'Mammy' Safety Pin Holder

This novelty safety pin holder, reflects the impact of American popular culture and iconography on women's home crafts in the first half of the twentieth century. The holder takes the form of a 'Black Mammy' wearing a colourful turban, fashioned from felt, wool, a scrap of cotton and a curtain ring.

A racial sterotype

The racial sterotype of the black mammy and loyal domestic servant emerged in 19th century America. In her 1852 book Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe, provided what was to become a standard mammy description when she described the character of Aunt Chloe the cook: 'round, black, shiny face is hers, so glossy as to suggest the idea that she might have been washed over with the whites of eggs, like one of her own tea rusks. Her whole plump countenance beams with satisfaction and contentment from under a well-starched checkered turban'.

In the early twentieth century the black mammy became a popular character in films and television - the most famous cinematic portrayl being Hattie McDaniel's Academy Award winning appearance in the 1939 film, Gone with the Wind - as well as in novels, plays and women's crafts. Magazines provided New Zealand women with a range of Mammy patterns for domestic items (nightdress cases, duster bags etc), along with patterns for topsy-turvy dolls, which had a 'black' and a 'white' end, and golliwogs during the first half of the twentieth century. 

As a handy safety pin holder, this felt Mammy continues her sterotypical role as a domestic helper.