The golliwog, also spelled golliwogg or shortened to golly, is a doll-like character that appeared in children's books in the late 19th century. Created by cartoonist and author Florence Kate Upton, the golliwog is usually depicted as a type of rag doll.
However, the golliwog is controversial, being widely considered a racist caricature of black people, alongside pickaninnies, minstrels, and mammy figures. Since the 20th century, the word "golliwog" has been considered a racial slur towards black people. The Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia described the golliwog as "the least known of the major anti-black caricatures in the United States".
Changing political attitudes with regard to race have reduced the popularity and sales of golliwogs as toys. Manufacturers who have used golliwogs as a motif (e.g. Robertson's marmalade in the UK) have either withdrawn them as an icon or changed the name.
The Origins of the Golliwog
Florence Kate Upton was born in 1873 in Flushing, New York, United States, the daughter of English parents who had emigrated to the United States three years previously. Following the death of her father, she moved back to England with her mother and sisters when she was fourteen. There she spent several years drawing and developing her artistic skills.
To afford tuition at art school, she illustrated a children's book entitled The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls and a Golliwogg. The 1895 book included a character named the Golliwogg, who was first described as "a horrid sight, the blackest gnome", but who quickly turned out to be a friendly character, and is later attributed with a "kind face." A product of the blackface minstrel tradition, the Golliwogg had jet black skin, bright red lips, and wild woolly hair.
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Upton's book and its many sequels were extremely successful in England, largely because of the popularity of the Golliwogg. Upton did not trademark her character, and its name, spelt "golliwog", became the generic name for dolls and images of a similar type.
The Evolution of the Golliwog Image
Upton's Golliwogg was jovial, friendly and gallant, but some later golliwogs were sinister or menacing characters. For instance, a number of Enid Blyton's Noddy and Big Ears books feature Golliwog, sometimes as heroes but often as a villain or as naughty individuals. Other authors took a similar tack.
The name "golliwog" came to be used as a degrading term for anyone who was not white-skinned, and new origins were suggested for the word. In the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa and parts of Europe, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the golliwog character became popular in the form of children's literature, dolls, children's ceramics and other toys, ladies' perfume, and jewellery.
While the first golliwog dolls were mostly self-made by parents for their children, in the early 20th century industrial production of golliwog plush dolls began.
The Golliwog as a Marketing Tool
British jam manufacturer James Robertson & Sons used a golliwog called Golly as its mascot from 1910, after John Robertson apparently saw children playing with golliwog dolls in the United States. Robertson's started producing promotional Golly badges in the 1920s, which could be obtained in exchange for tokens gained from their products. By the 1950s, the firm had incorporated the figure into the advertising campaign for its jams with the slogan "Golly!".
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In Australia a chocolate-flavoured Golliwog biscuit was made by Guests Biscuits from the mid 1950s until November 1962 when the brand merged with Arnott's. The name was changed to Scalliwag in the mid-1990s, however the biscuits remained the same shape.
In 1976, the world's first "special shape" hot air balloon was built by Cameron Balloons.
What are Golliwogs & are they Racist? - Behind the News
Virginia Knox, previously brand director for Robertson's and later Chief Operating Officer of the Culinary Brands Division of RHM, told The Herald newspaper in Scotland in 2001 that the decision to remove the Golly symbol from Robertson's jam and marmalade jars was taken after research found that children were not familiar with the character, although it still appealed to the older generations. "We sell 45 million jars of jam and marmalade each year and they have pretty much all got Golly on them," said Knox.
An aniseed-flavoured chewy confection called a Blackjack was marketed in the United Kingdom from the 1920s with a golliwog's face on the wrapper.
Controversies and Modern Perceptions
According to a 2013 editorial in The Times, golliwogs were designed to reflect a racist stereotype that treated black men as an object of ridicule, and perpetuated racial prejudice by introducing this stereotype to children. They were the second most popular children's toy in Europe in the first half of the 20th century, after the teddy bear.
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In March 2007, Greater Manchester Police seized two golliwogs from a shop after a complaint that the dolls were offensive. In September 2008, a woman from Stockport claimed she was arrested for keeping a "golly doll" in her window.
In February 2009, in an off-air conversation at the BBC, Carol Thatcher, the daughter of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, referred to the black French tennis player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who was competing in the Australian Open, as looking like a golliwog. The comment was considered by the BBC as "wholly unacceptable" and Thatcher was informed that unless she apologised she would no longer be a reporter on BBC's The One Show. Thatcher stated that it was a silly joke and declined to make an "unconditional apology".
In December 2013, a councillor in Brighton was forced to apologise for stating to a newspaper reporter that golliwogs were not racist. Councillor Dawn Barnett was defending a local shop which was selling golliwog drinks mats. She stated, "I said I can see no harm in them. They are nostalgic, I'm 72 years old.
In January 2015, Chaka Artwell, a campaigner, had his BBC interview cancelled after he refused to remove a golliwog doll he was wearing around his neck. He later said, "When I was growing up in this country, this guy was a popular figure. Then, without anyone asking me if I was offended by it, people decided I was offended by it. White, middle-class liberal types decided I was offended by this guy and in the year 2015 I don’t want people telling me what I should be offended by. People pick and chose what they want to highlight. This is ridiculous."
Oxford City Councillor Ben Lloyd-Shogbesan said, "I think it demeans the image of black people. I think (Artwell) was trying to make a point but on the wrong basis and I think it shows a lack of sensitivity to people who don’t like that image.
In April 2018, a man in Prestatyn was fined £250 plus £85 costs for displaying a golliwog in a window opposite two Indian restaurants. In April 2023, Essex Police removed several golliwog dolls displayed in the White Hart Inn in Grays in Essex in response to an alleged hate crime. The pub's owner, Benice Ryley, said, "They're my childhood history, it’s a part of our inheritance. I can't see any harm.
On 1 December 2016, Australian Aboriginal activist, author and filmmaker Stephen Hagan caused a national controversy when he labelled Toowoomba the "most racist city in Australia" after a display of nine golliwog dolls were placed by Terry White Chemists underneath a sign inviting shoppers to "Experience a White Christmas".
