Name: Babyland General Cabbage Patch Kids Georgiana 1986 Southern Bell Edition
Made by and When: Xavier Roberts, 1986
Material: Stuffed cloth
Marks: (Body Tag) Cabbage Patch Kids / The Little People / from BABYLAND GENERAL / Xavier Roberts / ©1978, 1980, 1981, 1983 / ORIGINAL APPALACHIAN ARTWORKS, INC. / CLEVELAND, OH 30528 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
(Bottom) Xavier Roberts signature in pink stitching is on the doll’s left buttocks.
(Sole of left shoe) Xavier Roberts is signed in gold.
Birth Certificate registration number: SBG 1252/4000
Height: 22 inches
Hair, Eyes, Mouth: Soft-sculptured doll has brown yarn hair styled in two side ponytails adorned with pink ribbon lace bouquets, short curly yarn bangs frame the face; brown painted eyes, and a puckered mouth.
Clothes: Dressed in a pink dotted Swiss dress with ribbons and lace, a knife-pleated yolk, an attached white slip, and a cover panty over a disposable diaper that matches the dress, the dress is enhanced with lace ruffles at the collar, sleeves, and near the hem. Shin-high white knit lace socks with posies and fancy shiny patent-leather white Mary Jane shoes complement the attire. An accessory of a parasol (not shown) completes the doll’s Southern Belle theme. The Cabbage Patch story is printed on the inside of the hangtag attached to the dress.
Other: The original soft-sculptured Cabbage Patch dolls were adoptable directly from BabyLand General Hospital. These high-end, limited-edition collectible dolls included an official registered birth certificate with Xavier Roberts listed as the father and adoption papers enclosed in a BabyLand General Hospital envelope. Earlier soft-sculptured Cabbage Patch dolls preceded these which were offered in upscale department stores during the 1970s. By 1983, Xavier Roberts mass-produced vinyl and cloth Cabbage Patch dolls. Each pre-named doll came with a birth certificate. These dolls incited one of the biggest doll crazes in modern doll history.
CPK History and the Original Soft-Sculptured Dolls by Martha Nelson Thomas
As a young art student in college in 1976, Xavier Roberts reportedly came up with the idea for adoptable soft-sculptured dolls. He later joined five school friends to form Original Appalachian Artworks, Inc. He traveled to arts and crafts shows and sold the dolls for $100 before the dolls were mass-produced in vinyl and cloth by Coleco (Rosenberg).
However, according to the husband of the late Martha Nelson Thomas, the idea of adoptable soft-sculptured dolls named The Doll Baby was his wife’s idea. Xavier Roberts later admitted (after Thomas sued him) that her dolls inspired the Cabbage Patch Dolls (Tirosh). Unlike Roberts’ dolls, Thomas did not sign her dolls because she felt they were more like real babies and a signature would not be natural.
Gallery
References
Rosenberg, Jennifer. “The Story Behind the Cabbage Patch Buying Frenzy of 1983.”
ThoughtCo, 20 Mar. 2020, www.thoughtco.com/the-history-of-cabbage-patch-kids-
1779396. Accessed 23 Sept. 2022.
Tirosh, Gur. “One of the Biggest Scandals in the History of Toys. The Dark Story of the
Cabbage Patch Kids.” History by Day, n.d., https://historybyday.com/pop-
culture/one-of-the-biggest-scandals-in-the-history-of-toys-the-dark-story-of-the-
cabbage-patch-kids/. Accessed 23 Sept. 2022.
Your comments are valued. Donations aid the initiative to preserve Black-doll history.
If you subscribe to DeeBeeGee’s Virtual Black Doll Museum™ by email, click the post title in the email, which links to the website to view all text and associated media. Please “like” and share this installation with your social media contacts. Add your email address to the subscribe or sign-up field in the footer or right sidebar.
DeeBeeGee's Virtual Black Doll Museum™ 