Mammy: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This Mammy wind-up tin toy is part of Black Americana, a genre of objects reflecting African American history. Lindstrom Corporation created this toy in the United States during the 1930s. It features a black woman wearing a red dress, white apron, and a white cap with a red bow. Black Memorabilia like this personify negative stereotypes of African Americans by utilizing humor as a vehicle for racial oppression. The Mammy archetype characterizes nurturing, overweight black women as visibly happy in subservient positions and perpetuates myths about the benevolence of slavery. Mammies were also stock characters in minstrelsy shows during the nineteenth century and toymakers of the twentieth century co-opted this stereotype to increase revenue. This derogatory toy is inaccurate, but its existence speaks to American race relations and the prejudice African Americans encountered daily in their struggle for equality.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: circa 1930
• Object Name: toy
• Object Name: collectible
• Measurements: overall: 7 1/2 in x 3 1/2 in x 3 in; 19.05 cm x 8.89 cm x 7.62 cm
• place made: United States
• Subject: Stereotypes
• Subject: Racism
• ID Number: 2018.0188.05
• accession number: 2018.0188
• catalog number: 2018.0188.05
• 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.