Riché Richardson's Family History and Black Doll Collections

Here are the 5 posts from the first part of a summer series from my art quilt page related to the long history of collecting dolls among some of the women in my family, including many black dolls.

Part 1: #BlackDollsandFamilyHistory Several times, my grandmother Emma Lou Jenkins Richardson told me that when they were girls, which was during the twenties, she and her sister Janie Mae Jenkins Reese accidentally discovered the beautiful black dolls that their Aunt Vinnie Jenkins Russell had hidden in a trunk, which they received as Christmas gifts days later. Aunt Vinnie also gave them the tea set of her beloved daughter Amanda, who passed away during childhood in the late 19th century. As a woman in Montgomery, Alabama, she and my grandfather enjoyed buying toys to surprise my mom, uncle and aunt. She also bought lots of dolls for my mom and aunt, black dolls from the store of a Jewish man, she said, as pictured in this photo of my mom and uncle dressed up in cowboy outfits at Christmas. I’ve discussed and the discourse on preferences for white dolls and self hatred so pervasive in black communities, but have a personal story that’s been very different from that, certainly not one in which girls grew up preferring white dolls. My grandmother had a lifelong love for dolls, ensured that the over 125 dolls I had growing up were preserved, and she and my mom continued adding to it, even after I went to college and they became a distant memory. Dolls have also been collected and treasured by several members of our extended family, along with other interesting things. For example, my mom well remembers the beautiful and elegant porcelain doll collection of my grandfather’s Cousin Ludie Meadows on display, dolls dating back to the nineteenth century, a woman who faithfully went to the mass meetings like other relatives of her generation, and who attended the March on Washington in 1963. As a child, my mom took ballet and tap. On Saturday mornings, she would attend Girl Scout activities, and then get together with her cousins Jackie Boswell, Beverly Robinson and others to play with their Barbie dolls. My preteen years were very similar, with either choir rehearsal with the Tender Golden Voices at my Church, Maggie Street Baptist, or Girl Scout meetings. Afterwards, my friend Liletta Nunnery and I always looked forward to going to Godfather’s pizza for lunch for mini combos, or Chuck E. Cheese’s, to the mall with our moms, and would then play with our Barbie dolls. She, her other best friend and Barbie playmate Tiffany Kennedy, with whom the fellowship was very similar, and I have often talked about what blessed times these were. I LOVE the beautiful scene in Beloved when Sethe buys the fabric, lace trims and black doll for her daughters once they are reunited as a family. There is such deep meaning there.

Part 2: #BlackDollsandFamilyHistory When I lived in California, my grandmother Emma Lou Jenkins Richardson reminded me several times that she really wanted me to see the porcelain doll collection of her first cousin Lee Frank Jenkins’s wife Pauline at some point. Growing up, I well remembered fellowshipping with them at Aunt Vinnie’s birthday parties, which were always covered in the Montgomery Advertiser newspaper and on WSFA TV News once she turned 100. My grandmother mentioned how beautiful the collection was, that I just had to see it for myself, and that she wanted Keri and Megan to see it, too. She explained that after a stroke, and as her recovery continued, her cousin’s wife Pauline developed a strong interest in making porcelain dolls. But a local craft’s group in Montgomery with a white women’s membership wouldn’t open it up to her so she could gain the training and access the equipment. So she pulled a move akin to Eunice Johnson’s with European fashion designers and began to build a premium collection of them. I had built a collection of porcelain dolls myself over the years. But my grandmother could not have prepared me for the evening we stepped into the breathtaking wonderland at our relatives’ home. Their Victorian living room suite, which reminded me of ours, functioned as the main display gallery for most of the porcelain dolls. Some were large-scale and nearly as tall as Megan! It was all so gorgeous and inspiring to see, full of collector dolls purchased from the major shopping networks with most priced in the hundreds. Several others rooms also had other types of dolls on display, literally going around the wall ledges, from Barbie dolls to beanie babies. It was dazzling, and a lot to take in. One of the blessings of being part of this family’s Twindynasty from Charleston, SC that we have so far traced back to 1758 has been blessed moments and memories like the ones captured in these photos with this phenomenal collection in all its beauty and splendor.

