The source did not identify the dolls as ceramic. However, I think, from examining the images, the forms are ceramic. If not, the forms can still offer inspiration for personal projects in our ceramic sculpture class.
No two dolls were alike. For some girls, their doll may have been their only possession.
(Boston City Archaeology Program)
(Boston City Archaeology Program)
During the summer of 2015, City Archaeologist Joe Bagley and his team of volunteers from the City Archaeology Program conducted an archaeological dig at the site of the Dorchester Industrial School for Girls. They recovered 17,723 artifacts, the majority of which were deposited between 1859 and 1880. Their finds offer an intimate glimpse into the school’s operations and its occupants.
Prospective students went through an application process. In order to qualify for admission, the girls had to come from destitute families. For many, this meant their parent(s) were unable to support them financially, were prone to drinking and/or were incarcerated. In other cases, the parent(s) were noted as ill, absent, or dead. By 1858, their popularity had grown such that for every one girl they accepted into the school, they had to turn away two. They felt it was important to “work thoroughly with a few than superficially for many.”
When the school first opened, students accepted ranged in age from six years to fifteen years old, but by 1898 the directors raised the minimum age to eleven. Initially, the girls were educated, trained, and lived in the school, but by 1881 the girls began to attend Dorchester’s public schools and returned for their vocational training at the Centre Street property in the afternoons. The yard offered space for the girls to play and “not disturb the neighbors,” and accommodated their garden, which provided fresh food for their meals. Although the school did not affiliate with any religious organizations, the girls did attend the local Congregational Church.
The Dorchester Industrial School for Girls provided a unique system of individual guardianship. When the school placed girls into homes to work as domestic servants, they assigned each girl a guardian (usually a school manager), who checked in on the girl to make sure her placement was a satisfactory one. This relationship often lasted for years. This program was unusual, as most industrial schools ended their responsibility to their students once they left. The Dorchester school’s program was so unique that it was a topic of discussion at conferences and in professional publications.
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