What important times in American History don't have a historical doll?

[Kathrine]

QNpoohbear: I think it would be okay if the pilgrim girl had more than 2 outfits, I'm not an expert on this in any way, but I think the list could be something like this:
1. Meet dress: simple, solid color wool dress
2. Everyday workdress, in a lighter material like cotton
3. A nightgown of some sort
4. she would have worn a petticoat and undershirt of some kind, wouldn't she?
5. Somekind of winterwear, woolen petticoat, BIG shawl.
Her meet asseccories would be a bonnet, a big white linnen collar, an apron and a sack kind of thing for gathering berries and nuts in.

For asseccories she would need:
Baskets, bowls and different cooking supplies, socks and shoes, knitting pins/ crochet needle, on of those things for butter making(kwim?), a Bible.

Furniture would be a very simple bed, a bench, a table, and a cupboard, and ofcourse lots of homemade blankets to stay varm during winter.

Did I get just someof that right?

[lieu2]

The only prominient Vietnamese immigration story would be right after the fall of Saigon, 1975. I am not sure if that is too modern for our American girl series. I can imagine that the Viet Nam war might be too controversial for American Girl. But then again they did Addy's stories. So I am sure they will do a good job. I personally think the Japanese interniment camp is a story that should be told. It truly questions the concept of an American democracy and freedom. I like the idea of the chinese rail road because it can really conjure up some interesting images.

[lieu2]

I think Hawaii has the largest Asian population in any state. I think predominently Japanese and Native Pacific Islander. So they definitely could do something there. I think there were a lot of Russian Jews as well. So couldn't they intergrate the Russian immigrant and make her Jewish. It kinds of hits two ideas at once. But let me know if I got this wrong but I thought a lot of Russians were also Jewish.

[monimarine]

Something dealing with Hawaii would be cool. The outfits would be very colorful!

[QNPoohBear]

Originally posted by Kathrine:
QNpoohbear: I think it would be okay if the pilgrim girl had more than 2 outfits, I'm not an expert on this in any way, but I think the list could be something like this:
1. Meet dress: simple, solid color wool dress
2. Everyday workdress, in a lighter material like cotton
3. A nightgown of some sort
4. she would have worn a petticoat and undershirt of some kind, wouldn't she?
5. Somekind of winterwear, woolen petticoat, BIG shawl.
Her meet asseccories would be a bonnet, a big white linnen collar, an apron and a sack kind of thing for gathering berries and nuts in.

For asseccories she would need:
Baskets, bowls and different cooking supplies, socks and shoes, knitting pins/ crochet needle, on of those things for butter making(kwim?), a Bible.

Furniture would be a very simple bed, a bench, a table, and a cupboard, and ofcourse lots of homemade blankets to stay varm during winter.

Did I get just someof that right?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Any era before Felicity would be a BAD idea because up until Felicity's time, children were not children, they were miniature adults. There were no children's clothes or toys. After the age of 6 or 7 children worked alongside their parents. Often, a child would live with two parents who were not their own. Mortality right was VERY HIGH and remarriage happened quickly. It was not ususual for a child to have two step-parents.
A Pilgrim doll would be a BAD IDEA! I can't stress enough how HARSH their lives were. They existed and just barely. If they did 1634, life was a little easier, but 1624 is the year the Plimoth Plantation museum is set and the story Sarah Morton's Day takes place. Everthing man made came from England, they worked HARD.

No Katherine, sorry you got the clothes all wrong! They wore outfits like Felicity's school dress with a waistcoat and petticoat-usually made of wool or linen in bright colors like green, red, blue, yellow, purple. She would have two-an every day dress and a Meeting dress-the meeting dress would probably be a "sad" (dark) color. She would cover her hair with a linen cap, wear a linen shift similar to Josefina's nightgown under her clothes and to bed. On top of that she would wear at least two petticoats made of linen or wool. She would have wool stockings tied with garters-but not pretty woven garters like Lissie's, just strips of cloth. She would put on her waistcoat and an apron. Her clothes would be very dirty because their houses had dirt floors and open hearths and they didn't generally use napkins much.

For accessories you were mostly right. She would have a pocket-a PLAIN not embroidered-bag at her waist to carry her needles or scissors or a knife.

She MAY still have her childhood "poppet" or puppet like doll. But usually girls older than 6 didn't play.

She would have a gathering basket or several and maybe some herbs. Food would be shellfish in the summer (mussles, clams, lobster though they didn't like lobster), meat in the fall-venison, wild fowl, root vegetables but NOT potatoes, they were not English! Corn, beans and squash they learned to plant from the Indians.

For a trunk she may have a plain wooden chest or a more elaborately carved chest.

For a table she would have the chest or a board laid over some barrels. Father would be the only one with a chair. Children MIGHT have a stool or a bench to sit on but usually they stood. They ate with a knife and spoon, no forks, and threw a cloth over their shoulder.

For winter wear she would have a long coat, mittens and a "muffler" (scarf) to go outside

Yes her family would have a Bible but she may not know how to read. There was no universal education until later in the century and especially not for girls. A Pilgrim teenager told me half the town can read and less can cypher but she wasn't real specific about whether she herself could or not.

her bed would be blankets rolled out on the floor. Only the master of the house would have a bed of his own. If he was generous he could share with his wife or with his eldest son. Children slept on the floor or in the loft.

