Doll

Datec. 1950

DimensionsOverall: 22 1/2 × 11 × 6 1/2 in. (57.2 × 27.9 × 16.5 cm)

Object numberT0308

Credit LineGift of Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw

Photograph by John Bigelow Taylor, NYC

Label TextYoung Seminole girls often sat with their mothers at the sewing machine and watched the creation of intricate patterns and designs. A doll’s outfit taking shape before a girl’s eyes was a time of delight and learning. Dolls provided the perfect models for girls’ earliest attempts at making clothes. This doll, made of palmetto bark, represents a man wearing a traditional Seminole big shirt. Such shirts were sewn in a brilliant mosaic of brightly colored cottons which were further embellished with patchwork squares and lines of rickrack.
Exhibition History"As They Saw It: Women Artists Then & Now," Springfield Museums, Michele and Donald D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, MA, October 14, 2023 - January 14, 2024; Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY, April 1, 2024 - September 2, 2024.
ProvenancePrivate collection, New York; Sotheby's, New York City
BibliographySotheby's. Sale 6610, October 21, 1994, lot 122.

Vincent, Gilbert et al. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2000, p.38.

Fognell, Eva and Alexander Brier Marr, eds. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection at the Fenimore Art Museum, 2nd ed. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2016, p. 21.

On View

On view