Mammy
date: label: date made
content: circa 1930
notes: label: Description
content: This Mammy wind-up tin toy is part of Black Americana, a genre of objects reflecting African American history. Lindstrom Corporation created this toy in the United States during the 1930s. It features a black woman wearing a red dress, white apron, and a white cap with a red bow. Black Memorabilia like this personify negative stereotypes of African Americans by utilizing humor as a vehicle for racial oppression. The Mammy archetype characterizes nurturing, overweight black women as visibly happy in subservient positions and perpetuates myths about the benevolence of slavery. Mammies were also stock characters in minstrelsy shows during the nineteenth century and toymakers of the twentieth century co-opted this stereotype to increase revenue. This derogatory toy is inaccurate, but its existence speaks to American race relations and the prejudice African Americans encountered daily in their struggle for equality.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States
topic: label: Subject
content: Stereotypes
label: Subject
content: Racism
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Entertainment
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2018.0188.05
label: accession number
content: 2018.0188
label: catalog number
content: 2018.0188.05
objectType: label: Object Name
content: toy
label: Object Name
content: collectible
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 7 1/2 in x 3 1/2 in x 3 in; 19.05 cm x 8.89 cm x 7.62 cm