Leo Moss Baby Boy

Name: Leo Moss Baby Boy

Made by and When: Leo Moss, circa early 1900s

Material: Head, flange neck, arms, and legs of papier-mâché; stuffed cloth body, glass eyes

Marks: A handwritten adhesive label attached to the back of the brown cloth body reads, “Leon B. Moss* / 1900s.”

*“Leo Moss,” spelled as “Leon B. Moss,” is from the 1975 article, “The Legend of the Crying Dolls,” by Thelma C. Flack.

Height:  21 inches

Hair, Eyes, Mouth: Black sculpted Afro-textured hair with a side part, inset brown glass stationary eyes, closed mouth with full lips, and chubby cheeks

Clothes: This baby boy doll wears a genuinely old redwork embroidery** bib with the initials, “B.M.” embroidered at the top left and right corners. The bib is worn over an antique white batiste full-length dress, and over that an antique batiste and lace pinafore with straps, along with three petticoats: one batiste and lace, one lace-edged ecru cotton, and one white cotton. Knitted cotton underpants, antique German two-toned shoes from the early 1900s, and pale green silk stockings complete the costume.

**“Redwork is a form of American embroidery, also called art needlework, that developed in the 19th century and was particularly popular between 1855 and 1925” (Wikipedia).

Other: Leo Moss, a Black man and native of Macon, GA, was a handyman by trade. Moss sculpted his dolls using a papier-mâché technique during the late 1800s through the early 1930s.  Like the doll in this installation, many original Leo Moss dolls are unmarked while others might bear a cloth label on the body with Moss’s initials (L.M.), the doll’s name, and the year made, or any combination of these marks.

The current owner purchased this fine example of an original Leo Moss doll from a sales room dealer at the 75^th Annual UFDC Convention in Kansas City, MO. A very similar (if not the same) one-of-a-kind, hand-sculpted doll by Leo Moss, circa 1900, is featured on page 33 of Black Dolls Book II an Identification and Value Guide by Myla Perkins (Collectors Books, 1995).

Gallery (Photos and description are courtesy of Sharilyn Whitaker.)

Reference:
Wikipedia Contributors. “Redwork.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 June 2025.

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