#american stories collection

[barbielore]

Speaking as a non-American, I do not feel confident in my ability to fully assess the American Stories Collection of Barbies but nonetheless I will do my best to respectfully approach this series.

The American Stories Collection were a series of historical Barbies, representing what Mattel presumably thought were important parts of America's culture. These were released across 1994, 1995 and 1996. Each of them came with props to go along with their historical outfits, as well as a storybook.

For example, Civil War Nurse Barbie comes with a little bag presumably for her medical equipment.

Meanwhile Patriot Barbie, whose box text indicates that she is out showing support for the Founding Fathers, has a little bell.

There were in fact two different Barbies in the collection labelled Pioneer Barbie, one from 1994 and the other from 1995.

One had a predominately green dress, a basket of apples, and a storybook entitled "Western Promise"; the other a milk jug, a floral dress with an apron, and a storybook entitled "Shopkeeper's Dream".

This collection also featured dolls referred to as, and I believe this term is frequently now considered outdated to say the least, though I admit that as someone who is both white and non-American I am not fully informed about this, "American Indian Barbies".

These two are the only dolls in the collection who are not depicted as white, and they are also the only dolls who have children or infants instead of props. The first of these has a storybook entitled "Animal Gifts", and the second has a story called "Baby Blue Feather".

I do not know to what extent, if any, these costumes are historically accurate; but something about them leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

It is apparent, of course, that these dolls as whole represent a view of American history that is biased and from a colonialist perspective; I feel as though by the mid-90s Mattel could, and should, have done a better job.

(As usual please feel free to correct me if I am wrong about something, off base about anything, or if you would like this post tagged in any other way.)

[goddamnshinyrock]

...to be fair I do this while it's in sitting mode, too. Can't escape The Elbow Lean, RIP to my back.

ETA: before anyone says it, my vision is perfect, it's been checked, I'm just incapable of posture

[uwmspeccoll]

Written in the Stars

Star Tales: North American Indian Stories is retold and illustrated by Gretchen Will Mayo (b. 1936) and published in 1987 by Walker & Co. in New York. After getting a journalism degree and a teaching certificate, Mayo attended the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design from 1982 to 1984 and earned her MFA from Vermont College. She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and in 1987, she received several awards and honors, including the Original Children’s Book Art Award and Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) Choice for Star Tales. Mayo has lived and worked in the Milwaukee area for many years.

For this book, Mayo, known for her children’s books, retells Native American stories related to the stars. Her work beautifully bridges cultural heritage and imagination, making her a cherished voice in children’s literature. Her illustrations enhance the enchantment of these celestial narratives, allowing one to imagine constellations coming alive with myth and magic.

-View other posts from our Native American Literature Collection

-Melissa (Stockbridge-Munsee), Special Collections Graduate Intern

[embraceanewmaneachnight]

y’all are SLEEPING on Austin Sommers like that bloodthirsty theatre kid is fucking hot

[p1325]

My book collection so far

Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice

Emily Bronte - Wuthering Heights

Louisa May Alcott - Little Women

Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre

Jane Austen - Sense and Sensibility

Edith Wharton - The Age Of Innocence

Jane Austen - Emma

Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary

Jane Austen - Northanger Abbey

Edith Wharton - The House of Mirth

Jane Austen - Persuasion

Louisa May Alcott - Good Wives

Nathaniel Hawthorne - The Scarlet Letter

Charlotte Bronte - The Professor

Leo Tolstoy - Anna Karenina (Part 1)

Leo Tolstoy - Anna Karenina (Part 2)

Jane Austen - Mansfield Park

Anne Bronte - Agnes Grey

Thomas Hardy - Far from The Madding Crowd

William Makepeace Thackeray - Vanity Fair (Part 1)

William Makepeace Thackeray - Vanity Fair (Part 2)

Pierre-Ambroise-François Choderlos de Laclos - Dangerous Liaisons

Alexandre Dumas fils - The Lady of the Camellias

Henry James - Washington Square

Louisa May Alcott - A Garland For Girls

Henry James - The Portrait of A Lady (Part 1)

Henry James - The Portrait of A Lady (Part 2)

Jane Austen - Lady Susan. The Watson. Sanditon

Anne Brontë - The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Thomas Hardy - Tess of the D’Urbeville

Edith Wharton - The Mother’s Recompense

Daniel Defoe - Moll Flanders

Henry James - The Wings of the Dove

Edith Wharton - The Customs of the Country

Kate Chopin - The Awakening

Jane Austen - Juvenilia  

George Eliot - Middlemarch (Part 1)

George Eliot - Middlemarch (Part 2)  

George Sand - Nanon

Henry James - The Ambassadors

Elizabeth Gaskell - Cranford

Thomas Hardy - Under The Greenwood Tree

Edith Wharton - Summer

George Sand - Indiana

Henry James - The Bostonians

George Eliot - Silas Marner

Henry James - The Golden Bowl (Part 1)

Henry James - The Golden Bowl (Part 2)  

