Birthday card, printed paper, featuring Noddy, made in the UK by Sampson Low, copyright the Noddy Subsidiary Rights Co., Ltd, 1956-57

Birthday card for a child, of landscape proportions quarto folded with a left centrefold, printed in colour on white paper. The front shows Noddy driving up to the police station in his car; outside are a teddy bear and a black and white cat, with a ladybird running away in the distance. Inside is an illustration of an unlocked cell, with a 'golly' being brought cake, flowers and a present by Noddy and some other toys, with a policeman joining in and another looking in through a barred window.

A tab mechanism provides additional elements to both illustrations: at the front, a policeman in the doorway of the station, with policeman in a bus emerging from behind the building; inside, a line of marching policemen, and a teddy bear looking in through the barred window.

The cards in the group (B.157/233-1997) were sent to a sister and brother, Alison Lesley Turner (the donor, born 02/03/1951) and Kevin Andrew Turner (born 01/04/1953). [RF 1997/504]

The original golly was a central character in a series of books published between 1895 and 1909. Bertha Upton (1849–1912) wrote the books and her daughter, Florence Kate Upton (1873–1922), illustrated them. They based the character ‘Golliwogg’ (as it was originally spelled) on a doll Florence owned as a child growing up in 1880s America. The appearance and clothing of the doll (see B.493-1997) is based on the ‘blackface minstrel’ figure, a 19th-century racial caricature of African Americans. Blackface minstrel shows were performed by white actors and singers, who parodied African Americans by darkening their skins with shoe polish or burnt cork. These portrayals perpetuated many negative stereotypes and were steeped in racism. The shows originated in the USA, with the first widely known blackface character, ‘Jim Crow’, appearing around 1830. Soon after it became popular in the UK, which developed its own blackface traditions.

Florence moved to the UK in the 1890s, where the Uptons’ books became very popular. Their Golliwogg character was not copyrighted, allowing multiple representations of the golly to enter the public domain. The character featured in British toys, games, textiles, ceramics and children’s books, and was used as a mascot by the food manufacturer, Robertson’s, from about 1910. From the 1980s the character’s popularity began to wane as campaigners fought against the racist stereotypes that the golly represented. Robertson’s continued to promote the figure as part of a British ‘national tradition’ until 2001, when they stopped using the golly in their branding.

B.206-1997