Rare Vintage 1950s Ideal Black Baby Doll Saralee; African American Vinyl & Cloth For Sale

Up for offers we offer this scarce, original, Saralee baby doll by Ideal Corporation with no hidden reserve. It is considered to be the first actual African American doll commercially produced to accurately reflect young black children. Saralee was only manufactured from 1951 to 1953 and up until her introduction, only the only black dolls made were those that reflected crude racial stereotypes or white dolls that were painted black. Saralee is named after the woman who had the vision to create her, Saralee Creech, after observing young African American children playing with white dolls and realizing there were no dolls of their own race on the market. With input from educators, religous leaders and even Eleanor Roosevelt, the Ideal Toy Corportation agreed to manufacture it. Roosevelt provided suggestions for the doll\'s design and became an advocate, writing about it in her column and promoting it in many magazines. She even purchased 500 of them to give away as gifts. One is in FDR\'s Library Museum collection.

This particular doll we are offering is in very good, as-found condition. She still needs a good cleaning but her vinyl head and limbs are in very good shape with no wires poking through or cracks. No fingers or toes are missing. She has brown sleepy-eyes that work as they should and all her lashes appear to be in place. The cloth body is very clean, has no holes or seam splits, it doesn\'t have any repairs. Even the crier still works properly! The back of the doll\'s neck is signed: \"C-17 Ideal Doll\". Other than still being a bit dirty from years of storage, this doll has a little fading of hair color in a couple small areas and her dress is worn with a few holes in it. Overall, this vintage Saralee doll is about 18 inches long and is in very good shape and well-preserved. It sells to the highest buyer!