Tuesday, December 20, 2011

The First Izannah I Saw in Person


In 2007 I saw my first Izannah Walker doll in person.  I didn't know what I was doing then, just that I was thankful to have an opportunity to see this beauty in person and be able to photograph her because of Sue Singer's generosity at Lucy's Doll House.  Now when I have the opportunity to document an Izannah Walker doll, I try to take photos from specific vantage points. I didn't know to do that then.  

I've deleted my Picturetrail hosting and am trying to consolidate all the pictures to do with this blog in the blog archives.  So I'm reposting.  But it's lovely to revisit this doll again.  Enjoy.  















Friday, December 2, 2011

Elizabeth Isenburg's Daguerrotype:
Girl with Izannah Walker Doll


Elizabeth Isenburg, who writes Steamboat Arabia:  A Historian's Blog, has generously shared this lovely daguerrotype of Mary Jenks holding an Izannah Walker doll.  I found the image on her blog after doing a search online for  Izannah Walker doll daguerrotype/ambrotype/tintype.   If you visit the  Steamboat Arabia blog you can see the image before it was cleaned.  An amazing difference!  Elizabeth also had Mike (the restorer) take an image of the Izannah daguerrotype without the frame, because it gives a lot of information about the dress of the child and the doll.  

Elizabeth shared that when the image was opened for cleaning, there was "documentation that  this is Mary Ella Jenks (1850-1923).  This was a wonderful surprise because I thought it was Martha Chase because her CDV as a teenager closely resembled the little girl.  I know I am preaching to the choir but Mary is first cousin to Martha and was the daughter of Pardon Jenks in Pawtucket."  

Elizabeth said,  "As you can see by the 2nd photo, I found the documentation for Mary in two places inside the frame.  I wanted these to be seen from the back and they are protected under glass.  The restorer said that the dag must have been opened to cleaned in 1889 when Mary was 49 years old, hence the ephemeral card stock dated 1899.   As I mentioned, Mary did not die until 1923 so I assume this is her handwriting."

Many thanks to Elizabeth Isenburg for sharing this image.   


Thursday, December 1, 2011

The Pawtucket and Central Falls Directory of 1877 - Free PDF Download





In the article I wrote for Early American Life, one of the facts I uncovered is that Izannah is listed in the The Pawtucket and Central Falls Directory of 1877 as Miss I. F. Walker.    For those of you who are into researching Izannah, there is a PDF version of it on Google Books at no cost.   There is an explosion of people selling this on Ebay and Amazon, but you can download the Pawtucket and Central Falls Directory of 1877 for FREE  in PDF at this link below.  There are tons of fun antique advertisements in it as well. 

http://books.google.com/books/download/The_Pawtucket_and_Central_Falls_director.pdf?id=AekCAAAAYAAJ&hl=en&capid=AFLRE727TkauUuOwVn4GX87WPw0w8RPGXRJQ1H2G_Vn82mABKT9E3EP4P3tpdBghyWTLh2iTVJAEtQpx95ZO8jNEFP96dorPbA&continue=http://books.google.com/books/download/The_Pawtucket_and_Central_Falls_director.pdf%3Fid%3DAekCAAAAYAAJ%26output%3Dpdf%26hl%3Den

A Pictorial Directory of Dolls<br> Featured on the Izannah Walker Chronicles

My mission for this blog in 2008 was to create the site I wished existed - a site for doll makers and collectors who love Izannah Walker dol...