Description: Two sets of Deerfield paper dolls with one accompanying set of character booklets. This paper doll set was created by Matilda Strang Hyde (1866-1943) of Olde Deerfield Doll House. According to the Turns of the Century Website of the PVMA, "The 1704 Deerfield Raid carried out by French and Indians has fascinated generations of New Englanders. By 1919, a combination of early 20th-century romanticism and increased tourism had muted the raw terror of this event. These "Olde Deerfield" paper dolls transformed the traumatic experience of captives like seven-year-old Eunice Williams and her brother Stephen into a child's woodland adventure. The imaginative depictions of Native American clothing are not accurate portrayals of Eastern Abenaki dress but reveal instead a strong Plains Indian influence. "The "Olde Deerfield Doll House" was, in the years after World War I, a tearoom in Deerfield, Massachusetts. Its owner, Matilda Hyde (1866-1943) published a series of small booklets in 1919, which told the stories of five of the children of Deerfield who were captured in the attack of February 1704. In addition, a sixth book reveals the story of Arosen, the Mohawk whom Eunice Williams eventually married. The five Deerfield children were Eunice Williams, Stephen Williams, Thankful Stebbins, Abigail Nims, and Remembrance Sheldon."
Tags: Native American Link to share this object record: https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2002.45 |