Brand record
Izannah Walker
Izannah Walker was an American doll maker based in Central Falls, Rhode Island, known for cloth play dolls with molded heads and painted features. She patented a method for making dolls in 1873. The process used layers of fabric and stuffing to create a soft, durable form, with an outer layer designed to reduce cracking or flaking of the paint. Walker worked with her three sisters, who helped paint the dolls. Her work belongs to the nineteenth-century American tradition of handmade cloth dolls.
- Founded
- 1873
- Final year
- 1888
- Countries
- United States
- Locations
- Central Falls, Rhode Island, United States
- Founders
- Izannah F. Walker
The story of Izannah Walker
Izannah F. Walker was a doll maker in Central Falls, Rhode Island. The Strong National Museum of Play dates one of her dolls to 1845–1855 and describes her business as a cottage industry. Walker formed doll heads and shoulders by pressing glue-treated fabric into molds, then assembled and stuffed the dolls. The process produced a soft play doll with a shaped, painted surface.
In 1873 Walker received U.S. Patent No. 144,373 for an improvement in doll manufacture. Her patent described a secondary layer of stuffing beneath the outer webbing and painted surface, intended to let the surface give under pressure and help prevent the paint from cracking or scaling. Walker’s three sisters also painted the dolls. The Strong identifies the sisters’ work as part of the production, while the National Museum of Toys and Miniatures reports that Walker and her sisters made dolls from about 1845 to 1886. The available sources differ on the end of her working period, so no final production date is assigned here.
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