A reflection on my beloved grandfather Joe Richardson is also part of this #BlackDollsandFamilyHistory series ,so is perfect to mention now as Part 3. In these 2 images, my aunt Pam is pictured with a beautiful black doll she received from my grandparents as a toddler, which was typical of ones they bought for her and my mom throughout their childhoods. As a child, Pam would write my grandfather when he was away on the road doing work as a contractor in construction, and he’d write back. She says that because he brought back such nice gifts, she even preferred him to do school shopping for her as he traveled to find clothes different from ones in stores at home. Around age 10 and in the months before she got on the path to being named May Day Queen at her school, she talks about asking my grandparents for the popular “Swingy” doll. She says that my grandfather patiently explained to her that he was concerned that it might be a bad influence. She says that he didn’t like the commercial for it, which she’d imitated, and saw it as an example of images in the media that too often either depicted black children dancing or encouraged that sort of thing. He said he could not purchase the doll with his money. Around that time, his jobs had taken him from Atlanta to work on projects for Herman Russell to Orlando to work at Disney World, where he’d bought Pam a plastic Snow White figurine as a keepsake. He told her that he wasn’t buying her the doll for all the reasons he mentioned. Aunt Mae and Uncle Richard gave her and their granddaughter the doll as gifts-the white version available in Montgomery. She’s in very good condition after 50 years, and we still have her, along with some of my aunt’s Barbies from back then. This story typifies my grandfather’s seriousness when it came to critical thinking about media images. He was also one of the earliest critical thinkers about the media from whom I learned. I have missed my grandfather every day that he has been gone and will ever cherish memories of him. Here’s a link to the commercial in question below: https://youtu.be/CIhVHVJT7Go

Part 4, #BlackDollsandFamilyHistory At age 12, I adored Michael Jackson like all of my friends. I won first-place prizes in citywide short story and essay competitions in Montgomery. I was busy collaborating with one of my classmates at St. John to draft the book of short stories we hoped to publish by age 15, as we read various literary classics. I was also gearing up to campaign and make speeches in a mock election in our 7th grade class for President of the United States. I had just graduated from my poise-charm class at Gayfers Department Store, and loved being a Jr. Gayfer Girl, which meant receiving store discounts and being recognized with this group at Gayfers’ annual Back-to-School Fashion Show, which highlighted the models on their teen board. My family had lost three of my grandmother’s siblings to cancer, and I had made countless daily hospital and home visits with my grandparents to see and support them from the time I was 9. My grandfather set up scaffolding and spent the summer months painting the living room and dining room, and by the holidays, my family was fully focused on preparations for my Aunt Pam’s wedding, whose colors were red and green in keeping with the season. My role was to be fitted at Gayfers for the tea-length green dress I had to wear as a one of 2 candle lighters in the ceremony, whose role it was to walk down the aisle bearing one of the long torches to help light all the white candles on the gold arch under which the vows would be exchanged. My dress was designed to match the beautiful red bridesmaid evening gowns, and to complement the green dresses of the matrons of honor. I was anxious to get my part just right, and excited to wear the kitten heel shoes, which had been