Several 19th-century European doll companies preceded American doll companies in manufacturing Black dolls. These predecessors include Carl Bergner of Germany, who made a three-faced doll with one face of a crying black child and the other two, happier white faces. In 1892, Jumeau of Paris advertised Black and mixed-race dolls with bisque heads. Gebruder Heubach of Germany made character faces in bisque. Other European doll makers include Bru Jne.
In the early 20th century, American companies began including Black dolls in their doll lines. Between 1910 and 1930, Horsman, Vogue, and Madame Alexander included Black dolls in their doll lines.
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During the Great Enslavement of Africans in the Americas, dolls were made of rags, nuts, tobacco leaves and corn husks for the enslaved children to play with. Ironically, slave artisans made dolls and other toys for the master’s children as well. The first Black paper doll was produced in 1863 and depicts the figure of Topsy, a “pickaninny” character in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s best-selling novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Topsy, an early paper doll from Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Black dolls became very popular in 19th century Europe and spawned an industry of papier mâché and bisque-headed dolls by French and German manufacturers. These dolls were mass produced and often advertised as Black or Mulatto.
The “golliwog”, a character in a popular 19th century British children’s book, The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls, by Florence K. Upton, is a type of rag doll with red pants, a bow tie, wild hair and caricatured features, reminiscent of grotesque minstrel figures. Even though it had racist connotations, the “golly doll” was very popular with children in Europe, Australia and North America until the early 1960s. The image itself was valuable enough to become the trademark for several products, including postcards, jars of jam, and even jewelry.
Many African-American parents continued to make “folk” dolls for their children, to combat the negative imagery in commercially-produced dolls. After WW1, dolls began to be made of more durable materials such as rubber and children could treat them as real babies, bathing them without damaging them. The first Black rubber doll was named Amosandra and was supposed to be the daughter of Amos from the Amos and Andy radio show. Black kewpie dolls from this era were referred to as “hottentot” dolls.
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Efforts Towards Positive Representation
Unfortunately until the mid-1960s, it was rare for Black parents to find affordable, positive Black dolls for their children’s special Christmas presents. The manufacturers then began to introduce Black versions of Barbie, Chatty Cathy and Patty Play Pal. Black action figures also became available around the same time, such as G.I. Joe.
Mattel Toys created the first Black dolls in the popular Barbie line, Francie and Christie, in 1967 and 1969 respectively.
By the 1950s and 60s, African-American toy companies began to manufacture Black dolls. Beatrice Wright Brewington, an African American entrepreneur, founded B. Wright Toys.
Dolls have also been used in social experimentation and to effect political change. For example the groundbreaking studies and “doll” experiments, conducted in the 1940s by psychologists, Drs Kenneth and Mamie Clark, played a pivotal role in Thurgood Marshall’s arguments during the famous Brown vs The Board of Education Supreme Court decision that led to the legal desegregation of America’s public schools in 1954. The experiments, designed to study children’s attitudes about race, clearly showed that when given a choice between dolls identical apart from their color, the majority of children chose the White dolls and shunned the Black ones. The experiment was repeated recently by documentary film maker Kiri Davis, in her 2006 award-winning film, A Girl Like Me. Sadly, it revealed that many attitudes have remained the same. The majority of the subjects in her film still chose the White dolls over the Black ones. The reasons they cited, again, are the associations of White dolls being “pretty” or “good” and the Black dolls “ugly” or “bad.” The continuous onslaught of negative imagery in popular visual culture has further cemented these attitudes about standards of beauty and self-worth for African-American children.
Pleasant Company, the manufacturer behind the beloved American Girl line of fictional historical characters, debuted its first African American doll in 1993. American Girl has also released Black dolls portraying girls of color from various points in American history such as Addy Walker and civil rights-era Melody Ellison, as well as those from the present day. Addy’s doll-sized accessories included a pink-and-white dress, black lace-up boots, and a bonnet. Like all of American Girl’s historical accessories, Ida Bean was created in consultation with experts.
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Politics of representation in playthings came to the fore in the 20th century, as Black entrepreneurs led campaigns to manufacture Black dolls specifically for Black children.
Unidentified photographer, Woman and children with Black cloth dolls, 1942.
“Showing Black children with dolls does additional work ... in underscoring their humanity and their right to be seen as adorable children,” says Jean-Louis. “These are kids worth protecting."
In 2020, inspired by the need for equity, inclusion, and representation in toys and storytelling, Mark Ruffin launched Black Dolls Matter® - a global movement and brand dedicated to creating thoughtfully designed dolls, multicultural toys, and collectible art pieces. Mark believes dolls are more than toys - they are mirrors of identity, keepers of memory, and vessels of healing. “Through dolls, we tell our stories."
Collectible Black Dolls and Museums
Other popular collectible Black dolls include manufactured play dolls past and current, manufactured dolls designed for collectors by companies such as Madame Alexander and Tonner Doll, artist dolls, one-of-a-kind dolls, portrait dolls and those representing historical figures, reborn dolls, and paper dolls.
To honor the history of Black dolls, in 2012, three sisters named Debra Britt, Felicia Walker, and Tamara Mattison opened the National Black Doll Museum of History and Culture in Mansfield, Massachusetts. The Philadelphia Doll Museum was founded in 1988 by Barbara Whiteman. The Philadelphia Doll museum is an educational and cultural resource center dedicated to the preservation of doll history. It houses a collection of over 300 Black dolls and a library that highlights the story of how African people have been perceived throughout the world, through the representation of dolls.
There are a number of books on the subject including Collectible Black Dolls, by John Axe; Collector’s Encyclopedia of Black Dolls, by Patiki Gibbs; The Definitive Guide to Collecting Black Dolls, by Debbie B.
Visitors to San Francisco should seek out the Sargent Johnson Gallery, a hidden gem within the African American Art & Culture Complex, which is itself in a residential area not far from City Hall.
The Kimbrough family collection of Afro-Americana, located in Los Angeles, also includes a doll collection; and the Arabella Grayson Collection features 200 years of Black paper dolls, which have been exhibited at the Smithsonian Institute.
| Doll Type | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Manufactured Play Dolls | Mass-produced dolls for children's play. | Barbie's Francie and Christie |
| Collector Dolls | Dolls designed for collectors, often by specific companies. | Madame Alexander dolls |
| Artist Dolls | Unique dolls created by individual artists. | Hand-painted wood and cloth doll, by Mari Norris |
| Historical Dolls | Dolls representing historical figures or time periods. | American Girl's Addy Walker |
| Handmade Dolls | Dolls created from a variety of materials, often with unique designs. | Hand-made doll by Andrea Lewis |
