At the Wenham Museum there is a large doll
collection that held a secret, but not really a secret. For years and years readers of Queen Lili’uokalani’s
autobiography Hawaii’s Story have read about how during her trip to Boston in 1898 to visit her husband’s family, she dressed a doll for a children’s
charity. The Boston newspapers carried
this story, too. I've often wondered what happened to the doll, and so did the curator of Washington Place, the Queen’s family home in Honolulu. Last
year I learned that an author had found the doll in plain sight, at the Wenham Doll Museum.
This was extremely interesting to me, since I had
been to the Wenham Museum many time, both as a child and then again with my own
daughter. My mother (she grew up next door in Hamilton, Massachusetts) had been
many times, too, and two of her brothers live within walking distance of the museum
in Wenham. We were all wondering if the
doll the Queen had dressed in Hawaiian costume had survived, and yet we all had
overlooked seeing it in the museum. How did this happen?
The Wenham Museum
Wenham, Massachusetts
I went to the museum over this past winter to see
the doll for myself. I had corresponded
with the author, Mindi Reid, many times since our trip to Hawaii last
September. She had sworn me to secrecy
until her story was published in Mana
Magazine. Well, the article with her
story was just released in the May/June 2013 issue. You can read it online through the Mana
Magazine app for iPad or other tablet readers, or purchase the issue through
the website below (unless you are lucky enough to be in Hawaii to pick up the
issue at your local news stand).
You can see why the doll would not be recognizable today
as a Hawaiian. Her once colorful dress and hair have faded, and the silk flower lei has wilted.
Queen Lili’uokalani had been given a German porcelain doll to dress, so
she looks very Caucasian. There is no wonder we never stopped to read the label
on this little doll, even though she stands on a shelf next to dolls dressed by
the crowned heads of Europe and Japan.
 |
The Hawaiian doll is to the far right, other dolls on this shelf were donated by
The Tsar Nicolas II, Queen Victoria, The Emperor of Japan, and Queen Elizabeth of Romania |
 |
Come in and see the dolls
of Boston town,
Dollies from all the
world around,
Who go about from
Place to Place,
All with a cheerful
face,
To help little
children dear,
That they may be happy
and glad all the year.
And when you've seen
them o'er and o'er
You'll want to see
them one time more. |
Elizabeth Richards Horton was a Boston socialite,
and she asked Queen Lili’uokalani to contribute a doll to her exhibition to
benefit The New England Home for Crippled Children (now Children’s Hospital in
Boston). She had a doll named “Miss
Columbia” who traveled with other dolls for charitable exhibits. Her family owned the Claflin Richards house
in Wenham. The house was purchased by the Wenham improvement society in 1921 as
a museum. Elizabeth’s collection grew
when people heard of her charity, and even crowned heads from all over the
globe contributed dolls. After many
years of being in storage, she tried to sell her doll collection, but found it
had suffered damage in poor storage conditions.
Instead of selling the dolls, she offered it in 1922 for display at the
Wenham museum. About 600 of the dolls had survived enough to go on permanent
display as the International Doll Collection.
 |
| A poster for the International Doll Collection |
 |
| "Miss Columbia" and some of her international doll companions |
You can read all about how the Queen sewed this doll’s
costume herself in her autobiography or in Mindi Reid’s article in Mana.
You can also read all about the International Doll Collection at the
Wenham Museum website. I’m still flabbergasted
that the doll has survived all these years, and the little dress sewn by the
Queen is still in good condition. The flowered fabric has faded, and so has her hair and the bright ribbon around her waist. Most of all, I’m still surprised that I saw
the doll so many times, and did not recognize that she was the Queen’s
doll. The title of Mindi Reid’s article
is “Lost in Plain Sight”.
I also found a genealogical connection between my
mother, who was a cousin to Queen Lili’uokalani’s husband, John Owen Dominis,
and to Elizabeth Horton Richards, the Wenham woman who started the International
Doll collection. Mom's 3rd great grandmother, Catherine (Jones) Younger, was the sister of Mary (Jone) Dominis, who removed to Hawaii with her sea captain husband, and her son, John Owen Dominis married Lili'uokalani.
