Doll
date: label: Accession Date
content: 9 May 1990
label: Collection Date
content: 1935 to 1939
name: label: Collector
content: Dr. Betty J. Meggers
label: Donor Name
content: Dr. Betty J. Meggers
notes: label: Notes
content: Female figure, body of stuffed cloth, real hair(?) in 2 braids, leather headband with feather cotton dress, woven blanket wrapped around body, legs and feet of carved wood, leather moccasins painted; long beaded necklace; baby's head protruding from blanket. Insect damage to feather. Original tag on bottom of left foot; 'Skookum Indian.' [W. Sturtevant says this is not necessarily meaningful as a cultural ID]. Purchased by donor in late 1930s. Donor ID: "Reservation Type."
label: Notes
content: Oval label glued on bottom of left foot with text: "Trade Mark Registered; Patented; Skookum (Bully Good) Indian." A "Skookum doll" was a Native American themed doll, sold as a souvenir item in the 20th century; they were not made by Native Americans. They were designed and created by Mary Dwyer McAboy (1876-1961), who was from Missoula, Montana, and learned to carve apple head dolls as a child from her mother. She filed two applications for patents for a doll or toy figure on November 29, 1913. The patents were granted on February 17, 1914. The dolls became so popular that Mary McAboy partnered with H.H. Tammen & Co. of Denver, Colorado in 1920 to keep up with the demand. She stayed on and was the head of the Skookum Assembly Division. McAboy supervised production of the dolls until she retired in 1952. Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skookum_doll , http://www.skookumdolls.com/skookum-dolls-history.html , https://curator135.com/2021/08/17/a-brief-history-of-skookum-dolls/ , accessed 25 January, 2023.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 27 Jan 2023
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Not Given, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: American
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 374095
label: USNM Number
content: E424966-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Doll
physicalDescription: label: Length
content: 29 cm