DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

The girls discussed in the preceding chapters all are American Girl consumers. Their engagement with the brand is driven by direct interest in and enjoyment of American Girl content and products. This is not true of the men and women who host American Girl events at historic houses, museums, and libraries. They are often interested in the brand, but they are not active consumers and this is not their primary motivation. The professionals who host American Girl events at historic houses, museums, and libraries do so because they recognize American Girl’s immense popularity and consequent capacity to raise money and bring young female audiences into their institutions. American Girl’s founder, Pleasant Rowland, has referred to the brand’s historical and moral content as “chocolate cake with vitamins.”[1] She conceives of the brand as making history interesting and accessible by associating it with toys. When museums host American Girl events, they mirror this original goal: they use a popular toy brand to bring girls into their organizations, where they will presumably learn about history. Like the American Girl books, however, the historic houses that hold these events are not purely historic institutions, but also spaces shaped by political and moral values.

             

Methods

            I primarily found and researched American Girl events through internet searches. Using online search engines, I was able to find 31 American Girl events at libraries, historic houses, museums, and community centers. The descriptions of these events varied considerably in length and detail. Some included detailed itineraries, while others offered very little information. In order to supplement the information provided by event announcements, I attended an American Girl event at Hearthside House in Lincoln, RI and conducted phone interviews with three women who have planned one or more American Girl events for a historic house or site (including the woman who planned the event I attended at Hearthside). My analysis and conclusions are drawn from all 31 events, but I will not focus on them equally. I will focus on the events for which I was able to find the most information: events with longer descriptions, the events discussed in my interviews, and the event I was able to attend.  My analysis is also focused on historic houses and living history museums. This is due in part to my research opportunities; the event I was able to attend took place at a house museum and the women I spoke with all worked at historic sites. I also believe that the content of the American Girl books resonates particularly with historic houses and living history museums, in part because it was inspired by Colonial Williamsburg.[2] 

 

Popularity

            Both large and small organizations host American Girl events. Some of the events are hosted by community libraries in small towns, and others were hosted by large museums like the National Museum of American History. These institutions varied considerably in size, constituency, and subject, and the events were subsequently structured differently. Though the events varied, they were generally driven by American Girl’s popularity, which makes it a particularly effective theme for fundraisers and for attracting young female audiences. 

            The women I spoke to about the American Girl events they planned and hosted confirmed that these events are particularly well attended. Kathy Hartley, who organizes American Girl doll teas, garden parties, and Christmas events for Hearthside House in Lincoln, RI informed me that “the American Girl doll events are our most popular.”[3] She was confident that even if the museum had American Girl events every month, they would still sell out. Hilary Micalizzi who organizes American Girl storytelling events at the Keeler Tavern Museum in Ridgefield, CT similarly told me that they don’t “really need to draw people in [to the event] because it’s such a popular theme these days, you know American Girls are so popular.” [4] The popularity of American Girl events is also reflected in the event announcements themselves, several of which note that the event is sold out.[5]

            American Girl events are an effective means of bringing girls into museums, libraries, and other institutions that host them, venues which tend to have difficulty attracting young audiences.[6] Hartley and Micalizzi emphasized their efforts to attract younger audiences to Hearthside House and the Keeler Tavern Museum respectively. Hartley explained that at Hearthside “we’re really putting a push on trying to attract younger kids because we really feel—you know, we want to turn kids on to history when they’re young because we look at them as our future preservationists.”[7] Attracting younger audiences is also a priority at the Keeler Tavern Museum: Micalizzie told me that “generally our audience is 40 and up…but we really are trying to reach out to the younger generations.”[8] Both Hartley and Micalizzi situated their American Girl event as part of larger attempts to engage youth with their museums and found that hosting American Girl events is an effective means of reaching this goal.

