Flora Gill Jacobs papers

Collection — Multiple Containers

Identifier: 115.87

Staff Only

The Flora Gill Jacobs papers contain materials relating to Flora Gill Jacobs as an author, collector, and director of the Washington Dolls’ House & Toy Museum. Material types include manuscripts, personal and research correspondence, research notes, reference materials, postcards, photographs, museum souvenirs, publicity clippings, scrapbook pages, and more. The bulk of the materials are dated between 1975 and 2006. Additional scope and content information can be found under the “Contents List” section of this finding aid.

The Flora Gill Jacobs papers have been arranged into two series, both of which have been further divided into subseries. The materials are housed in five archival document boxes and one oversized folder.

Dates

1864 - 2006
Majority of material found within 1975 - 2006

Creator

Jacobs, Flora Gill (Person)

Language

The majority of this collection is in English, with some reference materials in German, French, Spanish, Japanese, and Italian. Materials in languages other than English will be denoted in the Contents List section of this finding aid.

Conditions Governing Use

This collection is open for research use by staff of The Strong and by users of its library and archives. Though the donor has not transferred intellectual property rights (including, but not limited to any copyright, trademark, and associated rights therein) to The Strong, she has given permission for The Strong to make copies in all media for museum, educational, and research purposes.

Extent

5 Linear Feet

Additional Description

Abstract

The Flora Gill Jacobs papers are a compilation of manuscripts, personal and research correspondence, publicity, postcards, photographs, and historical information on the Washington Dolls’ House & Toy Museum. The bulk of the materials are dated between 1975 and 2006.

Biographical Note

Flora Gill Jacobs (1918-2006) was an American journalist, author, dollhouse expert, and founder of the Washington Dolls’ House & Toy Museum.

Jacobs (née Gill) grew up in Washington, D.C., where she remained a lifelong area resident. While attending George Washington University, Jacobs wrote film reviews for the Washington Times-Herald. She left college to work full-time for the newspaper and later joined the Washington Post as a reporter and editor. In 1940, she married Ephraim Jacobs, and the couple had one daughter, Amanda.

While freelancing, Jacobs became interested in documenting the history of dollhouses and miniature furnishings--though she herself had never owned a dollhouse. (She remedied that void by acquiring her signature “South Jersey House” for $35 from an antiques dealer in New Jersey in 1945.) In 1953, she published her first book, A History of Dolls’ Houses: Four Centuries of the Domestic World in Miniature. Several additional authoritative volumes on dollhouses (and children’s mystery books) followed over the next two decades.

As her dollhouse and miniatures collections expanded, Jacobs’ friends and local social groups frequently requested tours to view the collections in her home. Eventually, Jacobs’ dollhouses outgrew her actual house. Jacobs rented a small building in Northwest D.C. for her collections and established the Washington Dolls’ House & Toy Museum there in 1975. For nearly four decades, Jacobs’ museum was “dedicated to the proposition that dolls’ houses of the past comprise a study of architecture and decorative arts in miniature, and that toys of the past reflect social history.” The museum collections included rare dollhouses, miniature buildings, hand-crafted and machine-made miniature dollhouse furnishings, and American toys.

In 2004, citing rising costs and advanced age, Jacobs closed the Washington Dolls’ House & Toy Museum. The contents of her museum holdings were sold at auction that year. Flora Gill Jacobs passed away in 2006 at the age of 87 in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

System of Arrangement

Series I: Author and collector, 1864-2006

Subseries A: Manuscripts

Subseries B: Correspondence

Subseries C: Research notes and reference materials

Subseries D: Publicity

Series II: Washington Dolls’ House & Toy Museum, 1974-2006

Subseries A: Historical information

Subseries B: Publicity

Subseries C: Photographs

Custodial History

The Flora Gill Jacobs papers were donated to The Strong in January 2015 as a gift from Amanda Jacobs, daughter of Flora Gill Jacobs. The papers were accessioned by The Strong under Object ID 115.87. The papers were received from Amanda Jacobs in 4 bins, accompanied by nearly 300 reference books, trade catalogs, children’s books, and periodicals from Flora Gill Jacobs’ personal collection.

Related Materials

The Flora Gill Jacobs collection in the Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play contains more than 300 reference books, trade catalogs, and early magazines in the library stacks.

The Strong acquired several items from the 2004 auction of the Washington Dolls’ House & Toy Museum, including a Bauhaus-style dollhouse by Moritz Gottschalk, c. 1920-1930 (Object ID 104.816).