In Honor of Black History Month

One of the saddest stories I can think of that dealt with romantic loss and betrayal happened to one of my teachers in junior high.  His fiancée ran of with the best man.  My teacher used to walk around class when we were doing home work singing under his breath, “I wonder who’s kissing her now?”

 

His story had a happy ending; he married someone else and had a family and is happily retired. 

 

Leo Moss’s story, unfortunately, had an unhappy ending.  Yet, perhaps Moss’s story isn’t that sad; doll collectors carry on his legacy and memorialize him through his dolls. Noted author Myla Perkins amassed a wonderful Moss collection, about to be auctioned, and Leo Moss dolls grace the noted collection of Debra Neff, on its way for exhibition to Paris.

 

Moss was from Macon, GA, which is still a charming town full of history.  Don’t miss the cemetery with the statue of the little Victorian girl.  The statue was placed there by her parents in loving memory after their child died at age 12.

 

Leo Moss is known now as a doll maker, but he was an itinerant worker who, as one story alleges, sold white dolls that he made to gather funding for the black portrait dolls he wanted to make of his own family.  Part of the legend of his dolls involves the modeled tear on some of the faces, like the one on the doll “Lillian.”   

Evidently, oMss made papier mache out of bits of wallpaper he gathered on his odd jobs.  An X-ray of one of the Neff dolls reveals that he used Caucasian composition baby dolls as a foundation for the black dolls he created.

 

A great place to encounter Leo Moss and his dolls for the first time is amid the pages of “Who won Second Place at Omaha?”  This book is a black and white photo study of the dolls that made up the now defunct Aunt Len’s Doll Museum in Harlem.  The owner, Lenon Hoyte, was a well known collector with a large and amazing collection of rare dolls.  A play about Hoyte and her dolls has been written by Alva Rogers called The Doll Plays (2002). At least one doll from the former museum was sold on Ruby Lane.

 

According to Barbara Whiteman who founded the Philadelphia Doll Museum, there are fewer than 100 Leo Moss dolls in existence, though I’m not sure how that number has been determined.   One doll, circa 1920, is marked “L.M.” on it s shoulder the words “Leotta 2 years 1920” was hand stitched on a tag on the doll’s torso.  This doll came with the information “the child with tears is believed to have been a tribute to the young daughter of Moss.”

 

What made the dolls cry?  According to “Who Won Second Place at Omaha?” Moss’s wife ran away with another man who took not only his wife and children, but his dolls and the patterns and materials for making them.

 

Photos of Moss dolls that I have seen are usually children, yet one is an even rarer Man that is supposedly a self portrait of the artist. One of these is in the Neff collection.

 

More information is available at several blogs and sites online on Leo Moss.  Also, Myla Perkins’ book “Black Dolls” has a section on him.  In fact, if you search for Leo Moss in the dolls and bears category on ebay, Perkins’ book pops up.  Pat Smith has a good article on him in her book “Antique Dolls”, vol. 2.  Somewhere, Leo Moss is smiling down on the antique doll world with the realization that his dolls have evolved from handmade toys to desirable folk art cultural icons.  Some of them are embarking on a world adventure to share with other the magic of one man’s artistic doll dreams.

The Dolls Below are presented in honor of Black History Month and in honor of doll makers every where.