Edith Wharton - The Twilight Sleep

Emily Eden - The Semi-Attached Couple

Edith Wharton - The Glimpses of the Moon

Mary Elizabeth Braddon - Lady Audley’s Secret

George Eliot - The Mill on the Floss

Elizabeth Gaskell - Mary Barton 

Fanny Burney - Evelina 

George Sand - Little Fadette

Emily Eden - The Semi-detached House

Charlotte Brontë - Shirley I

Charlotte Brontë - Shirley II

Daniel Defoe - Lady Roxana

Theodor Fontane  - Effie Briest 

Edith Wharton - The Cliff

Thomas Hardy - Two on a Tower

Frances Hodgson Burnett - A Lady of Quality

Louisa May Alcott - Moods

Edith Nesbit - The Incomplete Amorist

Frances Trollope - The Widow Barnaby (Part 1)

[digitalnewberry]

Silver Horn drawings, 1897-1921

Silver Horn drawings, 1897-1921

“Silver Horn (1860-1940), a Kiowa artist from the early reservation period, may well have been the most prolific Plains Indian artist of all time. Known also as Haungooah, his Kiowa name, Silver Horn was a man of remarkable skill and talent. Working in graphite, colored pencil, crayon, pen and ink, and watercolor on hide, muslin, and paper, he produced more than one thousand illustrations between 1870 and 1920. Silver Horn created an unparalleled visual record of Kiowa culture, from traditional images of warfare and coup counting to sensitive depictions of the sun dance, early Peyote religion, and domestic daily life. At the turn of the century, he helped translate nearly the entire corpus of Kiowa shield designs into miniaturized forms on buckskin models for Smithsonian ethnologist James Mooney.”

-- Silver Horn: Master Illustrator of the Kiowas by Candace S. Greene

The artist Elbridge Ayer Burbank traveled to Indian reservations in the late nineteenth century to paint the portraits of Indigenous peoples. Burbank traveled to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, on three occasions; it was there that the Kiowa artist Silver Horn sat for him for at least two portraits.

Silver Horn had been an established artist among the Kiowa since the 1880s. In 1899, he became interested in Burbank’s “naturalist” technique, and he observed the American artist as he painted other subjects. With Burbank, Silver Horn studied the art of modeling faces and individual portraiture. He experimented with this style in a series of individual portraits of people and animals, most of which he sold to Edward E. Ayer, before abandoning the style in favor of work that was more stylistically Kiowa.

Silver Horn drawings, 1897-1921

The 123 pieces by Silver Horn in the Newberry’s Ayer Collection demonstrate that his experimentation took him away from narratives about community to work that featured individuals. This makes the body of work held in the collection stylistically distinct from both the earlier and later periods of Silver Horn's work.

–former Ayer Reference Librarian Seonaid Valiant (abridged from original post)

View Silver Horn's drawings or all of the Edward E. Ayer Collection at Newberry Digital Collections

[ahsgirlblogger]

new dvds i bought at my local record store <3

[specialagentartemis]

tbh what I ACTUALLY think about content warnings is that the author should not be the one writing them. I have encountered multiple stories where the events the author warned for were kind of bland and predictable, but there was stuff baked into the narrative that was really uncomfortable or disturbing and the author seems to have not considered that a problem at all. Becky Chambers’s fish scene STILL haunts me.

[have-you-read-this-short-fiction]

[cxrrodedcoffin]

i made it through one month of summer so naturally i’m anxiously waiting for halloween season to get here so i added some recent purchases to my horror shelf!! (this is temporary until i get my bedroom rearranged and make space for a bigger shelf bc i’m definitely outgrowing this one lol

[newwavesylviaplath]

life is actually so unfair no one deserves that misty day pop more than i do...

[uwmspeccoll]

Raggedy Origins

Raggedy Ann Stories is a short story collection written and illustrated by Johnny Gruelle. The collection centers around the sweet ragdoll character Raggedy Ann. Published in 1918 by M. A. Donohue & Company in Chicago, this edition is adorned with cheerful illustrations that truly bring the stories to life.

Raggedy Ann, a character that has captured the hearts of many, was brought to life by the American illustrator and author John Barton Gruelle (1880-1938). The character made its first appearance as a doll in 1915 and was later introduced to the public through this 1918 Raggedy Ann Stories book.

The exact beginnings of the Raggedy Ann doll and its related stories are unclear, but many myths and legends surrounding its origins have been widely circulated. Johnny Gruelle is responsible for sparking many of these tales—whether inadvertently or with his well-known sense of humor, it’s anyone’s guess! In one version, Gruelle's daughter Marcella discovered a faceless cloth doll in her grandmother's attic, which the artist then drew a face on. It is said that Gruelle made up stories about Raggedy Ann to tell his daughter, Marcella, who is believed to have been the inspiration behind the doll and its stories. One detail that is clear is that despite internet rumors to the contrary, the doll was not designed to represent children who died from vaccines. 

View more posts from our Historical Curriculum Collection

-Melissa, Special Collections Graduate Intern

[darkdoelette]

You’re running low on money so decide to squat in apartments. Starting with the pastel apartments

[kissablelips-desireslure-vol3]

Title: JOURNEY TO ITALY (1997)

Director: Lucas Kazan

Models: Dario D'Alba Derek Cameron

©️ Odyssey Men Video

[dollheadjar]

urban outfitters pins & needles sweater in the screen accurate colour arrived today!

[grimini]