Nashville’s history is front and center at Mama’s Attic Doll Museum, which recently opened in Omaha, Nebraska.
“The Doll Museum, a branch of Mama’s Attic Black History and Culture Museum, is an opportunity to teach Black America’s history in this county through the eyes of a doll,” said museum founder LaVon Stennis-Williams. It is reported that Mama’s Attic Doll Museum is the first of its kind in Nebraska and has the largest collection of privately owned antique and vintage Black dolls in the Midwest.
The Museum’s permanent exhibit features over 500 dolls expanding three centuries. Central to the exhibit is the history of the National Negro Doll Company, founded in 1911 by Nashville businessman R.H. Boyd, the ancestor of Nashville’s prominent Boyd family. Mr. Boyd founded the doll company to provide dolls for Black children other than the mammy and pickaninny-type dolls available to Black children during that time. Boyd, who was formerly enslaved, believed that the dolls should reflect the refined status that many former slaves had moved into socially and economically. It was his hope that his dolls would instill a sense of self-pride in the children who played with them.
Prior to starting the doll company in Nashville, Boyd imported darker-toned bisque dolls from Germany to be sold in the United States. Darkening the bisque or porcelain was a process German manufacturers pioneered but was enhanced by Boyd sending pictures of actual Black children to ensure a realistic likeness rather than a caricature of Black children. He worked with German doll manufacturers such as Simon and Halbig to produce the dolls he sold in America. The dolls, which were marketed through NAACP memberships and subscriptions, became so popular that Boyd eventually moved the operation to Nashville, where the dolls were then produced and sold under the moniker “Negro Dolls for Negro Children.” The doll company operated until 1915 when Boyd closed the doll company to focus more on his other businesses, which included a publishing company, bank, and newspaper.
“There is no serious discussion about Black doll collecting or the history of Black dolls that can take place without crediting R.H. Boyd. He not only opened the doors for future Black doll manufacturers, but he also was the first to connect a child’s positive self-image to their plaything, such as a doll,” said Stennis-Williams. “When opening the doll museum, there was never a question as to whether I would devote an entire space to Mr. Boyd and the type of dolls he introduced. Because his dolls were not marked, it’s difficult to confirm their identity. Plus, since they were made with bisque or porcelain, very few survived.” However, through research, the doll museum has identified two possible German manufacturers and has curated a display of nearly 25 of the type of dolls the Negro Doll Company would have sold.
In addition to the doll museum recognizing R.H. Boyd and the National Negro Doll Company, the museum’s collection of dolls covers three centuries, dating from dolls estimated to be made around the period of slavery through recently released dolls made by young Black doll makers. Chief among the exhibits is the Saralee doll, which was the first Black doll made in the likeness of Black children.
Said Stennis-Williams, “Opening the museum pays homage to Mr. Boyd and all the Black doll manufacturers he inspired, and there is no doubt that because of his efforts, today Black children have a diverse assortment of dolls from which to choose, and no major doll manufacturer would dare produce a White doll without a Black companion doll.”
The museum offers free admission by appointment only and has the capacity to host special events, including a traveling exhibit.
