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The Perennial Appeal of Rag Dolls
Around the globe and across the years, rag dolls carve their own niche
There’s magic in humble scraps of cloth, deer hide, fur, and cornhusks. With a bead or two, a hank of yarn, and a few embroidered stitches, a rag doll can be birthed. The first parent to cobble together bits and bobs into a human shape and hand it to their child will never be known. The British Museum has a Roman rag doll from 1st-5th century A.D. The linen dolly still retains dabs of paint and even one blue bead, felt to have been a hair ornament. Rag dolls have been around for thousands of years and played with by children around the globe.
Eight-year-old Katie Roubideaux gently cradles her doll in a series of photographs from 1898. John Anderson took the pictures at Katie’s birthplace, the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. Her father Louis was captain of the Indian Police and the official reservation interpreter. Her mother was Adelia Blunt Knife Roubideaux.
She stands on a saddle blanket atop a buffalo hide. Katie’s family took care with her appearance. Her hair is pulled back into a single braid. Her great-aunt Oyate Waste Win Roubideaux made her leather outfit. She wears moccasins, beaded leggings, and a beaded dress emblazoned on the chest with the potent symbol of a bison arched over by a rainbow.
