Dressing Dolly Dingle: an examination of early twentieth century American paper dolls

Abstract

This paper seeks to contextualize early twentieth century paper dolls through a social lens. Focusing on a series of traveling paper dolls drawn by Grace Drayton in 1921, the study foregrounds the concepts of nationalism, ethnocentrism, orientalism, and American exceptionalism endemic to the era. By drawing on genres like travelogue literature, stage plays, and World’s Fairs into the frame, the paper dolls became part of a larger effort to reimagine the American nation-state during a critical period of change. Finally, this research suggests that children’s toys and ephemera are a valuable resource for this type of study because of their role in socialization and identity formation in the learning rich environment of childhood play.