Doll-A-Day 20023 #3: My Mom's Pin Cushion Doll

  Waaay back I did a post on brush dolls. That brought up the subject of half dolls. So I thought I'd do a post on half dolls. That led to this post on a doll that incorporates a half doll. So here is today's doll. She belonged to my mom when she was a kid. She's a pin cushion doll.



She's made from what's known as a 'half doll'. Obviously they get their name from the fact that they are only half a figure. Half dolls were generally made to be used as part of pin cushions, or decorative tops on things such as whisk brooms and clothes brushes, like these dolls I spotted at a doll show a while back .

The popularity of half dolls was at it's height at the beginning of the 20th century. My mom was born in 1927, so her pin cushion doll dates from the 1930's.

As I said, she's a pin cushion, but she didn't appear to have ever had any pins stuck in her. My sister, who now owns her, put these in.

She looks like a Southern lady to me. She has a beautiful satin dress and ringlet curls in the back of her hair.

My mom's family was pretty poor during the depression. 

That's my grampa driving the plow. My mom is the one in the big white hat, second to the right of Grampa. This was taken in the early to mid 1940's. 

My grampa was a farmer, a plasterer, and during the depression he worked for the WPA, the government bureau that provided jobs for people during the era so they didn't starve to death. My mom had a sister and four brothers eventually. 

Mom, age 10, in 1937. That actually says 'Mae', not 'Moe'!

Because they were poor, there aren't many of Mom's childhood things around. This comes the closest to being a doll that we have of hers.

I'm not sure what she is made of. It's possibly plaster, but she could be ceramic.

The doll part is sewn into a stuffed upper skirt that is attached to a round, flat weight. That's so she can sit flat when she's being used as a pin cushion.

She came in this striped canister, and she still resides there. 

The cannister is heavy cardboard with a metal lid. It's about 8 inches tall. When the doll is put in the cannister, her dress is pulled up over her head, and she's slid down into the cannister. The bottom of the flat weight sits on the bottom of the cannister. This way her dress is kept nice and unwrinkled when she's stored.

    I did once see the exact same pin cushion doll and cannister at our local Salvation Army store. I considered bringing her home, since I don't have Mom's. But she wouldn't have been Mom's, so I left her there. 

  That's the doll for today. See you tomorrow for another one.