For the Love of Reading - Victorian Girls and Their Books Illustrations

If you've been a reader of my Linda's Blog for awhile you know that I've had a long term love affair with dolls, doll patterns, the Victorian era, floral design, genealogy, research, history and books. As far as I'm concerned you can never have enough dolls and you can never have enough books.

So, of course, I would be drawn to illustrations of Victorian girls and their books from the Harper's Young People Illustrations Book of 1889, like the illustration shown above.  It appeared in the May 18, 1889 weekly of the Harper's Young People Illustrations Book from 1889 on Page 420.

It was drawn by Rosina Emmet Sherwood and appeared in a story "The A.O.I.B.R" by Elizabeth Eggleston Seelye.  According to her Wikipedia page: "Her story "“The A.O.I.B.R." appeared in Harper's Bazaar in 1889 with an illustration of a child reading. The Rockwell Centre for American Visual Studies cites this as a surprisingly early illustration of a girl reading. The subject of girls reading in the illustration by Rosina Emmet Sherwood is thought rare (like the ones in Louisa Allcott's Little Women)."

The caption reads: "She retired to the society of books." This brings back wonderful memories for me as so many times when I was growing up you could find me like this.

My house is filled with books of all kinds. My love affair with books and reading began very early on. My Mother was an avid reader, my Father was an avid reader, my Grandmother and Great-Aunt were avid readers, and so it was passed down to my siblings and I.

I have such fond memories of sitting in my Grandmother's rocking chair (which I still have) and having her read me a story. Sometimes we would sit there while she was watching her soap opera's and she would rock with me in her lap.  Kind of like in the illustration above from the March 9, 1889 weekly of the  Harper's Young People Illustrations Book from 1889 on page 270.

Sometimes she would read me a story. I never minded just sitting there with her. I always knew there would be a story. And, I always felt safe in her arms.

Now, when I read I think about sitting with my Grandmother or listening to my Mom and Dad talk about their love of reading and it brings back warm and pleasant feelings for me.

The Story Behind My "Celia's" Victorian Doll Pattern

A lot of my dolls have stories behind them. Here's the story of my "Celia" doll:

Celia is married to Elmer (see my post The Story Behind Elmers Little Boy ). They have been happily married for over 50 years and were recently moving into their new home. Since they were downsizing they had to either get rid of a lot of items or throw a lot away. So, they decided what to throw away and what to sell at their yard sale. When you've been married over fifty years there are a LOT of items.

In any event, one of the items Celia had decided to throw away was this old, grungy, doll who was just plain "a mess". She had lost most of her hair on the top of her head and had one long bunch of strands down one side of her head. Her fingers were all broken and her face was dirty. She had on an old, dirty, prairie dress and bonnet. I wish I had taken a picture of her so you could have seen how she was. Needless to say she was in desperate need of a make over. I think she was considering going to a day spa, but she wasn't aware of any dollie day spas. There definitely weren't any in the yellow pages.

So, of course, I took her home and we pondered her fate together. We decided she should be elegant. She'd had enough of this simple, primitive, country look and wanted to be a real "Lady". So we decided on a bit of a "French" aristocratic look for her. We needed something that would cover up her bald spots while still making it seem like she had a full head of hair. Definitely a twist was in store. The problem, however, was what to do with the rest of her head. I though maybe a combination of a large hat and "Gloria Swanson" type of turban would work. Celia was skeptical. It was a drastic step.

What's Fair Is Fair! What About Me! It's All About "Debra!"

In my household you can't showcase any one particular doll without causing some kind of resentment by another doll.

This time my "Debra", you know the pain in the...., doll that I created and named after my baby sister was annoyed by yesterday's post about "My Favorite Victorian Doll."

She feels that if I'm going to mention her that I should at least show some pictures of her, too.

Well, I really can't come up with a rationale for not doing so. She is right. I did mention her in my post and I probably should have shown some pictures.

So, to appease "Debra" I'll give in and post about her here. You know, it seems to me that I used to have to appease my baby sister a lot, too. Boy, Debra really is like her namesake.

So, here we go. It's all about "Debra."

“Debra”is named after my baby sister. She is a 27” free-standing faceless Victorian doll that I designed for my "other Victorians" e-patterns and is wearing a 1853 walking dress.

My Celia's Art Doll

Celia has been a member of The Red Hat Society for a long time and thoroughly enjoys the times they get together. She and the other ladies of the club love dressing up in their purple dresses and red hats, and letting their hair down. Sometimes things get a little wild, but that doesn't deter any of the ladies. They love their lives, they love each other, and best of all they love happy fun - especially when it's the dress-up kind.

"Celia - Art Doll" is a 19" art doll with a cloth body, embroidered face with wire glasses, fully wired and bendable cloth body, and thick white curly hair. She is wearing red print bloomers gathered at the waist and ankles. Her black felt boots are criss-crossed with DMC embroidery floss for laces.

