This is one of a large group of childhood objects donated by Eileen Brock. Eileen was born in 1915 to a middle-class family living in North London. Her mother, Amy Piercy, was the youngest of a close family of six sisters so Eileen's early life was busy with visits and entertainments with aunts and cousins. In 1921, when Eileen was six, her father William died in Basra, Iraq, where he was serving in the army.
Eileen and Amy were very close and shared a love of music, dancing and theatre. Eileen also inherited her mother's enthusiasm for collecting; they both held on to birthday and christmas cards, presents, school books, theatrical ephmera and clothing. These ordinary but personally significant objects span the decades when education, cinema, fashion and women's lives were transformed in Britain.
The Museum of Childhood now holds this wonderul collection which offers rich insight into the everyday life of a young girl growing up after the First World War.