dyed to match my dress. As Christmas got closer and closer, my other major worry was not seeing any boxes under our Christmas tree that looked like they could be Barbie dolls. Day after day, as the presents grew, I spotted not a one. My cousin and I were told not to touch or go near the tree to arrange anything, but daily, he’d see me slow down, look at it nervously from across the room, and crack up laughing at me and teasing me about “not having any Barbie dolls.” I just couldn’t believe it. But I turned the joke right back on him when he began to sweat it after he did something that irked them and was told by my uncle and aunt that another thing and he wouldn’t get the remote- controlled race car he wanted. The first formal photos for the wedding were taken at home in front of our Christmas tree, gorgeous images of my aunt with each of my grandparents. But my main interest in that tree had to do with what seemed not to be under it. My aunt’s wedding was an elegant formal affair and came off beautifully. The reception had been held in the church’s Fellowship Hall because she wanted no alcohol served at her wedding. Like many young women in the South, she had subscribed to Brides magazine for years and read it on a monthly basis, so every detail reflected her extensive knowledge. My grandparents followed up the wonderful reception, which had a gorgeous wedding cake, as well as a groom’s cake and delicious food buffet, coordinated by 25 hostesses weating beautiful red dresses to complement the bridesmaids, with a smaller family buffet dinner at home. The next day, the dining room was full of the wedding gifts, and the bride and groom arrived to open them in front of our family. As the pieces of the beautiful China pattern from Gayfers and other lovely gifts were opened and stacked up all around, my mind was still very much on my Barbie dolls. My grandmother was still kind of upset with me because I didn’t change my dress when she asked me to, and a cousin in our extended family in town for the wedding threw a pillow at me while I was holding a glass Coke, which spilled down the front of it the night before. Christmas was just over a week away, and it still looked like I had not a one doll. By that point, I resigned myself and tried my best to accept it. My cousin and I made a deal that I would tell my mom she should buy him the race car as his gift, and he’d ask his parents to buy me a Barbie doll as mine. That plan gave me a little hope. Day after day went by, and as the presents stacked up, still, not a one looked like it could be a Barbie box. Not even by Christmas Eve! The next morning, as the family opened gifts, I was determined to try my best to enjoy everything, despite my disappointment. After opening my first few gifts, including things like a Calligraphy pen set, it was a big shock and surprise to open a box, and within that box, to see a Barbie box! My mom had boxed and wrapped up all the Barbie dolls in shirt boxes. Just wow! It was one of the best surprises ever. My mom really threw me off that year. Pictured here are my Barbie doll collection and 2 doll houses from back then. I had a fashion doll trunk with lots Barbie clothes manufactured by Mattel, but the process of sewing, knitting and crocheting clothes for my dolls was ongoing for me, and a lot of time went into that process. I also sewed, knitted and crocheted all the bedding ensembles and furnishings to decorate my Barbie townhouse myself, which is pictured here. My friend Liletta had her own similar Barbie dollhouse paradise in her room at home. Always, before our play began, we’d show each other the latest items we’d made and inspect each other’s workmanship. Here are some photos of my mainly black Barbie doll family and world back then, who by then, were pretend “residents” in Beverly Hills, California.

