<I>Monique fixes her doll’s hair on her babysitter’s doorstep</I>
date: label: Date
content: September 21, 1979
name: label: Photograph by
content: Milton Williams, American, born 1940
label: Subject of
content: Unidentified Child or Children
notes: label: Caption
content: Monique fixes her doll’s hair on her babysitter’s doorstep. I never did find out what her last name was. She was only there for that day, and the babysitter never could tell me the little girl’s surname. I had just finished covering Terrence Johnson going to prison in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. On my way home I saw this child playing with a black doll. That caught my immediate attention because I had just finished reading Simple Injustice, in which Dr. and Mrs. Kenneth B. Clark’s research with black and white children revealed that children of both races prefer white dolls over black ones. So I was naturally glad to see this little girl with her black doll. This is one of my all-time favorite photographs. It won first place in the Beijing, China/Washington, D.C. sister city photography exhibition in Beijing in 1985. I am hoping that the young lady pictured here will see her photograph in this book and then try to contact me. I have this picture framed and waiting for her. September 21, 1979.
label: Caption
content: Milton Williams, Moments in Time, 1973-1993 (Nashville: James C. Winston Publishing Co., 1996), 156.
label: Description
content: A black-and-white photograph of a smiling young girl in a doorway. She is sitting with her legs stretched out in front of her, as she combs a doll’s hair. The photograph is stamped and inscribed on the back.
place: label: Place depicted
content: Washington, District of Columbia, United States, North and Central America
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: Children
label: Topic
content: Local and regional
label: Topic
content: Photography
label: Topic
content: Play
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
label: Classification
content: Photographs and Still Images
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Milton Williams Archives
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2011.15.105
objectType: label: Type
content: gelatin silver prints
label: Type
content: portraits
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: © Milton Williams
label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: silver and photographic gelatin on photographic paper
label: Dimensions
content: H x W (Image and Sheet): 11 x 13 7/8 in. (27.9 x 35.2 cm)