Schmid Doll Collection Archives from Lawton Dolls

Archived Collections- Schmid Dolls

From Sea to Shining Sea- 1986

Created for the Schmid Music Box Company

Virginia

Virginia - Colonial America circa 1776

Music: "Yankee Doodle"

"There is America, which at this day serves for little more than to amuse you with stories of savage men an uncouth manners, yet shall, before you taste death, show itself equal to the whole of that commerce which now attracts the envy of the world."

- Edmund Burke, March 22, 1775

Samantha - Deep South circa 1855

Music: "Dixie"

“It was a savagely red land, blood-colored after the rains, brick dust in droughts, the best cotton land in all the world... the plantation clearings and miles of cotton fields smiled up to the warm sun, placid, complacent. At their edges rose the virgin forests, dark and cool even in the hottest noons.”

-Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the Wind

Lily

Lily - California circa 1850

Music: "California Here I Come"

“Bear me from that distant strand,

Over ocean, over land,

To California's golden shore -

Fancy stop and rove no more.”

- Philip Freneau 1770

Rose

Rose - Texas circa 1870

Music: "Yellow Rose of Texas"

“ 'Twas good to live when all the range, Without no fence or fuss, Belonged, in partnership with God, To the government and us.

With skyline bounds from east to west, With room to go and come,
I liked my fellow man the best, When he was scattered some.

When my old soul hunts range and rest, Beyond the last divide, Just plant me on some strip of west, That's sunny, lone and wide.

Let cattle rub my headstone 'round, And coyotes wail their kin, Let horses come and paw the mound, But don't you fence me in.” -Badger Clark Jr.

Rachel

Rachel - Ohio Valley (Old Northwest Territory) circa 1790

Music: "Down in the Valley"

“Come all you young men, who have a mind to range, Into the western country, your station for to change; For seeking some new pleasure we'll altogether go, Come along lively lads, and we'll altogether go, And we'll settle on the banks of the pleasant Ohio... Girls, if you'll card, knit, and spin, we'll plough, reap, and sow, And we'll fold you in our arms while the stormy wind doth blow.”

-Excerpts from The Forget-Me-Not Songster - A collection of old ballads

Susanna

Susanna - Mississippi Valley circa 1820

Music: "Oh What a Beautiful Morning"

"A bird's eye view of the whole region east of the Mississippi...�offered one vast expanse of woods relieved by a comparatively narrow fringe of cultivation along the sea. Dotted by the glittering surface of lakes and intersected by the waving lines of rivers."

- James Fenimore Cooper

"There was something that literally drove men westward, goading them across the endless mountains, through steep passes, across searing plains and desert, into the face of terrors known and those unguessed. It was a vision, it was courage, it was at times the sheer joy of overcoming fantastic obstacles. And it was the conviction that what they were doing was different from anything that had happened before, that nothing would ever be quite the same again, and that the world would be a better place for what they had accomplished.”

-Richard M. Ketchum, The Pioneer Spirit

From Sea to Shining Sea is a collection of dolls commemorating the children who became part of the fabric of the American character as they, too, met the challenge to settle new lands and carve their lives out of the wilderness. Each doll represents a distinctly different period and region in the settlement of our country. Authentic folk tunes and ballads have been chosen for the music box in each doll. The dolls are fully jointed and have all-porcelain bodies. Only about 250 were produced of each design before we pulled the license.