Walking toy in the form of a caricatured porter: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A painted, wooden walking toy in the form of a caricatured porter. The porter has a cartoonish face with large, round eyes and a wide white mouth. He is painted wearing bellhop uniform: a gold jacket with four (4) black buttons and the word [SAMBO] under his proper left breast pocket. A hat is painted on top of his head, gold with a red front. His torso is hinged at the waist to his cylindrical, red legs. The porter has large platform feet with curved bottoms that allows the toy to walk. The shoes are painted black, the backs gold. There are circular grooves cut into the porter's lower back.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: ca. 1935
• Created by: Unidentified
• Type: walking dolls
• Medium: paint on wood , metal
• Dimensions: 12 1/8 x 5 1/2 x 4 1/2 in. (30.8 x 14 x 11.4 cm)
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Caricature and cartoons
• Topic: Stereotypes
• Object number: 2007.7.206
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of the Collection of James M. Caselli and Jonathan Mark Scharer
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: No Known Copyright Restrictions Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.