Izannah Walker: an icon in the history of doll making in America #AmericanDoll #6

This doll, made by Izannah Walker of Rhode Island, is shown from the front with a full body view. Her head and arms appear to be made of papier mache, while her cloth body is dressed in a white cotton dress. The dress has short sleeves, a gathered waist, and a full skirt. Little black boots are painted on her feet. Her face is painted with close cropped hair that has tiny ringlets painted around the face. — Doll is housed in the DAR Museum in Washington DC. Please see the article
on ChellyWood.com for links.

The doll you see above was created by a woman who is considered something of an icon in American doll history. The person I’m talking about is Izannah Walker, an early American manufacturer of dolls and an artist in her own right.

Today’s blog post is part of a history challenge that has been running throughout the month of August. You’re supposed to look at pictures of a series of old dolls and guess what year each doll was made.

If you’re not familiar with my history challenge, please click here to read about the challenge and download the free PDF to join us.

In this well lighted close-up image of the Izannah Walker doll's face, the lips have been painstakingly painted very small with crimson oil paint. The eyes have tiny lashes and delicate eyebrows. The cheeks are rosy with a natural blush. A small amount of paint is fading from the forehead of the doll, but its overall features are very realistic, with a three dimensional nose that looks like a real child's nose. The neckline of the dress looks gathered or elasticized. — Doll is housed in the DAR Museum in Washington DC. Please see the article
on ChellyWood.com for links.

When I first read about Izannah Walker, I was taken aback by first the beauty of her dolls, and secondly, her story. As you may recall, the dolls I’m discussing in my American doll history segments are all housed in the DAR Museum in Washington DC, and according to the museum’s online information, “Izannah Walker (1817-1886) may be considered along with the more famous Ludwig Greiner as one of the first American manufacturers of mass-produced dolls (although never on a massive scale)”(1). That got me wondering about Ludwig Greiner.

So of course, I looked him up too. It was hard to find reliable online sources about this man, but according to the United Federation of Doll Clubs’ website, “Ludwig Greiner emigrated from Germany and settled in Philadelphia, PA in the 1830’s. He manufactured paper mache doll heads and took out one of the earliest doll patents in the US” (2). And, it seems, Izannah Walker has a similar history.

But as we know, women have always struggled to compete in business, and women during the Industrial Revolution seem to have been no exception. According to Wikipedia, she “probably employed several people to make dolls, including her partner Emeline Whipple, and possibly her aunt and sister” (3). She did apply for, and eventually receive a patent for her unique design.

From the side, we see the ringlets that surround the doll's painted hair, and each ringlet is elegantly painted with the strands of hair in great detail, swirling to form the rings. — Doll is housed in the DAR Museum in Washington DC. Please see the article
on ChellyWood.com for links.

The DAR Museum website’s page, where today’s beautiful Izannah Walker doll is displayed online, tells us that “Walker’s patented method evolved over time. She explained in her patent application that she wanted to make dolls which were ‘inexpensive, could easily be kept clean, and was not apt to injure a young child.’ They were made by pressing layers of cotton along with glue into molds to make the head and limbs, and painting them with oil paint.” And just look at the quality of the paint!

The detailed fingers of the doll are impressive as well. When making a doll, fingers aren’t easy to make!

This is a close-up detail of the Izannah Walker doll's papier mache forearm , hand, and fingers. the hand is surprisingly realistic, with a thumb and four distinct fingers. — Doll is housed in the DAR Museum in Washington DC. Please see the article
on ChellyWood.com for links.

The date of today’s Izannah Walker doll’s manufacture, according to the DAR Museum, is 1855 to 1860. To learn more about this particular Izannah Walker doll, I recommend visiting the DAR Museum online or in person. Their website has more images of this doll and even more facts associated with it.

The address of the museum is 1776 D Street NW Washington, DC 20006, so if you plan to visit our nation’s capital, you might think about going to see the DAR Museum in person.

I’m a member of the DAR, which is why this museum is near and dear to my heart! The letters, DAR, stand for Daughters of the American Revolution.

A silhouette of a Revolutionary War soldier wearing a tricorne hat and a flintlock rifle. — Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

What does this mean? It means I have an ancestor who fought in the American Revolutionary War. I’m very proud of the fact that my ancestor served in the Revolution for American Independence from Great Britain, and as such, helped establish the United States of America as an independent nation.

The DAR is a club that offers its members an opportunity to serve our nation by doing organized volunteer work. In particular, this year I have been sewing drawstring bags for a public school to use as storage in one of the teachers’ classrooms. Last year I made doll clothes to give as Christmas presents to a.) the families of United States military service members and b.) a homeless shelter in Twin Falls, Idaho.

On an old wooden surface (perhaps a wooden table) rests a pair of rusty old sewing scissors, a wooden spool containing threads in two different shades of pink, and a more modern-looking cardboard spool of pink rick rack trim. The rick rack trim is quite narrow, perhaps 1/8 of an inch or 3 millimeters wide. The pale pink rick rack trim is a sort of braided trim that zig zags, due to the way it has been made. — Please visit ChellyWood.com for free printable PDF sewing patterns and tutorial videos for making doll clothes to fit dolls of many shapes and all different sizes.

Although the doll clothes I made for these purposes were featured in some of my articles here on ChellyWood.com, the volunteer work I do for the DAR is separate from the work I do to maintain this website. They are not affiliated with one another in any way. ChellyWood LLC is recognized by the state of Idaho as a for-profit business, whereas the DAR is a nonprofit organization.

Some members of the DAR serve as volunteers at local voting locations, soup kitchens, food banks and so much more. If you’d like to contact your local DAR to request volunteers to act in service capacities in your neighborhood, or if you’d like to learn whether or not you could qualify to join the DAR (you must do genealogy research to find out whether or not you are a descendent of a person who served in the American Revolutionary War), feel free to contact members of the Daughters of the American Revolution on their website, by using one of the links I’ve provided here.

REFERENCES:

Please note: images were used, with permission, and they come from the DAR Museum website. Click on the link provided to visit the DAR Museum website for yourself, to see a higher-resolution image and to learn more details about each of the dolls featured.

Artist unknown. “Doll.” [Medium: cloth]. 1855-1860. DAR Museum, Washington DC. Image used with permission. Information accessed 23 Aug. 2024.
Herrod, Maureen. “Ludwig Greiner and His Paper Mache Dolls.” United Federation of Doll Clubs Inc, 25 January 2024. Web. Accessed 23 Aug. 2024.
Wikipedia contributors. “Izannah Walker.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 4 Apr. 2024. Web. 24 Aug. 2024.