Part 5 #BlackDollsandFamilyHistory Okay, here's the big one, with 47 photos featuring my full doll "collection," and the second to last post in this series. Growing up, and from my early childhood, I had a range of dolls of varying types with as many as 115 back then. Some were damaged and discarded along the way, like my first Baby Alive, whom I at 6 naively fed Play Doh after the food packets ran out. At every stage of development, I had lots of toys and games growing up, every conceivable thing to intellectually stimulate me, plus microscopes, 2 telescopes, 2 guitars, erector sets, keyboards, and still have a few of my toys, though my dolls were the main toys kept. A tall Walking Doll from my uncle and aunt, along with a Sunshine Family dollhouse, the Bionic Woman, Superstar Christie Fashion Face and Candi were other types of dolls I received as a child beyond baby dolls. At age 10, my activities were choirs such as the one at church and the Singing Samaritans at school, along with Girl Scouts. Playing school and pretending to be a teacher made me happiest, and I was beginning to write songs and poetry, sew and crochet, while trying hard to crack the Rubik’s Cube. On that, I was competing with my grandfather and Uncle Richard on this latest puzzle, one of many that my grandfather encouraged me to take on, who loved to work Puzzle books in his spare time, and had been proud of how fast I could work puzzles when I was a baby. That year, my Christmas list included Golden Dream Christie, a trunk and car for her, a Knitting Machine, and a Quiz Whiz, and I received those things, plus a Quiz Whiz Challenger and lots of other toys and games, including various electronic ones. It was at this juncture that Barbie assumed center stage in my world of play, and an earlier post in this series highlighted images of my 2 Barbie doll houses from back then, along with my Barbie dolls. At the mall, one of my 2 best friends with whom I mainly played, Liletta, during our preteen years, and I would go to see the latest Barbie dolls at Circus World toy store whenever we were at Montgomery Mall with our moms, and at Eastdale Mall, would go to Pizitz, where we loved to see the Dolls of the World Collection in their toy department. At age 12, I got an original Cabbage Patch Kid when they came out ,and had already begun to experiment with making miniature types in that genre once my grandparents bought me a Xavier Roberts pattern book from Gayfers at age 11. At age 14, my Grandmother Emma Lou Jenkins Richardson learned that Mrs. Essie Thomas, one of our neighbors down the street, was making dolls and immediately ordered 2 “adoption dolls” for me from her for $60 each. Just a year later, and after my cousin Keri was born, my Aunt Pam visited Mrs. Thomas and helped design one for her baby daughter, who was about six months old at the time. Keri’s first birthday party was held at the Woodmere Clubhouse and had a Cabbage Patch Kids theme, where the full collection was placed. At age 16, I also bought souvenir dolls on school trips I took back then to Cheha State Park when we climbed Mt. Cheha, and on a trip to New Orleans. My beloved Grandmother would sometimes surprise me after school as a teen in high school by leaving interesting dolls for me on my bed that she spotted in her shopping forays out with friends, and also began to buy me porcelain dolls from displays at the grocery store. I kept several black porcelain dolls on display in my dormitory rooms throughout my college years, along with one of the dolls that I had made. Both she and my mom continued to add dolls to the “collection” long after my interest receded and focus shifted to other things. My grandmother and her sister loved the black dolls that their Aunt Vinnie bought for them, and my grandmother bought my mother and aunt mostly black dolls as children. Most of mine were as well, though never all. I view dolls as time capsules and have been intrigued by their adaptations over history. I still have the vast majority of the dolls I grew up with and the vast majority that I’ve added over time fall within very specific categories; historical ones like the rag and bisque, a vintage Barbie that my grandmother bought me at a yard sale, dolls from Africa and the Caribbean (mainly from the Bahamas, and I do, incidentally, on my paternal side, have family roots in the Bahamas); porcelain dolls, story dolls, soft sculpture dolls, Barbie dolls, and various miniature and novelty dolls, etc. Among Barbie dolls, I’m mainly interested in the black "Superstar" collection from the late 1970s on, and types produced up to the mid-1990s, a collection mainly of dolls from my childhood era that the Spirit of the Lord placed it on my heart and led me to fill out just before they were becoming exorbitantly priced for hundreds and more on a market dominated by white collectors and enthusiasts. I replaced my Superstar Christie Fashion Face and Golden Dream Christie dolls and also collected an original Superstar Christie from 1976, along with various others in the series, added some from the aforementioned Dolls of the World, two original black Little People dolls by Xavier Roberts, and more recently, several Inspiring Women and wedding dolls. At this point, I have about 171 dolls in all, which are pictured in photo galleries here. Though many are still boxed and in mint condition, I'm far from being a serious doll collector, but am very casual in it. I’ve also pictured the 15 dolls that belong to my grandmother, aunt, Keri and Megan. Dolls are just another interesting visual layer in designing and staging a space focused on showcasing my Southern folk and fine art collections, one that primarily serves as an artist’s home and art studio. The Barbie theme also works well to invoke in my art studio because knitting and crocheting so many clothing and bedding items for my Barbie and dolls and making miniature soft sculpture dolls as a preteen paved the way to my eventual emergence as a quilt artist. My doll collection was to me what action figures and race cars were to the boys I grew up with, and once brought me a lot of joy, and so having reminders from childhood in the background here and there is nice nowadays. The selected list of dolls from my childhood, as many as whose official names I can remember, is posted in the comments. I was collaborating on a couple of local public black doll exhibits with other collectors here in Ithaca prior to pandemic, an idea it might be interesting to circle back to at some point.