Genealogy:
Generation 1: Michael Dunnell, born about 1640,
probably France, died about 1717 in Topsfield, Massachusetts, married to Mary
Unknown. Michael Dunnell/Dwinnell is my
9th great grandfather.
Generation 2: Thomas Dunnell, born 20 November 1672
in Topsfield, died 8 October 1747 in Topsfield, married on 23 May 1701 in Lynn,
Massachusetts to Dinah Brimsdell
Generation 3: Thomas Dwinnell, born 1711 in
Topsfield, died 25 June 1775, married in 1738 to Hannah Towne, daughter of
Joseph Towne and Abigail Curtis. Joseph Towne is the brother of Edmund Towne, my
9th great grandfather.
Generation 4:
Jacob Dwinnell, born 20 November 1744; married on 11 February 1768 in
Boxford, Massachusetts to Mehitable Towne, daughter of Elisha Towne and Sarah
Rhodes.
Generation5: Elijah Dwinnell b. 14 July 1773 in
Boxford, Massachusetts; married Rebecca Russell, daughter of James Russell and
Rebecca Unknown
Generation 6: Mary Ann Dwinnell married on 28 July
1827 to Jabez Richards, born 27 March 1805, died 18 March 1840.
Generation 7:
Elizabeth Willett Richards, born 6 October 1837 in Wenham,
Massachusetts, died 22 August 1928 in Wenham; married in 1858 to Thayer Horton.
Michael Dunnell and Mary Unknown
I
I
Thomas
Dunnell and Dinah Brimdell John Dwinnell and Mary
Read
I
I
Thomas
Dwinnell and Hannah Towne
Keziah Dwinnell and Nicholas Cree
I
I
Jacob
Dwinnell and Mehitable Towne Richard Cree and Ruth
Johnson
I
I
Elijah
Dwinnell and Rebecca Russell Stephen Cree and Hannah Smith
I
I
Mary
Ann Dwinnell and Jabez Richards Sarah Cree and James
Phillips
I
I
Elizabeth
Willett Richards m. Thayer Horton
Hannah Phillips and Thomas Russell Lewis
I
Hannah Eliza Lewis and Abijah Franklin
Hitchings
I
Arthur Treadwell Hitchings
and Florence Etta Hoogerzeil
I
Gertrude Matilda Hitchings and Stanley Elmer
Allen
(my grandparents)
For more information:
Hawaii’s
Story by Hawaii’s Queen, by Liliuokalani, Mutual
Publishing, 1991 (originally published in Boston by Lee & Shepard
Publishing, 1897), page 216 – 7.
"Mrs. William
Lee of Brookline gave an interesting talk last evening to a goodly gathering of
women, and a slight sprinkling of men, at the doll show opened in Hotel
Thorndike, for two days, yesterday, for the benefit of the New England Home for
Crippled Children.
This doll show,
which for variety and size exceeds any previous one in Boston, is notable for
one thing, - in having among the exhibits three genuine royal dolls, that is to
say, three dolls contributed by royalty.
Two of them, miniature representations of Eskimo babies, made by the
Eskimos themselves, and dressed in full Arctic costume of sealskin, were sent
here by Queen Victoria from her own private collection, which is said to be the
largest in the world.
The third one was
given by ex-Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii who dressed it and decorated it
herself in the mother hubbard-like gown characteristic of Hawaiian women, and
the head wreath and neck garland of flowers to which they are so partial on
gala occasions. The ex-queen named the
doll Kaiulani, for her niece and heir.”
Download
the Mana Magazine app here
“Lost in Plain Sight”, by Mindi Reid, Mana Magazine, Honolulu, Hawaii: Pacific
Basin Publishing, page 22.
“Tiny
Ambassadors with a Mission” from the Antiques Almanac website (the top photo is
of the doll donated by Queen Lili’uokalani):
-------------------------
Copyright
2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo
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