19. "HAITIAN" Doll
By family tradition, this Haitian doll of a black woman and child was purchased by the donor’s great-grandfather c.1850. Ten-inches tall, the woman has a stitched face, printed cotton dress with short sleeves, petticoat, and straw hat. Her baby is strapped to her back by a sash of blue ribbon.
This doll was donated in 1991 by Kathryn Brooke, about the time that the donor and her Rockville-born husband retired from Washington to Gaithersburg. She provided no further history nor any Montgomery County provenance for it; but, as a member of the Historical Society, she undoubtedly believed that such a venerable toy deserved to be preserved and might be of use to the interpretation of local history and the Beall-Dawson House.