Shannon saw some Alresford dolls advertised for sale on the Australian Ebay website, so soon contacted this Alresford Memories site to enquire about her PLC dressed doll (now rechristened as Isobel Lucy Dunne, to show her pedigree).Īs with most manufacturers, Alresford Crafts wanted to be able to identify the manufacturing date and methods used on each doll sent out of the factory, in case they were ever returned with a fault or other problem. Wilma offered the doll to the Ladies’ College, and it was gratefully accepted by the College Archivist and Historian, Shannon Lovelady, who set about the quest of trying to identify more of the doll’s history and origins. On returning home to look at the doll more closely, Wilma realised it had been carefully re-dressed in the green and black tartan kilt, the similar tie, and the green stockings of the PLC uniform: presumably the uniform remembered by the original owner of the doll, 30 years before, and maybe worn by her, years before that! Sitting in the PLC library she suddenly realised that the girls filing back and forth in their school uniforms were dressed in exactly the same way as one of her three china dolls – these dolls had been bought from the estate of a deceased lady of Maylands, in Perth, maybe 30 years before. Isobel Lucy Dunne, now in her PLC kilt and uniform Making the link! It was because of this career and knowledge that she visited the Presbyterian Ladies’ College (PLC) in Peppermint Grove, a suburb of Perth, to talk to two Year 6 students there, Isobel and Lucy, about the challenges of working in a Third World country. On her retirement to Perth in Western Australia, Wilma was presented with the OAM, the Australian Medal of Honour, for her services to the people of the Philippines. Wilma, now retired, had spent her working life helping a plastic surgeon work with children born with cleft lips and palates in the Philippines. Thirty five years later, in a story reminiscent of the TV “Heir Hunters” programme, the latest owner of the doll was Wilma Dunne. Once completed in the Town Mill in Alresford she was shipped off to by sea-freight on a cheap passage to Australia, and presumably sold through one of various shop or exhibition outlets over there. This doll wears a home-made dress.Cynthia is one of the Alresford Dolls, and she was made by Alresford Crafts in 1980. The Frozen Charlotte doll pictured below is at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. This helped them learn an important skill that they would need as adults. The dolls were sold naked, and children – especially girls – were taught to sew clothes for their dolls. More than a toy?Ī tiny Frozen Charlotte doll like this one cost about one penny during the 1870s and 1880s. Chinese American children in the Market Street Chinatown attended public schools with children from around the world, and people from all ethnic backgrounds visited the Chinatown to shop, conduct business, and eat at Chinese restaurants. Cross-cultural connections like this would not have been unusual in the Market Street Chinatown.ĭuring the 1800s, San Jose was home to people who emigrated from many countries. Historian Connie Young Yu believes that a local German or English immigrant may have given this doll to a Chinese child as a present, perhaps for Chinese New Year. His Charlotte was a stiffen’d corpse, And word spake never more! Cross-cultural childhoods When they finally arrive at the dance, Charlotte’s boyfriend found that her hand “‘twas cold and hard as stone”: She refuses to wear her coat because she wants everyone to see her pretty dress. In the poem, a girl named Charlotte is invited to a New Year’s Eve dance with her boyfriend. Manufacturers called these dolls “Frozen Charlottes,” after a popular 1843 American poem written by Seba Smith. Its hand, feet, and head could not move like many other dolls. We can imagine that children in a merchant’s family may have played with the doll, and threw it away after it broke. This one was discovered in a trash pit near stores and businesses.
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