(S2E1) In Every Shade of Brown: The National Black Doll Museum of History & Culture

What is lost when people treat dolls as toys rather than artifacts-and what becomes possible when they are interpreted as material culture? The National Black Doll Museum of History & Culture (Attleboro, MA), founded in 2012 by sisters Debra Britt, Felicia Walker, and Tamara Mattinson, began as a family collecting practice and grew into a museum housing more than 10,000 Black dolls.

The collection centers on representation, youth self-esteem, and culturally grounded education rooted in Black history. From the legacy of the 1940s Clark doll tests to the 2008 National Black Doll Convention, the traveling Doll-E-Daze Project, African Wrap Doll–making workshops, and a Guinness World Records bid for the largest collection of Black Santas, Executive Director Debra Britt joins us to discuss dolls as historical artifacts, tools of healing and self-definition, and forms of grassroots pedagogy in classrooms and communities. /