Crandall American Indian Doll Collection on Exhibit at Madeline Island Museum

This Northeast Woodlands doll,
collected from Maine, is among
nearly 500 American Indian dolls
in the Crandall Collection.

Madeline Island Museum is hosting an exhibit of rare and one-of-a-kind American Indian dolls handcrafted by Native American artisans representing every tribe in North America. The collection comes to the museum after exhibition at the H.H. Bennett Studio in Wisconsin Dells.

H. H. Bennett's daughter Nellie Crandall began to build the collection in 1920. Like her father, Nellie took a strong interest in the culture of the Ho-Chunk people who called the Wisconsin Dells region home for centuries. She had a particular interest in their artistry as expressed in handcrafted dolls. She began collecting American Indian dolls with the goal of establishing a collection that would eventually include examples of dolls created by artisans from every tribe in North America. When Nellie died in 1951, her daughter Lois Musson took up the cause and continued building the collection. By the time of her death in 1972, she had determined that the nearly 500 dolls collected included representative examples of dolls created by every tribe on the continent.

Ultimately the collection became the property of Bennett's remaining heirs — Jean Reese, Bennett's granddaughter, and her husband Oliver. The Reeses, who donated the historic studio and the Bennett photograph collection to the Society, generously loaned more than 200 dolls from the Crandall Collection for exhibit first at the Bennett museum and historic site and now at Madeline Island Museum.