The comprehensive album of 47 images featuring my doll collection is included on my artist Facebook site: "Riché Richardson’s Mixed-Media Appliqué Art Quilts"

From Riché Richardson’s Mixed-Media Appliqué Art Quilts, May 15, 2023

As my post from a few months ago on “collecting” dolls mentioned, I enjoy the genre of story dolls and have a few, including Addie and rag dolls such as Cassie and Amazing Grace. I initially came across this Black History Month doll depicting Rosa Parks back in the spring of 2020, but didn’t order it at that time, because I wanted to be considerate of postal workers and not add to the demands of a system already stretched to the limit during the shutdowns. I thank the Lord to have finally found it again a couple of months ago. I came across the other one on clearance at Target just a couple of weeks ago. (Those interested should be on the lookout for it)! I enjoyed the process of making my art quilt honoring Rosa Parks that’s now in the permanent collection at the Museum in Montgomery. These plush dolls depict the Mother of the Civil Rights Movement in interesting ways and are also interesting and inspiring to see for their color and design as someone who enjoys working with fabric and seeing some types of black rag dolls and soft sculpture dolls. Happy Mother’s Day, and many and mighty blessings to all mothers!

From Riché Richardson’s Mixed-Media Appliqué Art Quilts, June 27, 2023

I am sooo delighted, blessed, honored, and thankful to have now added the beautiful doll that the Atlanta-based artist Tosh Fomby created as a tribute to the phenomenal Faith Ringgold to my collection of Black cloth dolls, a one-of-a-kind 15” design entitled “Faith Ringgold Cloth Doll”(2023). Look at the remarkable workmanship and play of color, pattern, and texture on duck cloth cotton fabric, with embroidery and the incorporation of mixed media like wire, replete with felt-bottomed shoes! I shared with her that I will treasure it as someone who is myself a mixed- media appliqué Alabama art quilter and longtime collector of Southern folk art; who deeply admires Faith Ringgold; who also loves and has found inspiration in Black soft sculpture dolls, including Mrs. Ringgold’s Cassie, along with Amazing Grace by Grace Aspen; and as someone who, when I was an undergraduate at Spelman, interviewed Dr. Kenneth B. Clark about he and his wife Dr. Mamie Clark’s famous doll experiments, whose tape I pray to archive at some point. Indeed, I found such inspiration in the Cassie and Amazing Grace dolls that, over time, I bought them for display as a set five times(!)-for my office on campus, my study in my apartment/art studio, our family home in Montgomery, as heirloom gifts for the granddaughters in the family of a colleague, as well as for my cousin’s. As her inspiration, the artist remarks, “Following the career of Faith Ringgold, to honor her accomplishments and legacy in the art world, an African American woman who went against the grain to tell stories of people from the diaspora!” More of her brilliant creations are featured on her website, which is linked in the comments below. Her beautiful doll is such a fine, fitting and truly fantastic tribute to the genius of a legendary and visionary artist. Praise, hallelujahs and all glory to the Lord for this art and all art that inspires!

From Riché Richardson’s Mixed-Media Appliqué Art Quilts, August 25, 2023

Barbie has been a background theme in the staging and design of my art studio because I produced many of my preteen projects in sewing, crocheting and knitting for my Barbie dolls and dollhouses. Back then, and especially after my grandparents bought me a pattern book for producing Xavier Roberts’ Little People dolls from Gayfers Department Store at age 11, another primary inspiration for me became the “adoption doll” phenomenon. I studied the pattern carefully and began to make multiple miniature versions, some of which are in shadow boxes on display in my art studio. Meantime, my grandmother bought black yarn and brown cloth in preparation to have some dolls made for me once she found the right seamstress. My mom photocopied the pattern to preserve the original one from the book and also bought me a Cabbage Patch Kid in the midst of the national craze. Over the next few months, I’d periodically take the folded fabric and yarn out of their bag to survey and assess their rich textures, spend a few moments dreaming of and imagining how the dolls would look, and then put them away again. On a visit to town, a relative in law in our extended family mentioned that she could make the dolls and I happily gave her those precious materials, but she never followed up on that project. A couple of years later, when I was 14, my grandmother learned that our neighbor down the street, Mrs. Essie Thomas, was crafting beautiful “adoption dolls” that sold for $60 each, and took me to her home to pick out the hair and fabric skin for two from among her spectrum of options, which turned out as beautifully as all the dolls she made, including the one for some other neighbors. Months later, my aunt Pam also went down to design and purchase one of the dolls for her baby daughter Keri, who was six months old, and all of them were on display at her Cabbage Patch-themed first birthday party. A few years ago, in light of the soft sculpture doll design elements that inspired me on the path in developing my portrait quilting style, I placed all 3 dolls by Mrs. Thomas, plus my Cabbage Patch, on display in a big basket in my art studio in Ithaca, and also added two original Xavier Roberts dolls, taking pride and finding inspiration in the beauty of Mrs. Thomas’s brilliant and diligent workmanship, including her original canvas shoe designs, alongside dolls that he and his team produced at Babyland General. A couple of weeks ago, I just could not resist adding this third Xavier Roberts “Little People” doll from a 1986 lot called “Southern Belles” for her beautiful design and pristine condition.

