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This doll contains harmful and stereotypical imagery.
Historic New England acknowledges historical records / objects may contain harmful imagery and language reflecting attitudes and biases of their creators and time in which they were made. Historic New England does not alter or edit objects and / or historical text.
Pen wiper in the shape of a highly caricatured depiction of a person with dark skin. Body of doll made from black-colored cloth with exaggerated features embroidered in white thread. Wears a printed cotton blouse, skirt of a different print, a white cotton apron with decorative buttons (most no longer extant) Red cloth bandana tied on her head. Where lower body of doll would be the maker created a flannel surface for cleaning ink from writing implements.
dolls
cotton (textile)
Doll
In 1861, Godey's Lady Book provided instructions for how to make a "Miss Dinah Pen-Wiper," an object whose visual presentation relied on racist caricatures of Black women. The authors of this text assumed reader familiarity of "Miss Dinah," a name associated with nineteenth-century stereotypical images of Black female servants, enslaved and free, also known as "mammy" dolls. These black dolls were often intended for white children to use in playacting (or rehearsing) a master-servant relationship.
The "Miss Dinah Pen-Wiper" was a project for industrious young women: the magazine told the reader to "Take a black china baby" - referring to commercially manufactured black dolls - and to "dress it with three black cloth skirts." Additional instructions were to "apply a good coat of shoe blacking" to the doll's head and complete the doll's minstrel makeup with "thick red lips and white eyeballs." The doll's owner was to lift the outer skirts and use the undergarments to wipe the excess ink from their pens; they could also "stick a few dozen colored-headed pins" into the doll's shoulders.
Robin Bernstein discusses the deeply racist framing of these objects in her book chapter, "The Scripts of Black Dolls," from Racial Innocence.
"The 'Miss Dinah Pen-Wiper' conjoined service with implied violence: this doll had a job, which was to endure lifted skirts, the probing of a pen, and the spillage of excessive and potentially despoiling fluid-rape imagery reminiscent of that of the skirt-flipping topsy-turvy doll."
This pen-wiper from Hamilton House is attributed to the early twentieth century, although it may likely be earlier in origin. The head, upper body, and hands are made from black stockings, rather than doll parts. Elizabeth Tyson Vaughn (1871-1949) collected antique dolls and miniature objects; she originally installed these antique toys in the small garden cottage next to Hamilton House, which was called the doll house. She collected at least one other black doll (1949.802), which may have originally belonged to a Black child. By contrast, this pen-wiper was likely made with the sole purpose of creating a Black figure as an object to be used, to be rendered dirty. Historic New England is researching the papers of Elizabeth Tyson Vaughan to learn more about where she acquired these dolls and under what circumstances.
Unknown
United States of America
4 3/4 x 3 3/4 (HxW) (inches)
Bequest of Elizabeth R. Vaughan
1949.952
1900-1920 (Early 20th century)
Historic New England is committed to implementing reparative language description for existing collections and creating respectful and inclusive language description for new collections. If you encounter language in Historic England's Collections Access Portal that is harmful or offensive, or you find materials that would benefit from a content warning, please contact [email protected].
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