I’ve always been interested in how dolls have been used through the years to improve and aid the life of the disadvantaged throughout the world. Dolls were and still are made and sold primarily by women and children under the auspices of aid organizations introducing different cultures, costumes, rituals and religions through play while at the same time bringing much needed work and money to aid the displaced peoples.
The Near East Industries is one of these largely forgotten relief efforts. I’ll attempt to give a very brief history of Asia Minor and particularly Greece to create a background for the dolls I will write about
It always bothers me that souvenir or International dolls are often disregarded by many doll collectors as good examples (not airport dolls!) can make lovely collections for doll lovers who aren’t able to collect the more expensive. We should have a meeting one day of souvenir dolls at the DCGB! I’ll attempt to give a very brief history of Asia Minor and particularly Greece to create a background for the dolls I will write about. I did have my small collection of dolls on the sales table at the AGM but they generated little interest probably as no one knew the history behind them. It always bothers me that souvenir or International dolls are often disregarded by many doll collectors as good examples (not airport dolls!) can make lovely collections for doll lovers who aren’t able to collect the more expensive. We should have a meeting one day of souvenir dolls at the DCGB! Greece since the 19thc had one of the first, if not the first, foreign university campus still in Athens today the prestigious American School of Classical Studies which played an important role in the great refugee crisis of 1922 when one million Orthodox Christians where thrown out of Anatolia creating a humanitarian crisis. Greece offered them sanctuary. The Red Cross and Near East Relief organization (which was established during the crisis in the early 1900’s) provided humanitarian relief. The Greek government stepped in when Edward Capps the ASCS head and Professor of Classics at Princeton was asked to raise awareness of the Balkan crisis in the U.S.A. His daughter Priscilla had been a student at ASCS lived in Athens and immediately became involved with the Near East Relief whose American branch was run by Ruth Ewald in New York. This is when the Near East Industries began. Ruth ran a shop marketing Greek craft goods on Fifth Ave. and together the two women started a business employing 350 women making all sorts of crafts which existed up to the start of WW 11. Priscillastayed in Athens where she had a shop at 48 Amalias Street and in1931 at 2 Amalias Street where the dolls would have been sold. Greece solved the refugee crisis by setting up camps rather vile places that eventually developed into one room houses. (Why can’t we do that today I ask?) It was in these rooms that women and girls over the age of 11 embroidered, wove cloth, weaved, produced handkerchiefs, embroidered dresses and even made coats. The Industries produced curtains for the theatre and even curtains for private homes. But the depression took a great toll on sales and in 1930 to increase funds Priscilla introduced a new product line-Dolls. 6 The 8″ dolls made by the refugee women were stuffed cloth, with hand painted faces dressed in the traditional costumes of Greece, Albania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Palestine as well as Greek palace guards, Rebecca a Christian from Israel, Socrates, Aphrodite, a Greek priest. The dolls are named and labelled. The main distributor in the US was Kimport of Independence Missouri the mail order company who ran a very successful doll business the Near East dolls sold for $4.00 which was a lot of money in the 30’s. They were not play dolls but display dolls. The dolls sold in Athens from Priscillas shop. The Near East Industries closed at the start of WW 11 exports could not be guaranteed and Priscilla and her husband head of the American Express in Athens were forced to flee and returned to the United States in 1942. It was a short lived doll business with a compelling history. If only dolls could talk. Suzy