A distance of twenty-six years and more than two hundred miles separate Betty, the doll Letta Vanderhoof made for her daughter Emily’s seventh birthday on October 14, 1897, and Martha Ann, the second cloth doll that she made for her granddaughter Barbara’s seventh birthday on June 19, 1923. Each of the dolls features similarly hand-painted cloth faces, and their dresses are meticulously stitched. They wear underclothes and socks. Nothing hints of their distance in time and space, yet together they tell a story of generations and unwavering affection despite the vagaries of life. The dolls were cherished within the family as they moved variously to Sarasota, Florida; Chicago, Illinois; Kalamazoo and Battle Creek, Michigan; Las Cruces, New Mexico; and Woodsworth, Wisconsin. Letta Miller married Charles Vanderhoof in September 1889. Their first and only child, Emily, was born almost exactly one year later. In 1912, Letta Vanderhoof filed for divorce on grounds of cruelty and non-support. The ensuing years were marked by relocations and hardships as Letta supported herself through her dressmaking skills, appearing in city directories as "dressmaker" and "seamstress." Emily married Charles Hixson one year after her parents officially divorced and bore her own first child, Barbara, in 1916. The couple divorced between 1930 and 1940, when the Federal Census for Chicago lists Emily as head of household, working as a clerk in a furniture company. Her household also included daughters Barbara and Esther, and her mother, Letta Vanderhoof, who continued to live with her daughter and her family until her death at the age of eight-four.

Stacy C. Hollander, "Betty, 1897, Martha Ann, 1923," exhibition copy for American Perspectives: Stories from the American Folk Art Museum Collection. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2020.