(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved. Contact us for information about using this image.
label levels:
Clarissa Field of Northfield, Massachusetts, was born blind in 1765. This doll was made for her and she named it Bangwell Putt. Bangwell has no face but her ten carefully made fingers suggest the importance of touch in Clarissa's world. Bangwell has a homemade body and is dressed in eighteenth-century fashion, including stays. Clarissa kept Bangwell until she died in her eighties. Bangwell Putt is thought to be the oldest surviving rag doll in North America.