Paper doll

These remarkable paper dolls illustrate fashionable, fancy, working class and occupational dress from the second half of the 1820s to the early 1830s. They complement a manuscript (T.360-1998), '>The History of Miss Wildfire'. This morality tale charts through the paper dolls the downfall of a 'fashion-stricken' young lady. After the death of her father, Miss Wildfire descends into poverty and is forced to earn her keep as a lacemaker. In the end she is 'redeemed' through marriage and conversion to Quakerism. The manuscript and presumably the dolls were given to Mary Wilson (1811-73) 'from her affectionate sister' Anne Sanders Wilson in October 1832.