Wolford, North Dakota, is home to North Dakota’s largest educational doll museum collection. While housed separately, the doll museum is owned by the Dale and Martha Hawk Museum and Campground, which is located outside the town of Wolford on a farm site. It’s easy to get to with only a half-mile or so on a gravel road.
What’s in the Doll Collection?
The doll collection is the culmination of 35 years of collecting by Dale and Martha Hawk. There are several hundred dolls, mainly from the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. Not all of the dolls are perfect, as some were rescued and had to be repaired.
One of the displays is a doll tree, which is decorated with many type of small dolls, including a California Raisin from the 1980s. Most of the tiny dolls, however, are small, hard plastic, and are from the 1940s and 1950s.
Dolls in the museum at Wolford, ND. The doll by the sign (bottom right) is an eight-inch tall Ginny doll produced by the Vogue Doll Company in the 1950s. Photo by Linda Aksomitis
Fast Fact: Small dolls were sold by the Singer Sewing Machine Company, where you could buy the model, take her home and dress her. Singer also sold tiny sewing machines for dollhouses.
Various other companies also made small dolls including Vogue, Playhouse, and Nancy Ann.
You’ll also find celebrity dolls in this doll museum, such as Princess Diana and Shirley Temple and Dolley Madison (Courageous First Lady, wife of President James Madison), along with dolls from around the world such as Oriental dolls and trolls of Norway.
Shirley Temple Dolls
Shirley Temple was born in 1928 in Santa Monica, California. She was Hollywood’s #1 box office draw as a child actor from 1934 to 1938, after starting her film career at the age of three. Between the ages of three and ten, she appeared in 29 films.
Fast Fact: The Shirley Temple dolls were licensed merchandise created in a variety of sizes and wearing various costumes.
Originally, they were created as composition dolls made of sawdust, glue, and other materials such as cornstarch, resin and wood flour. Later versions in the 1950s were vinyl.
Due to being unheated in the winter, the museum doesn’t have any composition dolls.
Cabbage Patch Dolls
There’s also a collection of Cabbage Patch dolls. These dolls date back to the 1980s and have a tumultuous history when it comes to ownership and branding. Today, children can see their own cabbage patch dolls be born at BabyLand General Hospital in Cleveland, Georgia.
Linda’s Pick of the Displays
My pick of the displays in the doll museum had to be the dolls of the world, or educational dolls collection. Why? Because they inspired, in part, my desire to travel the world as an adult.
Like many schools “back in the day” we had several dolls costumed in the traditional garments of various countries around the world.
I remember examining their exotic clothing, wishing I could see real people in the costumes in their own surroundings.
From there, it was all about daydreams of visiting other places wherever they might be. Luckily, I discovered travel writing was a side-option in my writing career and I was able to make those daydreams come true.
Linda’s Road Trip Tips
David and I visited this museum on a US road trip segment from Roseau, MN, to Kenmare, ND. If you’re looking for something free to do in Roseau, we highly recommend the Polaris factory tour (snowmobiles, ATVs, and UTVs). We booked a spot in advance, although it may not be required for your group. Get registration details at the Polaris Experience Center.
The Polaris Experience in Roseau is a free museum as well. If you’re not interested in snowmobiling history you’ll still likely find the local history information worthwhile. Roseau also has an awesome local museum at the Roseau Country Historical Society and Museum.
We stayed at the Quilt Inn in Kenmare (great little reasonably priced hotel) and the North Country Inn and Suites (good) in Roseau. Best meal: Minnesota’s famous wild rice soup at Nelson’s Cafe in Roseau.
Wild rice is the state grain of Minnesota. The grain was used for centuries as a staple by the Ojibwe and Dakota people of the area. While it’s called rice, wild rice is actually an aquatic grass that grows in shallow lakes (Minnesota has 10,000 lakes after all!).
It’s amazing to see growing, as the stalks tower as much as 12 feet above the mud on the lake bottoms. Today, wild rice is still harvested by people in a canoe, although there’s also a cultivated type of wild rice.
Who Should Visit the Wolford Doll Museum?
Dolls, of course, are memorabilia that take each generation back to its childhood. So, doll museums are the perfect place to revisit those memories yourself, no matter your age, or share your memories with the next generation.
Many of the dolls in the collection are also Americana, or materials characteristic of American culture (or Canadian for that matter!). So, this is a Should See museum for anyone driving through northern North Dakota or southern Manitoba.
How Do You Visit the Educational Doll Collection in Wolford, ND?
The Educational Doll Collection is part of the Dale and Martha Hawk Museum & Campgrounds near Wolford, ND.
It’s located three miles east and three miles north of the town, and there’s a large sign where you need to turn off the highway onto the short gravel road.
Visit the Hawk Museum website for current hours, costs, and event schedule.
Get the latest updates from the Dale and Martha Hawk Museum page on Facebook.
Plan your visit with Google Maps. If you enjoyed the article, please pin it to share later!
Discover More Children’s Museums
- Rare Educational Doll Museum in North Dakota
The Educational Doll collection is part of the Martha Hawk Museum & Campgrounds near Wolford, ND. From celebrity dolls to international dolls to tiny dolls from the 1940s, there’s lots to see.
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