By Robert Themer

rthemer@daily-journal.com

815-937-3369

Jun 12, 2010 Updated Oct 16, 2013

Work is usually plentiful year round at Basu Natural Farms in Pembroke Township, but Pamela Ward Basu has cranked it up several notches to organize thousands of items in the new "Basu Museum and Culture Center."

"We are bringing out a positive image for Pembroke Township and to bring more tourism to Kankakee County," Pam said.

Devoted to African-American, Native American culture and world culture, a dominant feature of the museum will be dolls selected from more than 4,000 Pam has amassed in more than 20 years of collecting.

But, there is much more, including locally discovered stone tools, arrowheads and fire stones from the days when the Potawatomi still lived in and around what is now Pembroke.

"After the rains came through this week, we found some more fire stones," she said Thursday. "Every time it rains we find something new in the sand here."

The tools, pottery, dolls and other Native American items will be part of a "Trail of Tears exhibit," she said.

The doll collection will be called "We Are the World" and will feature all kinds of dolls, from corn husk and rag doll varieties to beaded Ndebele dolls from Kenya and modern African-American artisan dolls like Cousin Mattie's Daddy's Sister's People. Californian Cheryl Munson's Cousin Mattie characters, modeled on members of her family, also became the figures in the first commercial black greeting cards, Pam said.

"I have a Michelle Obama porcelain doll in her inaugural gown," Pam said. "I'm waiting for them to offer me Barack. He's not made yet."

Her collection includes dolls that might be considered racially offensive -- a barrelful of black Mammy dolls, some of them very old; cast iron Aunt Jemimas and a knitted British doll that resembles a black-face minstrel.

The dolls are not offensive to her, Pam said. They are artifacts of the history of racial attitudes.

""There are a lot of stereotypes -- African-American, Asian and Native American," she said. "It was part of our history, you know. We went through that ...

"The Germans were the first to make African-American dolls that look like African-Americans," she said, pointing to a trio of plump, brown baby dolls her husband, Basu, brought home recently. "The Germans took pride in their craftsmanship. Here in America, they were caricatures, like the Mammy dolls.

"Even in England, they had the Golliwogs," she said, holding up the knitted doll, "They were all very, very dark, always with bow ties."

Her doll carries an informational tag that says the Golliwog dated to the end of the 19th century when the British occupied Egypt. They were caricatures of native workers called "Ghuls" and wore armbands bearing the letters W.O.G.S. -- "workers on government service."

Other explanations say the caricature dolls were based on the work of late 19th century American-British illustrator Florence Upton for her book "Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls," and it involved a Golliwogg."

For half a century, the Golliwog was a child's favorite cloth doll in Europe and a popular advertising image, but like Little Black Sambo in America, the Golliwog came to be seen as racially demeaning by the 1960s, according to the Ferris State University Jim Crow Museum of Racism in America.

The museum is at Basu Natural Farms, 13642 E. 2000S Road (Florida Avenue) in the north part of Pembroke Township. The farm is about half a mile east of Main Street.

The Basu Farm Store also will be open, featuring jams, jellies and salsas, plus herbal tinctures, ointments and soaps Pam Basu produces from a wide variety of organic crops, herbs, perennials and wild native plants. The soap is from a lye-free recipe she learned from her mother and grandmother, Pam said.

They also offer garden plants, perennials and seasonal produce.

Hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays and noon to 5 Saturdays.

Group museum visits can be arranged by calling (815) 295-7357.

The farm also includes a half-mile nature trail along an abandoned railroad.