BISQUE DOLL - ABIGAIL ADAMS - FIRST LADIES SHE IS SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL, AN 18-INCH DOLL with bisque head/shoulders, cloth body, bisque arms, legs; nice molded details include hair, hair ribbon, shoes; lovely painted features and hair and even soft pink nails. She is really much nicer than the photos. Her dress is quite elegant and she has lace trimmed undergarments (petticoat & pantaloons). Condition of both the doll and clothing is excellent, I could find no flaws. She is marked with her name written into the bisque on her back but I could find no makers name. Abigail Adams (1744-1818) was the wife of our 4th president, John Adams, and mother of our 6th president, John Quincy Adams, and a very interesting woman. I don't know much about the history of this doll; it was a part of my mother

Purchased on Ebay October 2000

34.00

Photograph by seller/permission otu use granted

Jenniferx@aol.com Jennifer Stix P.O. Box 687

Vineyard Haven MA 02568

Jennifer wrote Oct 31, 2000

Hi Elizabeth,

I really don't know anything about the history of this doll, I wish I did. My mother was always going to catalogue her doll collection and never did!.

Her name is written by hand into the bisque on the back, it is difficult to see and I missed it for quite a while -- it's large enough,

but the top of her dress is sewn -- just tacked in a couple of places -- onto the cloth body just below the bisque shoulders and it's hard to pull back to get a clear view of the writing, but the writing itself is quite clear.

Interestingly, there was a show on the history channel the other night about the White House celebrating its 200th birthday, and there was a segment about John and Abigail Adams -- they showed her portrait and the dolls face is really a good representation, assuming the portrait was!

My mother's name was Frances Carleton Sawyer, she lived most of her life in Massachusetts, a few years in DC, collected dolls from early adulthood, though did not have a huge collection, she was a member of the local and national doll clubs, died in 1988 at the age of 85.

I wish I could tell you when, where, how and why she got this doll -- she had no other first ladies dolls and I don't think it was a particular interest of hers so perhaps this was a gift.

Jennifer Stix

of Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams, was born Abigail Smith in Weymouth, MA in 1744. She married John Adams on October 26th, 1764. This engraving is 117 yrs old, it is not a modern reproduction. This engraving measures 3 1/4" x 4" on heavy stock paper measuring 5 1/2" x 8 1/2".

Offered for sale on Ebay September 2002

This book is in my library

ABIGAIL ADAMS: A BIOGRAPHY by Phyllis Lee Levin A love story and a fascinating social history, this book presents a portrait of a brilliant woman as well as insight into the founding of America. Wife of one president and mother of another, Abigail Adams was an extraordinary woman at the center of America's most tumultuous era. A tireless writer, her penetrating and often caustic impressions of most of the major persons of her day (including Benjamin Franklin, George and Martha Washington, and Thomas Jefferson) give one of the best accounts of the American Revolution, and convey a close and believable portrait of the woman within. Paper, 592 pages, $16.95

John Adams is everywhere these days; but this by Adams scholar Paul Nagel is must read. Nagel has solid credentials to write this, historian, not journalist, held chairmanship of history at Univ. of Georgia, Dean at Missouri, wrote several Adams works pre McCullough, whose book is great but this is superior. Information not only on life of John and Abigial, but what happened to their children & grandchildren. Interesting to know the entire saga. Why did Quincy have a reputation for being impossible & why was he so hard on his dutiful wife? A Wonderful Book. Not textbook quick history; it is always the details that tell the story & are most fascinating. John & Abby began dynasty included not only son Pres. John Q. but an amazing family of characters; this is not revisionist history, but drawn extensively from researched primary source material; letters, diaries, what was written & said about them while alive. Private behind public image, 4 Adams generations of flesh & blood individuals as they were, somewhat ashamed of their ambitiousness & afflicted with all sorts of personality traits; compassion & intelligence, compulsiveness, laziness & alcoholism. Why did admired daughter of John & Abigail marry ne'er do well & die from breast cancer? Why is John Quincy a grouch? Why will Abigail not accept his wife? 1800's life harsh for everyone most certainly for this family from which the new nation looked upon as we do Kennedys. Awesome, wonderfully written; even the "ladies" get equal time
The Adamses: America's First Dynasty, Richard Brookhiser; Richard Brookhiser has won a wide and loyal following for his stylish, pointed, and elegant biographies of George Washington and Alexander Hamilton. In America's First Dynasty, Brookhiser tells the story of America's longest and still greatest dynasty-the Adamses, the only family in our history to play a leading role in American affairs for nearly two centuries. From John; the self-made, tough-minded lawyer who rose to the highest office in the government he helped create; to John Quincy, the child prodigy who grew up amid foreign royalty; followed his father to the White House, and later reinvented himself as a champion of liberty in Congress; to politician and writer Charles Francis, the only well-balanced Adams; to Henry, brilliant scholar and journalist-the Adamses achieved longer-lasting greatness than any other American family.

Brookhiser's canvass starts in colonial America, when John Adams had to teach himself the law and ride on horseback for miles to find clients. It does not end until after the Titanic sinks-Henry had booked a room but changed his plans-and World War I begins, with Henry near the action in France. The story of this single family offers a short course in the nation s history, because for nearly two hundred years Adams history was American history. The Adamses were accompanied by an impressive cast of characters, from George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. to Andrew Jackson and Ulysses Grant, to Teddy Roosevelt. America s First Dynasty offers telling portraits of the great men of our past, and many of the women around them. John and Abigail s great love affair was destined to be repeated by their offspring and offspring's offspring.

As with any family, there was a darker side to the Adams story: many of its members were abject failures. Alcoholism was a familiar specter. and suicide was not unknown. Only one of the four great Adamses was a kind man and father: the others set standards so impossibly high that few of their children could meet them. Yet despite more than a century of difference from John to Henry; certain Adams traits remained the same. In the story of our first and still greatest family. we can all see something of our own struggles with family, fate. and history.

Richard Brookhiser is the author of Alexander Hamilton, American (1999). Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington (1995), and The Way of the WASP (199l),all published by The Free Press. He is a Senior Editor at The National Review and a New York Observer columnist. He contributes to such publications as American Heritage and The New York Times. He lives in New York City.

Abigail Adams

Half Doll "Remember the Ladies": United States Historical Society. I have this doll