Corncob Doll
date: label: Collection Date
content: 1965
name: label: Donor Name
content: Dr. William C. Sturtevant
notes: label: Notes
content: (For E437581 and E437582): With these baskets was a printed slip with a picture of an Indian woman and information that this(?) doll was made by Mrs. Lizzie Spade, as well as a copy of a 1965 accession proposal for a set of dolls (now acc. 263492). Information on the form in the hand of Sturtevant reads: "May 1965, Sturtevant visited the Carnegie Cross-Cultural Education Project in Tahlequah, Okla. (a group of anthropologists working among the Cherokee). Dr. Willard Walker, linguist of the project, showed him some dolls of this type, for which he was assisting the Cherokee makers to find marketing outlets. Sturtevant placed an order with him. A subsequent letter to Sturtevant from Rev. Watt Spade referred to these dolls as “corncob dolls,” stated that his wife was making them, and that “these dolls are in sets of a mother and her papoose [sic] and a teen age girl. These sets cost $5.00.” One set arrived by mail on July 12, accompanied by a card containing a statement in Sequoya syllabary with the following interlineal English translation: “ Corncob dolls were a familiar sight long ago in the golden age of the autonomous Cherokee Nation, in what is now Eastern Oklahoma. The art of making these dolls has recently been revived by Cherokee ladies interested in preserving the ancient crafts of their people by recreating the dolls that the old people made for them long ago. This particular doll was made by Mrs. Watt Spade, Welling, Oklahoma.”
label: Record Last Modified
content: 19 Jan 2024
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Tahlequah, Cherokee County, Oklahoma, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Cherokee
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 2049174
label: USNM Number
content: E437581-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Doll