Dolls, Any ideas?

hellyboo_2

Hi I am am fairly new to these forums so please move this thread if it's in the wrong place.

I am 31 and since I was born, my dad who travelled abroad alot on business, used to bring a doll home for me as a gift from wherever he had travelled to.

I used to have these in my room as a child. I have well over 100 dolls (maybe even 200) and most are in national dress (some countries does even exist anymore!). All of them are unused and either in original boxes or in clear plastic bags.

All my dolls are in cardboard boxes now and I don't want to have them on display in my house (decluttering!). I really don't want to get rid of them as each one was bought for me as a gift and brought home from however many miles away.


My question is really does anyone have any ideas what I could do with them so that they don't live forever in my dark loft?! I was wondering if doll museums still exist or if local places (like galleries) would want to show them or if it would be difficult to set up something like this myself.

Thanks in advance!

kyssyn

Edinburgh has a Museum of Childhood and has loads of dolls. Some of the exhibits are permanent and others are temporary. I guess you could phone them to ask if they'd be interested or know of anywhere else that might be?

fernliebee

Take a picture of each one and make a photo collage to hang somewhere in your house? The museum thing sounds good too. maybe a small gallery would like to exhibit them for a while? What about local college/ university, they might have photography or art students who would like to take pictures or paint them? In an ideal world it might be easier to have a museum take them as other things may take a lot of organising but depends how much time you have on your hands.

sandiep

Do you think that your dad would want you to feel obligated into keeping them? He honestly wouldn't. People give presents to bring pleasure, not to inflict an obligation or indebtedness.

So do what you feel is right. Give them away with a light and happy heart. Or You could even sell them and use some of the money to buy a present for your dad, and return his favour.

never_enough

Agree with previous poster. You could try ebay & buy something that suits you more with any proceeds.
If you still feel sentimentally towards them you could always take photos of them. I did that with some of my favourite childhood toys that were stored in my mums loft until recently. They're part of the screensaver on my computer, so come up every so often. When I see it I think awwwwww, I really loved that teddy/doll/strange mis-shapen rabbit, but I don't have to live with them.

skintchick

My grandma had loads of these. Think we binned them. They aren;t my cup of tea.

I don't know where might want them to be honest - they're not really worth anything are they?

morganb

You might be able to get a local Primary School interested in them? Or could maybe share them out between a couple of schools

sarymclary

I drove past signs for this place on the A1 last week:
http://www.aboutbritain.com/VinaCookeMuseumOfDolls.htm

There's also the V&A Museum of childhood:
http://collectdolls.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/nmc/

It would be worth calling them, even if they can just point you in the right direction of anyone else who might be interested.

Just a thought though, have you tried putting in a search on ebay for any of your very early dolls? I bet there are collectors out there, and I noticed that USA has lots of doll museum/collector sites.

hellyboo_2

Thanks for all your replies!
There are some good ideas and I will have a think.

sillyvixen

my grandparents would always bring me a doll in national dress from their travels - when i moved out they went into the wardrobe in my old room in my mums - when i got my own house i got rid of most of them as i had to clear my old room and had more space than in shared rental property. i went through them and choose my favorite to keep as a reminder of my late grandparents and gave the rest to the charity shop!! it was the first doll they brought back for me and by far the bigest - it reminds me of my grandparents and fulfills the sentimantality aspect of what was a sizable collection (about 30 in total)