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From Riché Richardson’s Mixed-Media Appliqué Art Quilts, December 3, 2023, On Celie and Nettie dolls by Renata Gawronski

As someone who has loved soft sculpture dolls since childhood, a genre that paved the way for me to develop my three-dimensional portrait quilting and painting styles an artist, I am always inspired to see interesting work in it, beyond the collection of black rag dolls, story dolls, Little People/“adoption dolls” and African and Caribbean dolls that I have built over the years, to complement my art studio’s dominant themes. Ya’ll, my most recent addition-this tribute to Celie and Nettie as black girls and characters from Alice Walker’s The Color Purple-is so amazing and inspiring to see. The workmanship here is incredibly detailed and truly extraordinary. The painting and layering of colors, sewing and stitching techniques along with embroidery, fabric, lace trimmings and textures, and crocheting in designing the dresses and shoes evoking the early 20th century are a feast for the eyes and senses. The subtleties, like purple shoes for “Celie” and lavender for “Nettie,” with purple purses for both, along with the wrist jewelry and painted nails, are also fascinating and noteworthy. The stitching and sewing techniques are truly pristine. My mom, Joanne Richardson loves these doll designs. My grandmother Emma Lou Jenkins Richardson and her beloved sister Janie Mae Jenkins Reese, who received black dolls from their Aunt Vinnie bought for them at Christmas as girls in the 1920s, would as well. My grandmother ordered two black “adoption dolls” for me when I was 14 and carefully preserved my doll collection for me once I left for college, and Aunt Mae regularly bought creative crafts from her colleagues at John Knox manor and South Haven nursing homes in Montgomery, Alabama as gifts for us. My mom and I saw the original film The Color Purple on the big screen at the movies in Montgomery in 1985 with my friend Liletta and her mom Connie during my freshman year of high school at St. Jude. The film is an all-time favorite in our family and dear to our hearts. Like many black families, we have memorized and can spontaneously talk, think and signify through its script and characters; my grandmother loved it for its motif of two sisters, the same name as one of the Montgomery boutiques where she and Aunt Mae enjoyed shopping. Before he passed away when they were small children, their father Frank Jenkins told her and Aunt Mae to “always stick together,” and they blessedly did, along with their brothers, and were raised with lots of love from their mother Ada and grandfather Adolphus “Doc” Jordan. I learned more about the novel in college, and by graduate school, began to write on it. I saw the Broadway play based on it a few years ago with the journalist Steven Thrasher and one of his friends in New York City. I also love and have learned from Oprah’s story of The Color Purple and find deep inspiration in it. I pray to see the new film adaptation in Montgomery this month with federated club sisters of Dora Beverly, including my mom and Aunt Pam, donning purple. As a part of the programming committee, I have also recommended that we follow up with a group reading and discussion of Salamishah Tillet’s landmark book on Alice Walker and this novel, In Search of The Color Purple, which everyone is ordering; it will enhance this experience all the more. All of this also inspires me given that my newest book project draws on womanist discourses. Again, I want to thank and commend Renata Gawronski for this brilliant and inspiring doll artistry and for the time and love that she poured into this project. Her work has been recognized in “Soft Dolls & Animals" Magazine. She remarks that “My dolls are 100% handmade and carefully crafted without using any glue or paints; soft-sculptured with hand-embroidered faces. I do a lot of detailed work. They are unique and one of the kind, no doll is the same. The hair is made of various yarns and the body is done with high quality cotton or linen, filled with poly fiber. The undergarments are crochet body-suits, or sewn with fabric and lace. Their wardrobe is part crochet and part made of color printed fabric, decorated with beads. They wear headgear and crochet shoes consistent with the fashion of the era they lived in...My dolls are firmly stuffed and sew strongly. They give appearance of a statue. Rather firm to touch.” I thank, praise and glorify the Lord for providing me with such deeply inspiring and beautiful art.

It has been a blessing and inspiration to see so many beautiful dolls from across my family's history and to still have so many of my own spanning back to childhood. They complement my art collecting and practice, and have taught me important lessons on my journey in life, including the importance of cherishing every gift that God provides, and that He is the ultimate Potter and healer of all things broken. All glory and praise to Him for everything.