My Favorite Victorian Lady Doll Design Needs A Name

While I was taking pictures for all 1,496 of the dolls and crafts that I have made I decided to take pictures of my favorite Victorian doll design.

She was made for me to use as the Spring and Summer display that I have on the cabinet in my front hall and is not for sale.

Every season I change the front hall display and she stays there for the two seasons which suits her just fine.

Of course, my sister also loves her and I have to be careful that when she comes to visit during the Spring or Summer that she doesn't steal her. She keeps threatening too.

I told her that she can't have her. But, I half expect to see her hanging out of one of her suitcases.

So, she says, "Fine, then I'll take my namesake." Her namesake is similar to this doll and is the doll I used for my Debra (LW027) pattern. She, however, is in a very fancy faux blue suede and white lace outfit. She's beautiful, too, just not as much of my favorite as this one is.

I keep telling my sister that she can't have her either as she was the doll I used for my Linda Walsh Originals pattern so I have to keep her to support the pattern.

The last time I told my sister "no" to both of these dolls she presented me with a list of 54 of my handmade dolls and crafts that she would take instead. All FREE, of course. Isn't family wonderful! I keep telling her that I'm still reviewing her list. I didn't tell her that I tried to burn it! LOL LOL

I told my sister after I made her namesake that she was the largest Victorian I had made and was a pain in the.....! So, I named her after my younger sister, Debra. Ha! Ha!

However, I did clarify that the pattern was a pain. You, my wonderful sister, are not. Well, let me clarify that. You no longer are. When you wanted to play "Barbie" with my best friend and I you were. Of course, you were only about 4 or 5 then.

In any event, I'm getting off track again. Back to the Victorian doll. Since faceless Victorians are my favorite she, of course, is faceless. I do hope you like her.

She is a 27” Victorian doll wearing an 1853 walking dress. She has a fancy lace and ruffled trim lined navy jacket with double stand-up collar and mid-length gathered and lace decorated sleeves. Her jacket is also decorated along all the edges with lace trim - inside and outside. The outside is flat lace while the inside is gathered lace that hangs down below the bottom hemline. The jacket is waistline length and ties in the front with two sets of ribbons.

Her dress is bi-colored with the upper being white and the bottom being a coordinated blue & white fabric. The dress sleeves are gathered and the sleeve cuff is the same fabric as the lower part of the dress. The lower part of the dress is three tiered with two over skirts. The top over shirt and second over skirt tier are each decorated with gathered lace. Each over skirt tier is gathered at the waistline and the second over skirt tier is also gathered up the front center line and back center line. There is 4Th level of gathered lace around the waistline of the dress. The upper part of the dress is adorned with two small silk floral decorations.

She has a very fancy multiple-tiered gathered lace & floral trimmed lined hat covered with white and peach silk flowers all along the top of the hat. A large band of the lower dress fabric is used to secure the hat to the head and is tied under her neck in a large bow just to the left of her chin.

Her red wool rove hair is tied in a large bun along the backside of her head and semi-covered by her hat.

She also has a lace trimmed slip underneath her dress. One of my sister-in-laws Mother's old peach colored lace scarf is draped around her shoulders as a shawl.

Her arms are wire-shaped and covered and she is wearing lace gloves. She also has a fabric covered head and covered square wood base. Her inner body is supported by a dowel and is covered with fabric and lace. She is stuffed with a ton of old bits of fabric to mimic some of the dolls of old days.

As of this date my favorite Victorian doll still does not have a name so I thought you might all like to help me name her. You could submit a name by leaving a comment on this post and then we could all vote on the names. Sound like fun?

So, what do you think I should call her?

The Innu Tea Doll

In researching my article on "faceless" dolls I came across a type of doll that I had never heard of before who has a fascinating history. The dolls are called "Innu Tea Dolls" and were made by the Innu people from Nitassinan (Quebec and Labrador) Canada. The Innu have been making dolls for a very long time.

According to history the Innu people were always on the move. As such, space to carry items was always at a premium. When the Innu people traveled to their hunting grounds everyone had to carry their fair share, including the children. Innu women would sew the dolls and stuff them with tea. The tea dolls were intended to be carried by the children and would hold two or three pounds of loose tea. When the main supply of tea ran out, the dolls were opened and the tea inside was shared. The dolls would then be stuffed with caribou moss to retain their shape and then given to the children as toys.

The illustration at the top of this article is of an Innu Tea Doll that was given to the Smithsonian Institute by Lucien M. Turner in the early 1880's. According to the Innu.ca website he obtained some of the Innu Tea Dolls from the Innu people who came out of the Hudson Bay Company post to trade. The Innu of Labrador are the last known hunter/nomadic people of North America.

I hope to visit the Smithsonian one of these days. That is, when I'm not crafting or sewing. When I do I'll be sure to look for the Innu Tea Doll.