Description:
Doll with a parian head and dressed as a bride with a copy of the wedding dress of Harriet Lane Johnson. Harriet Rebecca Lane Johnston 1830-1903) was the niece of lifelong bachelor James Buchanan (1791-1868), the 15th President of the United States from 1857–1861 and acted as First Lady of the United States from 1857 to 1861. She was one of the few women to hold the position of First Lady while not being married to the President. In 1866, she married Henry Elliott Johnston (d.1884), a Baltimore banker This is one of five dolls collected by the donors' mother, Mrs. George B. Chandler of Columbus, Ohio. According to the donors: Our mother dressed practically all her dolls unless, of course, they had their original clothes, which is rare and makes the doll more valuable. She was as you see a superb needlewoman and she used only old materials and made authentic copies from Godey's Ladies Book of Fashion prints or paintings of the correct period. She also named all her dolls for someone connected with their history if she could fined it... All the dates are approximate, the best doll experts are seldon sure... The children of the early settlers had only dolls whittled by fathers or cleverly modelled and sewn by mothers. When fine heads began to come inot this country, the bodies were generally made in the home, kid being a favorite material as it was soft, held the bran stuffing well, and there were always plenty of mother's old white kid gloves."
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+68.189 |
