Lee Middleton dolls are beloved by doll collectors across the globe, featuring a unique attention to detail. This Ohio-based doll company took off in the late seventies through the eighties. Let's delve into the history and significance of these dolls, with a special focus on the African American dolls and the stories of those who cherish them.
Born in Springfield, Ohio, Lee Middleton always appreciated arts and crafts, but her art education was limited growing up. Although she managed to take some mechanical drawing classes and a few art courses out of state, she was mostly self-taught. Making extra money creating greeting cards, Middleton was inspired to create baby dolls in 1978. She wanted dolls that resembled her own children, and since they weren’t available, she decided to sculpt them herself.
Her friends and family members were so impressed with her work that they asked her to create dolls resembling their own children. Deeply devoted to her Christian faith, Middleton and her husband formed a doll company, Kingdom Doll Originals. Together, they traveled to doll shows and sold such a large inventory that doll shops and gift shops asked to sell her products. By 1980, she was no longer making dolls at her kitchen table and opened up a manufacturing facility.
By 1984, the company’s name changed to the Middleton Doll Company, and it started producing vinyl dolls instead of porcelain dolls. Porcelain was simply too expensive and time-consuming to make, and the company wanted to produce more affordable dolls. With the exception of the “Breath of Life Babies,” most of the dolls were made using hard vinyl. Deeply devoted to her Christian faith, Lee Middleton included a small Bible with each doll.
With an absence of unattractive wrinkles and skin creases typical of most baby dolls, Middleton baby dolls are considered to be quite beautiful. Appearing quite realistic, these dolls have been mistaken as real babies from time to time.
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Tragically, in 1997, Lee Middleton was fatally struck with a heart attack while working in her doll studio. Naturally, her coworkers were devastated, but they were able to find artists to replicate her vision. Canadian doll artist Reva Schick continued to propel this doll company to new heights.
Little Love “My Own Baby” was sculpted by Lee Middleton, a self-taught doll artist, who began making realistic porcelain dolls at her kitchen table in 1979.
What Are The Most Popular Lee Middleton Dolls To Collect? - Collectible Dolls and Toys
If you are looking for a truly huggable collector’s item, you would fall in love with our Middleton Dolls at Samantha’s Collectible Dolls & Bears. Our selection includes Adoption Babies, Cuddle Babies, the Artist Studio collection, the Now Collection, Nursery Babies, and Playbabies. Now is the perfect time to buy one of these unique dolls because quite a few of them are on sale. Whether you are looking for collectible dolls for sale, collectible bears, or figurines, we feature an impressive selection at Samantha’s Collectible Dolls & Bears.
The Story of Aunt Sarah and Her Cherished Collection
For a long time, Sarah Robinson hid her dolls, kept them a secret from most folks who knew her. She was worried that they would think it strange for a grown woman to be enamored with a toy that beckoned to childhood, not womanhood. So she bought her African American dolls in private, eventually amassing a collection of more than 100 of them. She never thought of them as a collection; they were all her babies and she named each one of them.
As a child, she’d had a doll only once, as she recalled, and it was destroyed in a rain shower. Today, her dolls are no longer hidden in a back room. Walk through her front door and you’ll see dolls sitting atop her piano and on the stool, dolls standing in front of the piano, dolls on her sofa, dolls on her chairs. In the back bedroom, an avalanche of dolls fills a bed from head to foot in tight neat rows - all the children that she and her husband never had.
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Practically all of Aunt Sarah’s dolls are African American - some were made by now-defunct black-owned companies - but she has foreign black dolls and a white doll that her nephew brought back from Germany. She shouldn’t have been queasy about her collecting those long years ago. “It was very difficult to find black dolls and that’s what I wanted, black dolls,” she said. “… I’d seen black dolls that looked like pickaninnies. And I didn’t want that kind of doll.
Over the years, she bought her dolls on the Home Shopping Network, from mall shops, catalogs and through seasonal doll sales. Aunt Sarah is in her 90s, and she says she’s bought her last doll. When I was grown and married, a little girl came to my home and left her doll and I kept her doll for years until she was grown and married and had a baby. I called her about picking up the doll again and again, and one day she told me you may have the doll, and that was a joy for me. When I married I wanted six babies. I never had children. That doll filled a spot in my heart for the longing to have a baby.
My mother had twin sisters Linnie and Minnie, and that was the loveliest thing to know that I had twin aunts. And for some reason I just began to like twins. And through my life, every time I’d see twins I always wanted to know their names and things about them. … I just love talking to twins. This doll is a precious doll. I liked the way she was dressed and I liked the way she looked normal, beautiful black face doll who has a personality. … She poses so beautifully well. You can shape her any way you want to and she is dressed like we like to dress our dolls. And of course she is a musician. She plays the violin. I had to take the violin out of her hand because all the children would come and they wanted to play with the violin.
We were traveling and I saw this big sign on a building that said “Dolls.” And I said, “Stop. Stop. Turn Around! Let’s go see the dolls.” And my husband carried us in there and we saw all of these dolls and I picked out this one big boy doll. And when I saw the price I knew my husband wasn’t going for that. The doll was near $300. And I looked at all the dolls and wished I could have had this little boy, and I could not. We had our niece with us, she was 6 years old, Tiffany. And I left my husband in the store with Tiffany and I had given up on purchasing the doll and after a while Tiffany came out jumping up, shouting, “Aunt Sarah, Aunt Sarah, he’s buying it.” I say, What? “He’s getting the boy doll.” And you know my heart jumped for joy. This is the result of that trip. This is my doll.
If you know someone who collects African American dolls, please let me know. I’d love to write about them and their collection.
Read also: The Enduring Appeal of Vintage African Dolls
Here is a summary of key aspects of Lee Middleton Dolls:
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Origin | Founded by Lee Middleton in the late 1970s. |
| Materials | Initially porcelain, later transitioned to vinyl. |
| Unique Aspects | Numbered and signed vinyl dolls, included a mini Bible. |
| Doll Artists | After Lee Middleton’s death, other artists like Reva Schick continued her vision. |
| Collections | Adoption Babies, Cuddle Babies, Artist Studio, Now Collection, Nursery Babies, Playbabies. |
