 | Hello Dolly, a new exhibit featuring
35 antique dolls opened on September 2nd in the museums first floor gallery.
The dolls are from the collection of Brenda Ennis, a Lincoln City resident and
avid doll collector. Ennis told us she began collecting antique dolls seventeen
years ago, I had always loved dolls and took very good care of mine as a
child. As an adult, I inherited two antique dolls from my grandmother and decided
to collect more. I started with composite dolls at first, but they were usually
not in such great condition and were too hard to repair. So then I started collecting
porcelain dolls, and I just kept adding to the collection. Today she has
so many dolls in her collection, over 500, that it was hard to choose which dolls
to display. Dolls selected for the exhibit date from the 1860s to around 1920.
Some dolls are very rare, made by notable doll makers Johann Daniel Kestner, Pierre
Francoise Jumeau and Francois Gaultier. They are all exquisite examples of the
craft, mostly fashion dolls that include the original clothing made by hand for
French fashion designers. The exhibit will run until August 2010. |
| 
| Who
can forget the favorite dolls of childhood? Remember character dolls like Anne
of Green Gables, Snow White and Shirley Temple? Paper dolls that were dressed
up and redressed constantly? These and other fondly remembered dolls are featured
in a new museum exhibit that opens on February 3rd in the museums upstairs
gallery. Part two of our History of Dolls exhibit takes us from the French fashion
doll of the 19th century to the popular dolls that were played with and adored
by children from the 1930s through the 1960s. Dolls in this display are from the
collection of Brenda Ennis and Susan Webb, as well as the museums collections. |