Paper dolls

Paper dolls were a common toy in the 1950s and very popular with mainly young girls.  They came as books with the doll printed on the cardboard cover.  Sometimes the doll had a cut-out foldable stand.  Inside the book would be many different, colourful outfits for the doll.  In the more expensive books, the outfits were pre-punched, and could be cut out easily from the page.

This collection of paper dolls belonged to Drusilla (Drusi) Megget, a girl growing up in Wellington in the 1950s. She loved playing with them and designed many outfits, sometimes even using recycled calendar pages.  Sometimes the outfits included an activity the doll was doing, such as knitting or going to the beach.

Her dolls ranged from babies to elegant young women.  If the doll didn't come with its own name, Drusi would name it herself.  She tried to have a full alphabet of names.  The dolls at Te Papa are called: Wendy, Queeny, Ruth, Gary, Ron, Pamela, Dianne, Christine, Sue, Sally and Sandra.  Drusi recalls that 'Q for Queeny was important as Queeny was the only girl's name starting with Q that I knew of.'

She had an active imagination and thought of many different stories for her dolls to act out. That's why she needed to make her own clothes for them.  Drusi recalls that one of her games centred round a 'Girls Detective Agency called GDA for short. I drew lots of uniforms for them to wear. There was a red and brown uniform and a black and lime green (& variations) for swimming, walking, office work, riding horses…adventuring and so on.'

The survival of such a collection is rare, and allows Te Papa to document and display a slice of children's play life in the mid twentieth century.  Te Papa is lucky to have Drusi's dolls as they had to be rescued from a rubbish bin when the family were cleaning up their house.  This is often the fate of such small paper items!

Stephanie Gibson
Curator History
August 2010