Golliwogg
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Upton's Golliwogg and friends in The Adventures of two Dutch Dolls And A Golliwogg, published in 1895. Described as "a horrid sight, the blackest gnome," for many children, he was their introduction to black people. |
The
Golliwogg (later
golliwog) is a
rag doll-like, children's literary character created by
Florence Kate Upton in the late
19th century. The Golliwogg was inspired by a
blackface minstrel doll Upton had as a child in
America. Historically very popular in
Europe, the doll has become the subject of a great deal of controversy — particularly with ever-increasing ethnic diversity of the resident European population — over whether it should be preserved and passed on as a cherished cultural artifact and childhood tradition, or retired as a relic of an earlier time when anti-
black racism was as casual as it was blatant.
At least one European company, a leading jam manufacturer in the UK, denied as recently as five years ago that there was any link between Golliwoggs and black people — in this case in a 2001 statement, reported by the BBC, Virginia (Ginny) C Knox, who was a brand director for Robertson's, and is now Chief Operating Officer of the Culinary Brands Division of RHM, told the Herald Newspaper in Scotland in 2001 that the decision to remove the Golly (Golliwogg) symbol from Robertson's jam and marmalade jars was taken after research found that children were not familiar with the character, although it still appealed to the older generations.
She denied the Golliwogg symbol was being "retired" because it was an offensive image. "We sell 45 million jars of jam and marmalade each year and they have pretty much all got Golly on them," said Ms Knox. "We also sell 250,000 Golly badges to collectors and only get 10 letters a year from people who don't like the Golliwogg image".
["'Controversial' golly to be shelved" BBC News 23 August 2001] |
Cover of The Three Golliwogs, by Enid Blyton. |
The child of
English parents, Upton and her family moved to
England when she was fourteen. There she spent several years drawing and developing her artistic skills. In order to afford tuition to art school, she illustrated a children's book entitled
The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls and a Golliwogg. The
1895 book included a character named the "Golliwogg", who was first described as "a horrid sight, the blackest
gnome", but who quickly turned out to be a friendly character, and is later attributed with a "kind face". A product of the
blackface minstrel tradition, the character was classic
"darkie" iconography. The Golliwogg had jet black skin; bright, red lips; and wild, woolly hair. He sported red trousers, a shirt with a stiff collar, red bow-tie, and a blue jacket with tails — all traditional formal minstrel attire.
Upton's book and its many sequels were extremely successful in England, largely because of the popularity of the Golliwogg, which became the generic name for dolls and images of a similar type, spelt "golliwog". The golliwog doll became a popular children's toy throughout most of the
20th century, and was incorporated into many aspects of British commerce and culture; for instance, some of
Enid Blyton's books feature them, sometimes as villains and other times as heroes. Upton's Golliwogg was jovial and friendly, but some later golliwogs would be sinister or menacing characters. However, small boys in the 1950s, who would never dream of playing with sissy dolls, had no qualms about a big rag golly and as many golly badges as possible, so that actually meeting a real black man was cause for excitement rather than fear. "The Black and White Minstrel Show", a
blackface musical show which ran for many seasons on UK television and stage, had performers of all races blacked up more as golliwogs, with white-ringed eyes, than in the original
Minstrel show tradition.
The golliwog contributed enormously to the spread of darky iconography in Europe. It also made its way back across the
Atlantic in the form of children's literature, dolls, children's china and other toys, ladies' perfume, and jewellery.
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Florence Kate Upton's Golliwogg in formal minstrel attire in Golliwogg and friends in 1895. |
British
jam manufacturer
James Robertson & Sons used a golliwog called
Golly as its mascot from
1910, after John Robertson apparently saw children playing with golliwog dolls in America. Robertson's started producing promotional Golliwog badges in the
1920s, which could be obtained in exchange for tokens gained from their products. In
1983, the company's products were
boycotted by the
Greater London Council as offensive, and in
1988 the character ceased to be used in
television advertising. The company used to give away golliwog badges making up different sets, such as playing jazz instruments, or with sports equipment, or other such themes. After many generations of children, the promotion was dropped in
2001, and replaced with
Roald Dahl characters. Robertson's claimed the decision to retire the Golliwog was simply a commercial decision and had nothing to do with accusations of racism. Today, Robertson's
Golliwog badges remain highly collectable, with the very rarest sometimes selling for more than £1,000, and even comparatively common and recent badges being worth £2.00–£3.00.
In his
1947 novel,
The Chequer Board, British novelist
Nevil Shute depicted the children's doll as an influence on adult behavior:
Because he was uncertain what to do, he put his arms round her and kissed her... For a moment she yielded... then fear came to her, irrational, stark fear. When she was a little child, somebody had given her a golliwog, a black doll with staring white eyes and black curly hair, dressed in a blue coat with red trousers. It had terrified her; whenever she saw it she had screamed with fright so that it had been given to a less sensitive child. Now at the age of seventeen the same stark fear came back to her. What she had been subconsciously afraid of all her life had happened. The golliwog had got her.
After the publication of Upton's first book, the term "golliwogg" was used both as a reference to the children's toy and as a generic, racist term for
blacks. In Britain and its
colonies, the word "
wog", which may be derived from "golliwog", became an
ethnic slur applied to dark-skinned peoples worldwide, from
Africa and the
Caribbean to
Australia and
India.
[Wog American Heritage Dictionary etymology, "Probably short for golliwog".] In the early
1980s, revised editions of
Enid Blyton's
Noddy books replaced Mr. Golly, the amiable golliwogg proprietor of the Toytown garage, with Mr. Sparks, to the outrage of many parents of a generation who thought that was retrograde iconoclasm.
The sixth movement of
Claude Debussy's
Children's Corner is titled "Golliwogg's
Cakewalk".
Golliwog was also
World War II British naval slang for a
Gauloise cigarette, which had
tobacco which was nearly black in colour.
[Furst, Alan (2004) Dark Voyage, Random House, Random House, ISBN 1400060184: "It was a Gauloise — what British seamen called a golliwog...".]The American rock group
Creedence Clearwater Revival was known as "The Golliwogs" and under this name they released a number of singles on the Fantasy label before they rose to prominence.
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Blackface*
Minstrel show*
Zwarte Piet*
"The Golliwog Caricature," Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia Article by David Pilgrim, Ferris State University, Michigan
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"The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls and a Golliwogg" by Bertha Upton 1895 at Project Gutenburg
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"Gollyworld" Information on Robertsons Golly Badges
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Clean plates GOLIWOG license plate