A girl's life would be spent working alongside her mother in the house. Cleaning, cooking, taking care of younger children (women had about 9-10 children every 2-2.5 years). At the end of the day IF everything was done and her parents let her she could play a game of naughts and crosses (tic tac toe), marbles, blow bubbles, a whistle or other homemade toys but it's highly unlikely that she would be able to play.

It was such a hard hard hard life... For more information read
<u>Sarah Morton's Day</u>by Kate Waters and the Dear America book about Remember Patience Whipple but really only the first half is accurate and don't watch the video because nearly EVERYTHING in the movie was inaccurate. I kept screaming at the TV...

[Grapedy1982]

An 1844 Southern girl wouldn't be a good idea in terms of sales. The children's clothes, and adult for that matter, in the 1840's were absolutely HORRID!!! No shape, very tight and constricting and just flat out ugly, IMO. At work, we purposelly ignore the 1830's and 1840's when it comes to deciding how we're going to do costumes.

I hit on another one last night looking at pics of AGT #2. (forgot who posted them) A Creole girl living in 1804, on a River Road sugar plantation. She could be Spanish or French, and the skin tone of #2 is perfect, especially if they went the Spanish or a mixed route. There was a LOT of upheavel here in 1804 with the Louisiana territory turning over to America. The French and Spanish settlers that were already here just about started a war because they were not happy with what the US government was offering them. They finally caved in to statehood when the federal government said they could keep their church parish structure. That's why we have parishes instead of counties. The Louisiana Purchase was one of the most significant, and overlooked, events in American history. It doubled the size of our country with the stroke of a pen! There was so much going on here at that time.

And an 1804 Creole girl would put her right smack in the middle of my neck of the woods! It has the 4 in the year, it has the requisite turmoil and change and upheavel going on, and could be a VERY interesting family structure and very very different from what AG has done in the past. And the clothes would be gorgous, the latest French empire fashions in some absolutely beautiful colors, rich reds and deep blues and purples and greens. She'd have a lovely wardrobe! Her Saves the Day book could even revolve around a yellow fever outbreak, or smallpox or something along those lines. Even the Plague. We still had that here then, lol. And Creole Christmas celebrations at that time were something to behold! Talk about a massive party. The revillions started on Christmas Eve and didn't end until January 6th. And the food! Ooh man they knew how to eat.

Hundreds of thousands of Jews left Russia en masse starting around 1875 when the pogroms (mass extermination of Jews) started become an almost daily event, and it didn't stop until Stalin cracked down on immigration and made it next to impossible to get out of the country legally. It would be such a fascinating story to do. Pogroms could eliminate entire towns with one sweep through of an Army division.

[kitti515]

You all have such interesting ideas! I'm especially fond of the Russian immigrant idea because a pair of my great-grandparents emigrated from Russia in the early 1900's. They were Molokan, not Jewish, but I think the Russian Jewish girl would make an excellent historical character. Of course, you've all brought up fascinating time periods (and I'm especially a sucker for those with beautiful wardrobes [img]wink.gif[/img] ).

I have a question about their accompanying books, though. Do you think they would follow the same title pattern that most of the historicals do? I only ask because Kaya's titles do not. This might be because of the disparity between her culture and the other girls' (like she wouldn't have celebrated Christmas, etc.), but it still makes me wonder...

- Becca

[lj01]

I also would like to see a 60's girl that was really affected by the Civil Rights movement.
There is also good potential here for best friends dolls, one friend white the other African American. [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]

[Grapedy1982]

The two main ones that I'd like to see would definately be able to follow the pattern like the other girls. I'll use the Creole girl (who I really plan to make and name Lisette) as an example. Meet Lisette could have an "English" family moving into the area by buying another plantation, as part of the first wave of American settlers. This would set up some conflict between Lisette's Catholic family and the new family, which would be Episcopalian. This could even set up the best friend.

Lisette Learns a Lesson would probably deal with more Americans moving in and everyone having to get used to the new culture, which the Creoles thought of as lewd and crude and downright unsophisticated.

Lisette's Surprise would include a Creole Revillion, which is a HUGE Christmas celebration! And I do mean HUGE!!! A typical afternoon meal at one of these included 2 dozen different side dishes, at least 5 choices of meat, about a dozen different desserts, and loads and loads and loads of other food.

Then would come Happy Birthday, which in spring means planting and the river flooding.

Saves the Day could be a yellow fever epidemic in which Lisette must play crucial role in saving a family member or one of their new "neighbors".

Not entirely sure what Changes would encompass. Need to do some more reading on what was going on here at the end of 1805.

A Russian immigrant story would be able to follow the same format as well. The only major difference would be Surprise. The family would be able to celebrate Hannukah without fear of being found out, or they could do the Orthodox Christmas which is on January 6th.

[Grapedy1982]

Baskets, bowls and different cooking supplies, socks and shoes, knitting pins/ crochet needle

I just noticed that "crochet needle". Crochet did not exist in England at the time of the Pilgrims. It didn't really catch on until the mid 1800's, and it was only done using fine cotton or silk thread. Crochet as we know it today didn't come about until around 1880. A Pilgrim girl probably would have known how to tat though since it's an ancient form of lace-making. If Pilgrims even made lace....