HistoryTalk

Dolls with a Past: Two Strands

The dolls and books arrived. Very interesting. It is clear there are two stories or papers here. One is the business of the dolls and the company that made them, and the other is the doll history--both the history written for the dolls and the history included with the dolls. Nellie's Promise suggests that the "real" history appearing in the back of each book serves as background for the story's plot. In Nellie's case, the history concerns adoption in the nineteenth century, and the story turns on Nellie's adoption into Samantha's family. Although the story does take up the issue of social class, the author finesse's the issue with adoption. In Nellie's case, the solution to class differences is simply changing Nellie's class. She's adopted by Samantha's middle- upper-class family. Still, the author doesn't entirely duck the class issue; Nellie goes to a "practical" school that will outfit her for a teaching job. Samantha continues on at the school that will, presumably, not prepare her for the work world. In some ways, however, this gambit is a familiar one. The adoption strategy was a common one is nineteenth-century literature. If memory serves me correctly, Louisa May Alcott's Under the Lilacs has such an adoption. All in all, the American Girl dolls and their accessories seem to be an interesting combination of nineteenth-century and twentieth ideas both in terms of the company's product and company strategy.

It looks like I'll need to acquire the rest of the books to get Samantha's entire story. Well, can't be all bad. It sure beats a court house attic with one dim bulb. One final thought--I wonder if there are other companies that have made a business of history.

American Girls: Dolls with a History

American Girl Company, a division of Mattel, has made a success business of linking dolls with history. Their line-up encompasses a diverse group of dolls from the beginnings of American history (Kaya) to WWII (Kit), including Addie, an African-American doll, and Josefina, a Hispanic doll. Most recently, the company has added a new doll to its collection: Nellie, a servant living next door to Samantha, the wealthy doll from the turn of the century. Inherent in the pairing of Nellie and Samantha is the idea of social class. In the past, the American Girl Company has not been shy about confronting difficult historical issues. But can the company's historians elucidate social class for their audience of 7-10 year-olds? If they attempt it, what form does it take? Maybe the corporate chroniclers don't deal with social class at all but focus on an entirely different topic. There are a host of other, more business history-related questions. Why, for example, did a company making historical dolls succeed in the mid'80s? Why did certain consumers find the doll interesting? Why did the girls like the dolls?

The first order of business is to see if the project "has legs"; the second is to pick off the "low hanging fruit." (My time is limited to the semster.) A quick web search and my own book shelf reveals that there are no scholarly pieces on the American Girl company and their wares. There are the following promising sources:

"How We Got Started: Pleasant Rowland," Forbes
"Girls Just Want to Have Fun," Common-place
Gary Cross, Kids' Stuff: Toys and the Changing World of American Childhood
Miriam Formanek-Brunell, Made to Play House: Dolls and the Commercialization of American Girlhood, 1830-1930
Karin Calvert, Children in the House: The Material Culture of Early Childhood, 1600-1900

I think that this project has something going for it. So, I've ordered the dolls and the books, my initial primary sources, and started with the online databases. We'll see what develops.