            The popularity of these events also means that they are a particularly effective fundraising tool. As part of American Girl Day at Fort Delaware, the museum sold raffle tickets for a Felicity doll.[9] When I spoke with Debra Conway, who organized the event, she emphasized the success of this fundraiser and told me that they “easily sold hundreds and hundreds of tickets” for the raffle.[10] Fundraising is also particularly important to historic sites and house museums, which often receive limited funding for the government and must compete with other organizations for donations.[11]

           

History

            In his discussion of American Girl, Daniel Hade mentions partnership events between American Girl and museums and argues that “it seems strange to attract children to a historical museum to learn about people who only exist in books,” but my interview subjects assured me that this strategy is very effective.[12] When describing the Fort Delaware events, Debra Conway explained that using American Girl as a reference helped the girls who attended the event to personalize and connect with the stories about Fort Delaware that were included in the program. She was confident that the American Girl theme positively affected engagement: “I think they were listening in a way. I think that American Girl doll got their attention in a way which I’m not sure I would have gotten any other way.”[13] The American Girl Historic Characters were conceived of a means of connecting girls with history and they consequently provide a useful access point for museums. American Girl creates a context in which girls are receptive and interested in history, and provides a framework for telling stories about girls and women.

            The event descriptions of many events imply that historical lessons will be included in the program. The event at the U. S. Navy Museum takes a broad approach. The description for their American Girl Day includes “hands on activities highlighting the era of” several of the American Girl characters.[14] By relating their historical content to the American Girl Historical characters based on the eras in which their stories are set, the Navy Museum freed itself from telling stories that are directly related to the plotlines, themes, settings, and dates in the American Girl doll stories.[15] The Hastings Museum’s Mardi Gras program was much more directly related to Cecile and Marie Grace. This program focused on an element in one of their books and promised information that would supplement the descriptions and history of Mardi Gras provided by the American Girl books.[16] The Austin Parks and Recreation Department also takes a direct approach. At their American Girl: Children in History Events children will learn about  real historical figures in Austin through comparison with American Girl characters.[17]

            Though they did so differently, all of these events used the American Girl brand as a way to introduce historical content and programming. The events at Hearthside House and Fort Delaware similarly used American Girl as an access point. Hartley and Conway informed me that the American Girl doll stories were only mentioned occasionally as reference points.[18] This is not true at the Keeler Tavern Museum storytelling events, during which American Girl’s content is foregrounded: a woman told stories from Addy’s series. When I spoke with Hilary Micalizzi about these events, she emphasized that “we’re always really conscious of the fact that we have to tie it back to our theme and mission.”[19] When the Keeler Tavern museum considers hosting an American Girl event, the event organizers carefully choose a doll whose stories relate to the museum’s programming and mission, rather than using a loosely related doll to introduce stories specific to Keeler Tavern. 

            American Girl events at historic houses and sites include varying amounts of historical content. Debra Conway included specific stories from Fort Delaware’s history in their American Girl Day. She explained that the event

 …seemed like a really nice way to kind of push the stories that we’re trying to tell about real life American girls, who really were heroines in this area. I     mean, very young girls defended the fort in 1763, there was one man and       a bunch of women and girls who defended the fort against its only                   attack. [20]

 

The historical information was comparatively subtle at the Christmas Event I attended at Hearthside House. The girls in attendance were reminded of how old the house was, and informed that the house has lots of stories to tell. A man then read three stories aloud, Frozen Charlotte, and two stories from a children’s book. The girls attending the event were told that Frozen Charlotte was a very popular story, and the historical details in the story, such a horse and buggy, were explained. Unlike the Fort Delaware event, the content of American Girl Christmas did not relate directly to Hearthside, and the stories were nonspecific, but the girls attending the event did learn several historic facts. Furthermore, the event successfully brought girls into the museum and most of them toured the house with their mothers after the event.

            Based on their descriptions, some of the events that I found did not appear to include any historical content.  The American Girl Doll Valentine Workshop at the Historic Polk House, for example, has the following description:

Join us for a time of fun with your favorite doll in the beautiful Historic Polk House. We will be making Valentine crafts and goodies for the dolls,       enjoying punch and cookies, and having a creative time together.[21]

 

This activity at this event is apparently unrelated both to the American Girl stories and to the history of the Polk House. While some libraries, museums, and historic houses use American Girl as a way to introduce historical content, others simply use the brand to bring girls into their museum for a fundraiser.

