1960s to 1970s 29- to 32-inch Redressed Companion Dolls

All dolls in this installation are made of rigid vinyl and have the usual five points of articulation at the head, upper arms, and upper legs. As the title indicates, all dolls are redressed. These companion dolls were designed to walk with the child’s guidance. This installation serves to document the dolls’ existence.

Name: Coloured* Nurse Walking Doll

Made by and When: Reliable Toys, 1961

Marks: (Head) RELIABLE TOY / MADE IN CANADA. (Upper Back) Reliable

Height:  30 inches

Hair, Eyes, Mouth: Short black curly rooted hair, brown sleep eyes with attached upper eyelashes, painted lower eyelashes, closed mouth with coral lip color, has faint gray-white cheek color

Other: This soft-vinyl-faced doll is documented as “Coloured Nurse Walking Doll” in The Charlton Price Guide to Canadian Dolls First Edition by Evelyn Strahlendorf. It is documented as “Coloured Nurse Walker” in an online photo from a 1960s doll catalog. As indicated in the catalog image and description below, the doll was sold with an 8-inch brown-skinned baby doll.

*The use of “coloured” (a variation of the U.S. spelling, colored) was widely used during the 1960s by non-Black people to label people of African descent and representative objects such as black dolls. That descriptive term is not acceptable in the U.S. when describing people; however, it is still used in other color-conscious countries. The use of the word, kinky, to describe tightly coiled hair was used in the 1960s catalog description of this doll’s hair. This term is considered unacceptable by some people of African descent to describe natural textured hair while some have reclaimed it.

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Name: Super Saucy Walker-Type

Made by and When: EEGEE, 1961

Marks: (Head) EEGEE / ©1961

Height: 29 inches

Hair, Eyes, Mouth: Rewigged as shown; originally had short curly black rooted hair; has brown sleep eyes with eyelashes attached to the lids and painted lower eyelashes, closed slightly downturned mouth with red lip color

Other: Fashioned after Ideal Toys’ Super Saucy Walker, this doll has a chubby body and is nicely redressed in an infant-size 6-9 months dress.

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Name: Walking Annette

Made by and When: EEGEE, 1970s

Marks:  ©EEGEE CO. / 31E / 4

Height: 32 inches

Hair, Eyes, Mouth: Black-rooted shag hairstyle, brown sleep eyes with attached upper eyelashes, closed mouth with pale lip color, rosy cheeks

Other: Several versions of Walking Annette were made by E. Goldberger/EEGEE during the 1970s. An Afro version dressed in a granny-style dress is illustrated above in a scan from the curator’s first black-doll reference book, The Definitive Guide to Collecting Black Dolls (Hobby House Press, 2003). Walking Annette has a thin body.

Slideshow

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