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Listen: The Assorted Selections ProgramMary Billie cutting cardboard to make hair for her Seminole dolls - Big Cypress Reservation, Florida
Image Number
Photographer
Date
Date Note
Rights
Collection
Seminole Slide/Tape Project (Palmetto Dolls)
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Personal Subjects
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General Note
Accompanying note: "'She'll put the cardboard on top of the doll's head and with that black material to make it look nice, I guess. To make it look like hair. And then after she does that, she put the top on. And then she'll sew that up too, so it won't fall off.'"
"Seminole women have worn their hair in various different styles over the years, and the dolls reflect this. The high hairdo, mounted with cypress bark or, later, cardboard, was popular about fifty years ago, and some of the women still wear it. But Mary also makes some dolls with yarn hair that show modern styles."
Mary B. Billie has been a dollmaker since she was 17. She learned the skill by watching her mother, who had learned it from Mary's grandmother.
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