Introduction

What does availability mean? Cathy’s hope is that the dolls can be enjoyed by a wider audience where they can promote international understanding (handling the dolls is no problem; after all Cathy played with these dolls herself).

As dolls find new homes, they are so marked on the website. When all the dolls from a country have been distributed, it is so noted under the page title and the dolls are no longer shown.

The dolls are listed by Continent and Country in the left hand menu. I hope the following information saves you time. The following countries still have dolls available.

• America - North: Canada, US (US Regional includes Amish dolls that could "stand-in" for early Quakers in stories), Caribbean
• Asia: China, India, Japan (Japanese Kokeshi dolls are turned wood and suitable for small hands - like Fisher Price dolls), Middle East, Burma/Myanmar, Philippines, Malasia, Thailand
• Europe: Austria, Belgium, Czechslovakia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, UK
• Dolls in the non-country-specific pages are also available to Quaker schools.

Dolls from the countries listed below are NO LONGER available; they have already been distributed.

• Australia
• Africa: (Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa). All that is left is a cheap, plastic toy doll from Morocco.
• Europe: Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Russia, France, the Belgian doll on the same page IS available.
• Asia: Korea, Nepal
• North America: Mexico, Central America (El Salvador, Panama, Guatemala), Caribbean (Barbados, Cuba)
• South America: (Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela)

The original set of more than 900 dolls was collected by 4 generations of doll lovers: noted ceramicist and paper doll collector Maxine Waldron, her sisters-in-law Marion & Helen Waldron, their niece Cay Skillman Pidcock, their grand niece Cathy Pidcock Thomas and her daughters. The collection spans 150 years of collecting.

The collection theme emphasizes culture - people doing work or other activities, religious dress practices, mythical and theatrical performers, clothing dependent on climate and terrain and holiday specific dolls. Most of the dolls were manufactured and bought in the country they represent and thus show the artistry and materials of that region of the globe.

This site is a work in progress. Tentative doll disposition has been assigned, but descriptions and photos are still being added. Most of the dolls still displayed have a disposition of "available" or "may be available". The latter designation often indicates a doll Cathy Thomas collected during her travels and thus fits in both a personal collection or broadens a global cultural collection. When descriptions are present, the disposition category is listed as the first line of the doll description. The background of the doll thumbnail photo also signals the category, as follows:

• Available: Thumbnail photo on white background on category index page.
• May be available: Thumbnail photo on yellow background on category index page.
• Unavailable: Thumbnail photo on dark grey background on category index page.