The Gay Rag Dolls-5 - Drawing. Public domain image.

Traditionally made at home from surplus materials and usually stuffed, they are some of the oldest children's toys in the world. The British Museum has a rag doll from ancient Rome, found in a child's grave, dating from the first to fifth centuries AD. Historically, rag dolls were used for comfort and to teach parenting skills to young children. They were often used to teach sewing, as children could practice sewing doll clothes and make simple dolls themselves. Mass production of rag dolls began in the 1830s when colour printing on cloth was first developed. Today, many rag dolls are produced on an industrial scale to mimic the characteristics of the original handmade dolls, such as simple features, soft cloth bodies and patchwork clothing.

Will R. Barnes designed costumes for numerous Broadway productions between 1898 and 1924. Born in Australia, he came to the U.S. in the late 1890s and began designing costumes for a number of Joe Weber and Lew Fields’s Music Hall shows. Later he worked with the designers Cora MacGeachy and William Henry Mathews on the Hippodrome spectacles until the final show there in 1922. Barnes specialized in costumes for the lighthearted musical entertainment that was extremely popular at the time: musical comedies, operettas, revues, vaudeville productions and burlesques. The best known of these productions today is probably Naughty Marietta, which was scored by Victor Herbert. Art historian Stefanie Munsing Winkelbauer notes that Barnes’s designs show a predilection for striking contrasts and bold pattern. The National Library of Australia and the New York Public Library have large collections of his costume designs. Barnes also was known for his watercolor landscapes.