Doll (1964.010)
Doll
Artifact
Identifier:
1964.010Description
This amazing doll was made by Emma Green Lewis of Hamilton between 1929 and 1932. It is covered top to bottom with over 2000 buttons, which Emma collected from her family and friends, and sewed one-by-one onto the doll's green gingham dress.Additional Information
Emma Lewis was the daughter of Mary-Anne Green, a fugitive from slavery who escaped Charleston, South Carolina and came to Canada in 1858. Emma was born in Collingwood, and worked as a tailoress before moving to Hamilton and marrying Cornelius Lewis of Simcoe in 1900. Several buttons on the doll come from Cornelius' time as a waiter on the 'Grand Trunk' Railway line.Emma and Cornelius were the parents of four children, including Raymond "Rapid Ray" Lewis, the first Canadian-born Black Olympic medalist. Like his father, and many other Black men of the period, Ray found work as a railway porter. While training for the Olympics he would often run alongside the CPR train tracks during stopovers on the Canadian Prairies. The Canadian Pacific Railway buttons on the doll come from Ray.
Emma and Cornelius were prominent members of Hamilton's Black community and attended services at Stewart Memorial Church. Many of the buttons on the doll likely came from the Sunday dresses and suits of people who attended the church, Canada's oldest black congregation.
The doll also bears buttons commemorating a Royal Visit in 1937, buttons from the Royal Canadian Flying Corps in which Black Hamiltonian Lincoln Alexander served, and buttons from the Hamilton Fire department. The stories behind many of these buttons will never be known.
The doll was donated to the Dundas Museum by the Lewis family in 1964, likely through the influence of Alden Brown, a friend of the family who was both a member of the Black community of Dundas, and a founder of the Dundas Historical Society.