Mme Allone's dolls for Black Children

The first 1923 post for our annual celebration of Black History Month.

One hundred years ago today … The Mme Allone Doll Manufacturing Co. was advertising "real negro dolls" in the New York Age and looking for sales agents.

Note: we last mentioned Black dolls in our November 13, 1920 post.

The business was listed at 2376 7th Avenue, and later that year, at 2309 7th Avenue, addresses that are now in midtown but in those days indicated buildings in the heart of Harlem's Black commercial district, near 135th St. along what is now Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard. 

The advertisements respectively pitch "Negro Dolls for your children" and describe Allone as "the originator of the of the famous Walking and Talking Colored Dolls." 

Very little information is easily found about Allone. In 1925 the Negro Yearbook  reported that she had made a deal to design dolls for NYC manufacturer Joseph Reuben (15, Negro Yearbook. Negro Year Book Publishing Company, 1925).

– Jonathan Goldman, February 3, 2023

TAGS: Black history, African American, race, women, children, toys, commerce, marketplace