Readdressing Jenny Lind

Specifically, my pretty parian reproduction.  Or I thought she was a reproduction.  Read on and you'll see that I was mistaken.  For the sake of reference, here's Jenny.

Yesterday I was digging around online for pictures of I forget what, when I discovered a doll on Etsy that looked a lot like my Jenny.  Granted, she ISN'T Jenny, but she looks a lot like her.  Said doll is up for adoption if any of y'all want her, by the way.  Anyway, Jenny's friend had the name "Yield House" attached.  I'd never heard of them before, so I started snooping for info.

Apparently Yield House specialized in doll kits, with most of the dolls being modeled after literary and historical characters.  Romeo and Juliet and the Little Women were all available at one time, as were George and Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, and Betsy Ross among others.  I don't know who completed this Martha but she is gorgeous.  Interestingly, my Jenny is piecemealed from two different dolls.  The head is definitely the Nightingale, as stated by her chest plate...

...but the Nightingale dolls wore white painted stockings and black flats.  The body I found for my doll has high-button boots.

A closer look at the Jo March doll reveals that the shoes belong to her, or to one of her sisters.  Oh well, I can live with Jenny wearing shoes that belong to Meg or Amy or Beth or Jo.  The boots may also belong to Betsy Ross, who...wouldn't have worn high-button boots in real life.  Regardless of whose body this is, publicity posters of the real Jenny Lind showed her wearing high boots like this, so she at least looks accurate.

But wait, there's more!  My doll is apparently not Jenny Lind after all!  I got so caught up in china dolls (of which Jenny Lind was one) that I didn't even think about another, far more important Nightingale.  According to Melody Maker and to Yield House themselves, my doll is Florence Nightingale, the great British nurse.  Indeed, my doll's hair looks more like Nurse Nightingale's than it does Jenny Lind's.

Well...come to think of it, Nurse Nightingale's hairstyle and Ms. Lind's hairstyle are kinda similar.  Regardless, I feel a little silly having misidentified my doll, since Nurse Nightingale's achievements still carry significance today (Jenny Lind is all but forgotten by the modern day).  But then again, Jenny was a popular china doll for awhile, and as far as I know Nurse Nightingale was not.  That's likely where my confusion sprang from, but either way I know now who my doll is.  The original doll's plain white socks and simple black shoes make more sense now, since nurses spent a lot of time on their feet back in the 1800's, just as they do today.  If you were a nurse back then, what would you prefer to wear?  Skin-tight high-button shoes or plain little black flats?  I know what I'd pick!  A completed Florence Nightingale doll can be seen (and bought) on eBay.  So my doll is not who I thought she was, nor is she even intended to be a reproduction of an old doll!  Well, Squidward, what have we learned today?

Melody Maker noted that two of the kits Yield House made were for Pinkie and the Blue Boy, and if I can I'd like to find those.  I have a fondness for those paintings that dates back to my childhood.  But until then I'll be content with my Jenny...yeah, I'm going to keep calling her Jenny.  Since she's wearing a fancy dress like an opera singer I'll just stick with my pet name.  But it's good to know who she really is!  And now y'all know more than you ever wanted to about Yield House dolls!  Keep your eyes peeled; I don't think these dolls are as common as Walda dolls are, but you never know.  They're so nicely made that some folks may mistake them for the real thing.  But don't be fooled!  Yield House dolls date from...I think the 1970's, just like Walda.  A finished Yield House doll is of better quality than a Walda doll, but it's still not vintage.

Love and sunshine,
RagingMoon1987