Barbie Doll: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

In 1959 the Mattel toy company introduced the Barbie Doll. Unlike most dolls at the time, Barbie was a grown-up—a teenage fashion model who could date, drive, and wear fabulous clothes. While often criticized for her unrealistic physical proportions and for promoting gender stereotypes, Barbie has also evolved with the times to reflect social and cultural changes in American culture. Since the 1980s she has taken on many new careers, from police officer to paleontologist to presidential candidate.

During the Bicentennial, Mattel dressed Barbie in a patriotic wardrobe, but a decade later they began to see the success of the Pleasant Company and decided to create historical characters centered around their favorite doll. They began with Great Era’s Barbies in 1993-95 Such as Queen Elizabeth I and Gibson Girl concentrating on the details of fashionable clothing. In 1994 they produced the American Story Collection of Special edition Barbies that included a Pilgrim Barbie, a Colonial Girl Barbie, and a Frontier Barbie- each with a small booklet that provided a story relating to the doll. In 2015 Mattel introduced Sheros, Barbies dressed as modern notable figures and entertainers like Lucille Ball, Grace Kelly and Rita Moreno, and continued the line by honoring contemporary celebrities. In 2018, Mattel released it’s new “Inspiring Women” collection with the plan to feature three ground-breaking, history-making women per year. These are trail blazers, role models, activists, athletes, other women in history that contributed to society. The first being —Amelia Earhart, Frida Kahlo and Katherine Johnson.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date made: ca 1958
• maker: Mattel, Inc.
• originator: Handler, Ruth
• Object Name: doll
• Physical Description: plastic (overall material)
• Physical Description: paint (features material)
• Physical Description: jersey (bathing suit material)
• Measurements: overall: 28 cm x 8.4 cm; 11 1/32 in x 3 5/16 in
• Place Made: Japan
• used: United States: Maryland, Bethesda
• Subject: Toys
• Subject: Dolls
• ID Number: 1988.0608.17A
• catalog number: 1988.0608.17A
• accession number: 1988.0608
• Credit Line: Anonymous
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.