Celebrating Black History: History Through Dolls of Color: Silent Witnesses

Presenter and exhibitor April S. Marius will take us on a journey through time with a lecture and pop-up exhibit of her historical collection of antique dolls of color. Dating from the early 19th to the early 21st centuries, most of the collector's dolls are homemade one-of-a-kind dolls that were not sold in shops. They tell stories of different people, centuries, and standards of living. This is a unique area of doll collecting due to the scarce number of vintage dolls of color that have survived. Presenter and exhibitor April S. Marius will take us on a journey through time with a lecture and pop-up exhibit of her historical collection of antique dolls of color. Dating from the early 19th to the early 21st centuries, most of the collector's dolls are homemade one-of-a-kind dolls that were not sold in shops. They tell stories of different people, centuries, and standards of living. This is a unique area of doll collecting due to the scarce number of vintage dolls of color that have survived. Women of color have shared with April that they never had a doll that looked like them as a child. Generations of children of color had only Caucasian dolls to play with. This began April's quest to understand history through dolls of color. Her collection, part of which will be exhibited on the day of the lecture, has developed into a myriad of historical images through different European and American artisan renditions of African Americans and people of color globally.

About the Presenter: April S. Marius is an accomplished leather designer and artist from Freeport who began collecting dolls nearly 30 years ago. Since then she has amassed an extensive collection of 500-plus dolls.She began to see her dolls with eyes wide open, realizing they held "secrets of history when it was almost impossible to record." Now her greatest passion is to share the historical value and knowledge her doll collection holds.