With the presenting of an Anne of Green Gables doll more than 40 years ago by Battlefords Allied Arts Council members Dorothy Boyd and Connie Tubb to librarians Joan Bunce and Sonia Curry, the North Battleford doll collection began.
In the years since, it's grown to include 123 dolls and figurines separated into 85 groupings; growing in scope from “story-book” dolls, such as Anne of Green Gables and Alice of Alice in Wonderland, to cultural dolls donated to the library from residents who'd picked them up on their travels, including traditional dolls from Peru, Brazil, Mexico and Romania.
Apart from the first four or five dolls in the library's collection donated by the BAAC, Bunce said there wasn't a plan when it came to adding more. Rather, after the BAAC got it off the ground “it caught on. It was just whenever people decided to give gifts,” she added.
After the library moved locations from the building the Allen Sapp gallery occupies to its current home on 101st Street, the dolls came too – first, on display, and in recent years, stored in the basement.
Regarding the dolls being moved to storage, Bunce said she was concerned “about what would happen” to the dolls and felt the public might still have interest in the consigned collection.
“I knew that was not the place for them to be ... It's part of the City's collection, it's part of our history,” said Bunce. “So, I came to the archives.”
The City's archivist, Tammy Donahue Buziak, agreed with Bunce that something could be arranged. Though the City archives are not a museum, the dolls were included “discrete items.” The archives typically contain documents and photographs of the City's history, rather than articles of cultural memorabilia, Donahue Buziak explained. However, there was still a place for them, she said.
“There's a great interest for them,” Buziak said, relating a story of having seen people at the Don Ross Centre for a meeting catch a glimpse of the dolls and investigating further.
With the dolls out of the basement and viewable to the public, Bunce said she is “absolutely delighted” with the archive's display case next to their office in Don Ross Room 111.
“They're spread out and visible. They're in a perfect place for people who come and go here to see.”
