Shirley Temple, yellow dress

Shirley Temple (1928-2014) was one of the most popular celebrities in the western world in the 1930s, being Hollywood's top box-office attraction from 1935-38. She influenced children's fashions, and dolls in her likeness were hugely popular. This particular doll was played with by Audrey Valentine Fitzgerald (nee Coleman, 1934-2017) and then by her daughter Leander in the 1960s.

Paper doll history

Paper dolls became popular in Britain, Germany and the United States in the nineteenth century, and were either imported by New Zealand distributers, or printed locally. They were particularly popular in the 1930s and during the Second World War years when imported dolls were scarce and too expensive for many families. Paper dolls could be produced cheaply and provide hours of fun and imaginative play.

Paper dolls were seen to encourage child development, and in particular, taught girls about acceptable ideas about femininity (and sometimes maternity). Their multiple costume changes and accessories reflected girls’ complex social lives (real and imagined); and allowed space for their owners to invent stories for their dolls.

Paper dolls often came in books (sometimes called a ‘dress book’), with the doll printed on the cardboard cover with a cut-out stand. Inside the book would be many different fashionable and interchangeable outfits. In the more expensive books, the outfits were pre-punched, and could be easily cut out from the page.

Dolls were named and presented within narratives such as Hollywood glamour, going out, city life, at the beach, etc. The selection of clothing would reflect a myriad of activities at different times of day, ranging from sleepwear, day wear, evening dress to accessories.

Paper dolls of the early to mid-twentieth century like this example often featured white role models living idealised middle/upper class lives. A paper doll’s social status was depicted through their clothing, grooming and accessories, revealing gender codes of their period, particularly ideals and stereotypes of femininity.