Izannah Walker Chronicles: Tilly, Wisconsin's Izannah Walker Doll

1951.1608, Wisconsin Historical Society

A few months ago Melissa Voigt went to visit the Izannah Walker "Tilly" at the Wisconsin Historical Society. While she was there, she was able to take pictures of the doll there. Tilly is object number 1951.1608 in the WHS collection and is described as a "cloth doll, girl, green plaid dress, white apron, USA, Izannah Walker, 1855-1865." Because of Melissa's efforts, and the generosity of the Wisconsin Historial Society, we are able to post pictures of Tilly here on the Izannah Walker Chronicles.

1951.1608, Wisconsin Historical Society

Tilly is also featured in the book The Story of My Dolls by Alice Timpet. In her book, Alice Timpet describes her dolls, one of which is named Tillie. Alice never mentions that Tillie is an Izannah Walker doll, perhaps because she didn't know!

Thanks so much to Melissa for taking the pictures, and for getting permission from the Wisconsin Historical Society to post them here. Here she is, holding Tilly. I understand very much the look on her face!

The Wisconsin Historical Society has an
excellent collection of
children's clothing online,
as well as dolls.

Stay tuned, because another generous person
has sent a picture of an original Izannah Walker doll!
I'll be posting that in a few days.

Who Is Izannah Walker?

Izannah Frankford Walker is a dollmaker who lived in the nineteenth century. She first patented her dollmaking process in 1873, but she may have been making dolls as early as 1840. Her dolls have the look of primitive folk portraits from the mid 1800s.

Born September 25th of 1817, orphaned at seven years old, Izannah and her sisters were raised by relatives in Somerset, Massachusetts, not far from her birthplace of Bristol, Rhode Island. There is not much information about Izannah until later in life, when she is listed as a dollmaker living in Central Falls, Rhode Island as of 1865. In 1873 she applied for a patent for her particular process of making an unbreakable doll. Izannah lived in a way that not many women did in the nineteenth century, if oral tradition about her is accurate. Linda Edward states in Cloth Dolls Ancient to Modern that Izannah "became a skilled carpenter, was active in real estate, raised canaries, designed her own parlor heater, and liked to tinker with household gadgets. Fortunately for us, she also made dolls."

Pictures of Original Izannah Walker Dolls Taken by Dixie Redmond

Click on the thumbnails to be taken to the album with more pictures of each doll. You are free to right-click and save copies for your personal use as inspiration in creating Izannah inspired dolls but please don't use the pictures themselves for commercial purposes.

Free Image Hosting at www.picturetrail.com

Special thanks goes to Lucy’s Doll House of Camden, Maine for allowing me to take pictures of these original Izannah Walker dolls before they were sold. Their generosity has been such an encouragement to me as a learner and a dollmaker and prompted me to create this site for other Izannah Walker enthusiasts. It's a great shop - every doll lover and doll maker should visit!

1 comments:

Patricia Malmendier said...: Dixie- Thank you so much! I have a copy of the book, and wondered many times whether or not the doll had survived. How amazing to find out that she has indeed (though she looks quite different than I imagined!)
I believe the author's last name is actually "Trimpey"
(interesting note- in the book Tilly is referred to as a 'rubber headed' doll, with no mention of Izannah or Jane Walker.)
Thank you so much!; October 26, 2009 12:46 AM

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Izannah Walker Chronicles Pictures

Who Is Izannah Walker?

In Izannah's Own Hand

Pictures of Original Izannah Walker Dolls Taken by Dixie Redmond

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