Josephine Baker Marionette: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This dancing marionette painted black with a blond wig was made by the Yale Puppeteers in 1937 and bears a striking resemblance to the famous exotic dancer, singer, and film star Josephine Baker. Baker made her claim to fame in the United States only after becoming a hit in her adopted city of Paris, France.

Made of wood and paper mache, she is dressed in a red feather trimmed collar, armbands, cuffs, skirt, and anklets with silver-heeled slippers. She is worked with one bar and nine strings.

The Yale Puppetteers became synonomous with the finest accomplishments in puppetry for more than 25 years. She was purchased from the Yale Puppeteers by Hazelle and J. Woodson Rollins, who donated her to the National Museum of American History Collection.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date made: 1936
• depicted (sitter): Baker, Josephine
• maker: Yale Puppeteers
• Object Name: Puppet
• Object Name: puppet
• Physical Description: paper mache (overall material)
• Physical Description: feathers (overall material)
• Physical Description: wood (overall material)
• Physical Description: paint (overall material)
• Physical Description: string (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 28 in; 71.12 cm
• general subject association: Puppetry
• ID Number: 1979.1164.06
• accession number: 1979.1164
• catalog number: 1979.1164.06
• Credit Line: Gift of Hazelle H. and J. Woodson Rollins
• 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.