Trunk:Doll Trunk

In 1866 Frenchman Charles Chincolle worte for "La Gazette de la Poupee" his ideas on the importance of giving girls dolls with educational value. Addressing his writing to little girls themselves, he declared: "You should certainly have dolls to dress up: this teaches you dressmaking, and under the most optimistic scenario, when you reach the age of 15 you'll no longer be sewing for your dolls but for the poor people of the world." Chincolle thought even girls who did not have to make their own clothes needed to learn to sew as they would use the skills of a seamstress as adults. Women with such skills, though wealthy enough to buy their own clothes, should spend their time and talents sewing clothes for the needy. The museum acquired this doll trunk filled with hand-stitiched clothes made for a seven-inch doll from the early years of the 20th century, long after store-bought clothes were readily available to most Americans and therefore after little girls needed to be expert seamtresses--unless they just wanted to sew clothes for their dolls.