Evening star., 1942-11-01
Art
childhood in Early
America Is Theme
OfDAR Exhibition
By Florence Bergman.

exhibition at the D. A. r. Museum
the opening of which was mentioned
here on October 4, is most engaging
exhibition. AS is the case with all
exhibitions at this museum, the en-
phasis is historic; but this does not
overshadow the artistic aspects of
the show, to be found in craftsman
ship, needlework and decoration.
The keynote of the exhibition is
the portrait of Mary Lightfoot with
her doll. painted in 1760 by John
Wollaston and presented recently to
the Daughters of the American
Revolution by Herbert L. Pratt of
New York. 1t is small painting,
approximately 3 by 21a feet, in
remarkably good condition. Nearly
two centuries have given it golden
glow although a faint rose in the
child's gown is still discernible. Her
eyes have the inward slant charac-
teristic of all Wollaston's eyes,
which led people in his day to call
him the acknowledged artist" a
very accurate description. This
curious mannerism makes it easy
to identify his paintings, despite the
fact that he seldom signed them.
Mary was the daughter of William
Lightfoot, a kings councillor, and
lived at Sandy Point until she mar
ried cat 15) William Allen OF Clere-
mont. She was only 10 years of age
when Wollaston painted her, but
appears older because of her mature
dress. Children's attire was identl-
cal in style and material with that
of adults, until after the Revolution.
Small girls were encased in pack
thread stays and wooden busk
boards to encourage an erect pos
ture, as may be seen in Marys
portrait. Her doll is dressed in a
miniature edition of her own gown.
Wollaston is important in the his
tory of early American painting,
because he was the sole recorder OF
many prominent Virginia and
Maryland people just before the
Revolution. Our Revolutionary
painters, Copley, Peale, Trumbull
and others, were superior artists, but
their active periods were later than
Wollaston's; hence he fills niche
which would otherwise have been
empty. He was born in Great
Britain and came to the Colonies
about 1850, remaining here for two
decades. He spent few years in
New York, then went to the middle
and Southern Colonies, painting the
"Barons of the Potomac and the
Rappahannock," and the aristoc-
racy of Charleston, S. G. He painted
George Washington's step-children,
and worked so industriously for the
famous Randolph family painting
some members several tlmeS) that
Randolph portraits cCn5titute one
sixth of Wollaston's known output,
4 catalogue of which was published
IN The Antiquarian" for June,
1881, in an article by Bolton and
Binsse, in which the D. A. R. Mu-
seum's new accession was repro
duced.
Early American childhood is re-
f7ected in the contents of three rows
of glass cases extending the length
of the south gallery in Memorial
Continental Hall. The doll collec-
ton is outstanding, beginning with
Indian dolls Of clay and leather.
A Queen Anne wooded doll with
long. narrow glass eyes: dolls few
inches in height, Whitfield by early
American fathers. a corn cob doll,
q series of papier naChe dolls, first
made in Germany in 1910, and per-
fected and fashionable from 1880 to
1850; china dolls with painted and
glazed heads 1920 to 1840), shut
eye dolls, made as early as 1927, all
constitute evidence that little girls
had plenty of toys to mother"
during our stormy early periods.
Stiegel, the famous Pennsylvania
maker of beautiful glass, is said to
have made doll eyes. When Queen
Victoria assembled the throne brown
eyed dolls in England and America
went out of fashion and were sent to
Spain and other continental coun-
tries. The OAR exhibition has
examples of these brunette dolls as
we'll as the preferred blonds. Some
well-preserved wax dolls remind one
how fragile they we're, subject to
melting in heat. But one of these
on view survived two Johnstown
floods.
Dolls costumes reflect their
periods and important personages;
one for example is dressed as Jenny
Lind. One large, handsome doll
has an ironic history. She was won
at fair in Lexington, Mass, by a
boy in his teens, who must have
been careful, thrifty lad, for he
preserved her until he married and
had a daughter. to whom he pre-
sented the doll. German doll makers
had things pretty much their own
way until the late 10th century,
when France began to produce
bisque dolls much prettier and more
naturalistic, with wardrobes of chic
Paris styles.
There are many examples of ex-
duisite needlework in children's
clothing, beginning with the fine
linen shirts worn by American
babies from the time of James I to
the Civil War period, Beautifully
embroidered infants robes, bonnetS,
pinafores and dresses conjure up
visions of little folk of century ago
and earlier. Samples of the Revolu-
tionary period demonstrate the
painstaking work of little girls, One
B-year- -old must have been impressed
after ross-stitching the following:
when tides OF youthful blood
run high,
And scenes OF greatest JOY are
nigh,
Health presun,irg, beauty
blooming,
on, hoU dreadful tits to die"
Tea sets and mugs decorated with
names and proverbs, mechanical
banks to encourage childish thrift
{for these banks have animals and
other figures which move when a
coin is inserted). pewter porringers,
large silk-covered balls on which