            American Girl has great potential as a tool for libraries, museums, and historic houses. American Girl’s many historical characters and stories offer museums numerous points of access through which they can introduce historical lessons. By connecting their content and stories with American Girl, museums can take advantage of American Girl’s appeal and familiarity to help girls to contextualize and enjoy their events. American Girl’s focus on women and girls and is also important. When they host these events, museums have an excuse to research and develop girl-centric stories that are often left out of the historical narrative.

             

Morality and Nostalgia

            American Girl and Historic Houses both attempt to connect their audiences with history. But neither is purely focused on academic history. Both the American Girl brand and Historic House museums were founded for a variety of idiosyncratic, and often political purposes. As a result, their messages include political, and moral themes as well as historical ones. Several scholars have noted the moral lessons in the American Girl series. In their study of the brand, Diamond et al. characterized the American Girl stories as “barely cloaked morality tales.”[22] Miskec similarly argues that “the American Girl series endeavors to teach appropriate behaviors.”[23] The moral lessons implicit in the stories are part of the American Girl brand’s appeal. The stories are not only educational, but wholesome and appropriate for young audiences. Historic House museums similarly have origins as sites that communicate moral and political messages. In Domesticating History Patricia West considers four historic sites and argues that the function of each was shaped “by the political issues so meaningful to those defining its public role.”[24] Consequently, none of these house museums have purely historical messages. Instead, House Museums have been “agents of American cultural politics, not the politically aloof, neutral institutions received knowledge has supposed them to be.”[25] Like the American Girl brand, Historic Houses teach moral lessons which are often inseparable from historical content.

            In some cases, these lessons are very similar. Both American Girl and Historic Houses also use ambiguity to their advantage. West argues that “the house museum could be meaningful to women who were, in terms of the revolution in women's roles [and other political issues], either conservative or liberal.”[26] She argues that house museums do this by presenting politically ambiguous stories, or by emphasizing figures who are championed by both the right and the left, such as George Washington. John F. Sherry similarly argues that “conservative and progressive values are intertwined” by the American Girl brand in order to appeal to both.[27]

            When it started, women started the House Museum movement. West argues that “house museums are documents of political history, particularly of women's relationship to the public sphere.”[28] Historic House Museums were among the first public institutions to be founded and controlled (at least initially) by women. The American Girl brand was also founded by a woman. By the time Pleasant Rowland founded the American Girl brand, women’s roles in the public sphere had expanded considerably, but the brand’s continuous control by women is notable.

            It is not surprising that American Girl has so much in common with house museums. Pleasant Rowland, American Girl’s founder describes a trip to Colonial Williamsburg as an important source of inspiration to found the brand. Rowland characterizes the American Girl dolls as a “miniature version of the Colonial Williamsburg experience”[29] The dolls would immerse girls in historical settings and acquaint them with characters from the past in order to teach them about history. When house museums and historic sites host American Girl themed events, they are celebrating content that was originally inspired by a living history museum and continues to resonate with such an interpretation.

 

Conclusion

            Like the young women described in the preceding chapters, American Girl events hosted by libraries, museums, and historic houses demonstrate the brand’s immense power, and potential for new meanings. When museums take advantage of the brand to create events that serve their own needs, they engage creatively with its meanings and content and alter both. Museums share the consumers of these new products with consumers of American Girl’s original branded content. When these customers attend American Girl events hosted by groups outside Mattel, their contexts for and associations with it change. Furthermore the historical lessons imparted by these events might alter or challenge these consumers’ experiences and consumption of original branded content. Kathy Hartley told me about one father of an American Girl doll owner who took his daughter to tea at the American Girl Place in New York, and to a Hearthside tea party. After attending both, he decided that the Hearthside tea “surpasses [American Girl] so much.”[30] Hearthside’s American Girl events are not only created using the American Girl brand, they are in direct competition with official branded events, and consequently alter customer’s choices, and impressions of these official experiences.

