Doll House and Furniture

Doll House, John Langden Whitten, 1846-1876

This dollhouse was made by Mr. John Langden Whitten for his daughter, Emma Eliza Whitten, sometime between 1864 and 1876. The Whitten’s were a Burlington family who lived on Centre Street in downtown Burlington. John Whitten co-owned the Essex Glove Company, which was located on Church Street. According to both the donor’s account and Burlington City Directory records, John Whitten passed away in 1876, presumably when his daughter, Emma, was about twelve years old.

The dollhouse that Mr. Whitten made for his daughter still has pencil marks on the wood where Mr. Whitten planned his cuts for doorways and windows. These pencil marks can be seen as a ghost-like remain of John Whitten, which probably acted as some form of comfort for Emma Eliza after her father’s passing. Because of the symbolic image of “the home,” it is curious to consider how this object can be representative of the gendered relationship between father and daughter in the late nineteenth century.