Black "Scootles" composition doll
date: label: Date
content: ca. 1947
name: label: Manufactured by
content: Cameo Doll Company, American, founded 1922
label: Designed by
content: Rose O'Neill, American, 1874 - 1944
notes: label: Caption
content: This doll is one of several Black dolls given to the donor, a White woman, as a child. TThe dolls were purchased in either Texas, where she spent summers at her grandmother’s, or in Illinois, where the donor lived the rest of the year.
label: Caption
content: The donor named her dolls "Mamie," "Maggie," and "Mariah" after African American women who worked for her grandmother in Texas. She remembers very little about the individual women or their families. Her grandmother needed assistance due to diabetes and hired the women to help around the house. The donor recalls her grandmother keeping separate plates and silverware for the African American women to use but did not object when the donor’s mother would invite them to eat at the family table.
label: Description
content: 2023.11.1a: A Black Scootles composition doll designed by Rose O’Neill for Cameo Doll Company. The baby doll has a swivel head and is articulated at the shoulders and hips. It has splayed hands, cheek dimples, a chin dimple, and molded forelock curls and wavy hair with tufts on either side of the head that has been painted a dark brown. The doll’s painted facial features include rosy cheeks; a thin, smiling, closed mouth; side glancing eyes, accented with thick painted eyelashes. The doll is wearing a red and white gingham onesie designed to resemble a skirtall. The skirtall-style onesie has a bib over the chest with wide shoulder straps and an empire-style skirt. The straps are embellished with white scalloped ruffles accented with a red embroidered hem that doubles as a swirl pattern along the edges. The gingham skirt is gathered into pleats at the waistband and there is a red hem line near the bottom. The skirt reaches the top of the baby doll's thighs. Underneath the skirt is the rest of the gingham onesie. The onesie is secured at the back with a safety pin at the top of the waistband. The doll is also wearing white knit socks and white Mary Jane style shoes. The shoes constructed from a coated fabric designed to resemble leather with white ribbon ties at the top.
label: Description
content: 2023.11.1b: A shoe sole from a Scootles composition doll designed by Rose O’Neill for Cameo Doll Company. The sole is from the proper right foot of the doll. It is gray cardboard, roughly foot shaped, but otherwise plain on both sides.
place: label: Place used
content: United States, North and Central America
label: Place made
content: Port Allegheny, McKean County, Pennsylvania, United States, North and Central America
label: Place used
content: Texas, United States, North and Central America
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: Amusements
label: Topic
content: Children
label: Topic
content: Domestic life
label: Topic
content: Families
label: Topic
content: Race relations
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
label: Classification
content: Toys and Games
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Linda M. Sheffield
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2023.11.1ab
objectType: label: Type
content: baby dolls
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Unknown - Restrictions Possible
label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Rights assessment and proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: paint on glue and wood pulp with paper, plastic, cloth, cardboard and metal
label: Dimensions
content: H x W x D (2023.11.1a): 12 1/2 × 6 11/16 × 3 13/16 in. (31.7 × 17 × 9.7 cm)
label: Dimensions
content: H x W x D (2023.11.1b): 1/16 × 1 3/16 × 2 3/16 in. (0.2 × 3 × 5.6 cm)