Tupelo native amasses collection of vintage advertising dolls
Oct. 7—TUPELO — As most collections do, Mary Mitchell's started small.
It began in the attic of her parents' home.
"(There were) a lot of childhood toys and things we couldn't part with went in there," she said. "At some point ... I found all of these dolls."
This was in 1980 or so, and as Mitchell — a Tupelo native currently living in North Carolina — rifled through old belongings, one particular doll caught her eye. It wasn't large, 10 inches tall or so, but it made a big impression.
The doll was part of a long-running advertising campaign from Campbell's, best known for their soups, and Mitchell remembered them well.
"You would get a soup label and a dollar and mail them in, and you'd get the doll," she said.
Mitchell said the doll, dressed like a cheerleader — decked in the reds and whites the company has long used for its marketing — and sporting chubby, cherub-like cheeks, dated back to the 1950s, when she was just a kid. Just seeing brought forth fond memories.
"I loved having my dolls as a child," Mitchell said. "I would make up things that these dolls were doing. I liked to look at them."
So, she kept that doll. It became the first of many in a sizable collection of dolls — many the products of vintage advertising campaigns — that has spanned over four decades.
Meet the Campbell's Kids
At the turn of the previous century, Campbell's tapped illustrator Grace Dayton to create a line of cute, cherub-like children for an advertising campaign. The Campbell's Kids, as they were called, were tremendous hit, recognizable at a glance with their round faces, big eyes and plump little bodies.
"(Dayton) drew these little chubby-cheeked children she called 'roly pollies,'" Mitchell said.
They were adorable by design, and Dayton's work on the Campbell's Kids made her incredibly successful. She's now considered one of — if not the — first great American female cartoonists.
Campbell's quickly, and wisely, capitalized on the campaign's success.
"By 1910, (Campbell's) produced an actual doll, which they sold," Mitchell said.
For the time, Mitchell said, they were nice dolls. Kids — and adults — loved them. To this day, those early dolls remain incredibly popular among collectors of vintage advertising, just as they were with kids generations ago.
"I have a lot of those earlier dolls," Mitchell said. "It's hard to find them in good shape."
Dayton died in 1936, but her creations have lived on far longer. Campbell's has produced versions of their Campbell's Kids decade after decade, modifying their looks and interests for new generations.
When Mitchell was a child, Campbell's ran commercials featuring a catchy jingle and their chubby-cheeked children. Seeing their round faces and little grins takes her back to being a kid.
"I like the way they look," Mitchell said. "They look pleasant ... They have the little smile, the little chubby cheeks. I was just attracted to that. They are fun."
While living in Florida years ago, Mitchell began hunting down more Campbell's dolls — and dolls based on other advertising campaigns — on eBay. A former journalist, Mitchell said it was more than just the look of the dolls that appealed to her. She loved the history behind them, their place in American pop culture.
Each doll has a story to tell, and she quickly got wrapped up in them.
"I amassed a pretty good collection," she said. "I wound up with ... really, a lot. Snap, Crackle and Pop from Rice Krispies. I had the basset hound from Hushpuppies. Buster Brown. The Pillsbury Doughboy."
And, of course, the Campbell's Kids. A lot of them.
Even now, after recently parting with a chunk of her collection, the Campbell's Kids dolls fill multiple shelves in Mitchell's home, where she keeps them displayed.
As with most hobbies, doll collecting can become highly specialized and incredibly specific. When she moved to North Carolina after retirement, Mitchell joined a local doll club — itself a member of a broader organization called the United Federation of Doll Clubs — and quickly discovered how much one person's collection can vary from another's.
"Few of us collect the same thing," Mitchell said. Some members collect baby dolls, others action figures. Some have pared their collections down to valuable pieces, others are expansive and represent a mix of the rare and the more commonplace.
Mitchell finds it all fascinating.
"There's always something new to learn," she said. "I think, to some degree, dolls are emblematic of the culture and its history. There were dolls in colonial times made out of cornhusks or carved out of wood. I just think they've come along, and they reflect the dress and activities during certain periods of history."
Home to museum, museum to home
After years of collecting, Mitchell recently decided it was time to part with some of her dolls.
Practicality played a role in this decision.
"I ran out of space," she said.
There is always something new to collect, a doll to join the others. Mitchell considered what might happen to her collection after she dies.
"What's going to happen to all these?" she said. "Is someone going to come in and put them in a big garbage bag?"
So, she did what she does: researched. When she discovered the Advertising Icon Museum in Kansas City, Missouri — a small, by-appointment collection of vintage advertising memorabilia spanning American pop culture — she knew she'd found her dolls a good home.
If they'd take them, of course.
"I didn't know if they would really want these," she said.
She created a video showcasing what she owned, then submitted it the museum's curators. They said they'd love to add her collection to theirs.
The hard part came next. Despite her need to pare down her collection, Mitchell found it difficult to let go of any dolls, even those with duplicates. Each has a story — where it came from, how she acquired it — a bit of personal history to accompany its own.
Cataloguing the dolls for the museum brought those memories to the forefront. Still, Mitchell knew it was time.
"My house doesn't need to be like a museum," she said with a laugh. "I need to be able to relax in it and enjoy it."
She kept her favorites — around 70 Campbell's Kids dolls, plus some others.
In all, she donated around 100 dolls to the museum. Mitchell said she hopes they will bring joy to others, just as they have to her for as long as she can remember.
Not that she's giving up collecting, of course. No collector ever truly does.
"Just this summer, I found a doll I've been looking for six or seven years," she said. "Very rare, very hard to find."
She gave it a good home.
