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By Tanner Simon '20
Collection Overview
Title: Karen Johnson-Weiner Amish Doll Collection, 1991-2011
ID: RG01/Art-0002
Extent: 19.0 Items
Arrangement: 19 dolls in 5 boxes.
Date Acquired: 08/25/2015
Scope and Contents of the Materials
Collection of cloth dolls primarily made by Swartzentruber Amish women. Item descriptions include notes from interview with Johnson-Weiner.
Collection Historical Note
As of 2018, Karen M. Johnson-Weiner is a Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology Emerita at SUNY Potsdam in Potsdam, NY, where she taught courses in linguistic anthropology. She received a B.A. in 1975 from Hope College (Holland, MI) and an M.A. from Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI) in 1976. She earned her Ph.D. in linguistics from McGill University (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) in 1984 and has been studying patterns of language use and cultural maintenance in Amish and Mennonite communities for over 30 years. Her first book, Train up a Child: Old Order Amish and Mennonite Schools, was published by the Johns Hopkins University Press in 2007, and her second, New York Amish: Life in the Plain Communities of the Empire State, in 2010 by Cornell University Press, with a second edition appearing in 2017. With Donald B. Kraybill and Steven M. Nolt, she is the author of The Amish (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013). Johnson-Weiner has also authored a number of articles on Old Order language, culture, and education, including most recently articles on the importance of the 1972 Supreme Court decision in Wisconsin v. Yoder et al. for Amish education in the 21st century (JAPAS 2015) and on Amish women and entrepreneurship (American Studies Journal 2017).
Administrative Information
Repository:
Earl H. and Anita F. Hess Archives and Special Collections
Acquisition Source:
Karen Johnson-Weiner
Acquisition Method:
Young Center gift
Box and Folder Listing
Browse by Box:
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Box 1],
[Box 2],
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Box 3],
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Box 4],
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Box 5],
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- Box 2
- Item 4: Schwartzentruber female doll
- Schwartzentruber female doll, green dress with white pinafore and black bonnet, white and black tube body, 11” long. Both of these dolls (3 and 4) were made by Mrs. Roy Keim. Karen doesn’t know her very well, but she made these dolls at Karen’s request. Sent to her by a sister-in-law, Susie Keim, who is a well-known quilter and businesswoman in the area. Susie is an Amish healer. Also from the Rensselaer Falls, NY area. Hat on male doll is commercial, not a Schwartzentruber hat. Shirt does not have a collar. Like most of these dolls, dress is that of a child. Bonnet on female doll is homemade.
- Item 7: Norfolk, NY, female doll, 2011
- Norfolk, NY, female doll, gray dress, white pinafore, gray bonnet and boots, buttons and yarn used at hip sockets, back of doll is dated, December 22, 2011 Mary Schwartz, 15” long. Pattern Karen associates with Sueann Wickey. Mary Schwartz is also a member of Norfolk Community, now Mrs. Davey Graber, living in Western PA. At the time she made this she would have been in her late teens. Sueann Wickey was Mary’s great-grandmother. Sueann Wickey was first Amish woman Karen ever met, was in early 1960’s, teaching school, local midwife. Delivered over 200 babies. Sue was part of a settlement in the 1960’s in Belize. Karen spent a lot time in Sue’s house. She would visit her in Michigan when working on Amish schools book.
- Item 9: Schwartzentruber female doll, circa 2011
- Schwartzentruber female doll, blue dress with blue pinafore, white bonnet, white tube body with arms, 11.5” long. Purchased at Picken’s General Store, which is the money generating arm of the Heuvelton, NY Historical Society. Clearly made for retail market—evidence the arms. Recognizing demands of English market. Unknown maker. Purchased between 2011 and 2012.
Browse by Box:
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Box 1],
[Box 2],
[
Box 3],
[
Box 4],
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Box 5],
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All]
