

Being curious about her
origins, I searched the
archives for information. I
didn't find much--she had a
"found in collection"
accession number of
19xx-427, which meant that
she was already in the
collection before the first
formal inventory was
undertaken.
But we have other ways to
learn more about dolls, and
even though it seems wrong,
I undressed her to look for
more clues. Eureka!
Attached to her back was a
maker's label reading
"GREINER'S PATENT HEADS, No.
10 Pat. March 30, '58."

click
image to enlarge
A little work on Google,
Ancestry and GenealogyBank
yielded more information.
This doll was made by Ludwig
Greiner (1805-1874), a
German immigrant who lived
and worked in Philadelphia.
The city directory listed
him in 1840 as "toy
man." The 1850 Federal
Census lists him as a "paper
machinist,", but in 1854 an
advertisement in the Sunday
Dispatch shows that he is
selling "dolls heads, arms
and toys" at his store. The
1858 patent was for
"improvement in constructing
dolls' heads." The heads
were made from
linen-reinforced papier
mache and then painted with
oil paints. It seems likely
that he sold the heads, and
the buyers would create
their own bodies and
clothing at home.

Ludwig's sons joined him in
the business. In the 1850
census, his eldest son
Amandis is also listed as a
paper machinist. By the
1860 census, His sons Lewis,
Edward and William are all
listed as doll makers along
with their father. The
Greiner fame didn't end
here, though. A 1997 series
of US Stamps, called
"Classic American Dolls"
featured one of Greiner's
dolls.

Am I too old to play with
dolls?