            The professionals who organize events for historic house museums and other community organizations generally do not consume American Girl’s products. Though they are not typical customers, their engagement with and use of American Girl’s brand and content is not surprising. The American Girl brand was initially inspired by the experience of visiting a living history museum, and the brand’s content continues to resonate with the history and interpretation of historic houses and sites.


[1] Rowland and Sloane, “A New Twist on Timeless Toys.”

[2] Ibid.

[3] Kathy Hartley, Interview by author, September 24, 2013

[4] Keeler Tavern Museum, “American Girl Doll Storytelling at Keeler Tavern,” HamletHub - Local News by Locals, January 19, 2014, http://news.hamlethub.com/ridgefield/events/41684-american-girl-doll-storytelling-at-keeler-tavern.; Hilary Micalizzi, Interview by author. March 1, 2014

[5] “An American Girl Doll Tea Party,” Friends of the Library: Gwinnet County Public Library, accessed January 20, 2014, http://friendsgcpl.org/an-american-girl-doll-tea-party/.

[6] “Who’s Coming to Your Museum? Demographics by Museum Type,” Museum Audience Insight: Audience Research, Trends, Observations from Reach Advisors and Friends., April 2, 2010, http://reachadvisors.typepad.com/museum_audience_insight/2010/04/whos-coming-to-your-museum-demographics-by-museum-type.html.

[7] Hartley, Interview by author.

[8] Micalizzi, Interview by author

[9] FTDeleware, “Elektra Kehagias, 7, Wants to Remind Everyone That Time Is Running out to Enter Our Raffle for an Original American Girl Doll,” Fort Delaware Museum of Colonial History, August 10, 2013, http://fortdelawaremuseum.org/elektra-kehagias-7-wants-to-remind-everyone-that-time-is-running-out-to-enter-our-raffle-for-an-original-american-girl-doll/.

[10] Debra Conway, Interview by author, March 3, 2014

[11] Patrick H. Butler, “Past, Present, and Future: The Place of the House Museum in the Museum Community,” in Interpreting Historic House Museums, ed. Jessica Foy Donnelly, American Association for State and Local History Book Series (Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2002).

[12] Hade, “Lies My Children’s Books Taught Me: History Meets Popular Culture in ‘The American Girls’ Books,” 155.

[13] Conway, Interview by author.

[14] Jim Dolbow, “American Girl Day at the U.S. Navy Museum This Saturday,” USNI Blog, June 2009, http://blog.usni.org/2009/06/24/american-girl-day-at-the-us-navy-museum-this-saturday.

[15] Ibid.

[16] Russanne Erickson, “American Girl Mardi Gras Set for Feb. 2,” Hastings Museum, January 5, 2013, http://hastingsmuseum.org/hm-up-close/american-girl-mardi-gras/3702.

[17] Leigh Ann Torres, “American Girl: Children in History Events,” Free Fun in Austin: Local Adventures for Families, December 4, 2012, http://www.freefuninaustin.com/2012/12/american-girl-children-in-history-events.html#.UtyuzBDnbIU.

[18] Hartley, Interview by author.; Conway, Interview by author.

[19] Micalizzi, Interview by author.

[20] Conway, Interview by author.

[21] “American Girl Doll Valentine Workshop At the Historic Polk House,” 2011, http://www.icontact-archive.com/-muTXAz3b2GZTELlpMKCt11zFUxQdnNp?w=2.

[22] Diamond et al., “American Girl and the Brand Gestalt,” 122.

[23] Miskec, “Meet Ivy and Bean, Queerly the Anti-American Girls,” 158.

[24] Patricia West, Domesticating History: The Political Origins of America’s House Museums (Washington [D.C.]: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1999), xi.

[25] Ibid., xii.

[26] Ibid., 160.

[27] John F. Sherry, “The Work of Play at American Girl Place,” Social Psychology Quarterly 72, no. 3 (September 1, 2009): 200, doi:10.2307/25593921.

[28] West, Domesticating History, xiii.

[29] Rowland and Sloane, “A New Twist on Timeless Toys.”

[30] Hartley, Interview by author. 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.