From T. Tudor Newsletter

This is an excerpt from Cellar Door. Since the Dolls' Christmas, I think I've lived and breathed Tasha Tudor, and I've collected her books and memorabilia for many years. My prize is a letter she wrote and illustrated for me, with sketches of Sethany Ann and Nicey Melinda. I now have original dolls like them in the Museum, and I ahve dressed another like Annabelle. I sued to show video of her and play a tape; she was a tough woman, but gentle. How I wanted to live like her! I've never found anyone who's art I like better; she has something about her style that is both whimsical and realistic. Enjoy the excerpt below; she was a woman for all seasons- McCready and Dorr Residencies in New Hampshire Artists know other artists, of course. We can be grateful that the watercolorist Tasha Tudor should have been a close friend of the photographer Nell Dorr. Dorr encouraged Tudor. And Tudor served as both a photographic model for Dorr as well as living out the ideals that Dorr espoused. If you do not know Dorr's work, Google her and you will find that she learned photography from her father at a young age. Her Mother and Child is a lovingly presented photo essay featuring her family and Tasha Tudor's family. The two women collaborated to create the 1955 dolls' wedding and the filmic record of the event The Golden Key. You may also have seen the 1955 Life magazine that reported the fantasy dolls' wedding to the world. Nell Dorr was a generation older than Tudor. We do not know the circumstances of the young artist Tasha Tudor's meeting with the older photographer Nell Dorr. It is certain that they met while both lived in Connecticut. Perhaps Tudor's artist mother introduced them. Dorr's daughter Elizabeth and Tudor were born in 1915. Tom and Tasha McCready's first child Bethany was born in 1940 during their Redding, CT, residence. Nell Dorr was Bethany's godmother and remained close throughout her life. We know from a brief history of the Saugituck Reservoir that Nell Dorr and others met Connecticut governor Wilbur Cross in his chambers about 1930 to protest the flooding of the Saugatuck valley to create a water supply for the city of Bridgeport. The project went forward and today the 827 acre lake covers part of the town of Redding. It is only ½ mile from the house on Tudor Road where Tasha and Tom McCready began their family life. This is the house Rosamund Tudor purchased after her divorce to be close to her friend Rosamund Mikkleson, a granddaughter of the author Nathaniel Hawthorn. There is an often repeated story that Nell Dorr moved her daughters and grandchildren to New Hampshire from the Connecticut coast for safety during World War II. Her husband John V. N. Dorr and her three sons-in-laws were serving in the war. In truth, the war was nearly at an end when she purchased a farm in New Hampshire, although the family may have been renting for some time prior to the purchase. I have not been able to determine who discovered Southern New Hampshire first - the McCreadys or the Dorrs. Their legal actions were nearly simultaneous. The Merrimack County, NH, Registry of Deeds gives some facts, but it doesn't answer the question. Thomas Leighton McCready, Jr. and Tasha Tudor McCready purchased the Ed Garrish farm in Webster, NH, on March 20, 1945, Liber 607, folio 136. One month later on April 24, 1945, 613:318, Nell Dorr purchased the Harry Pelren farm in neighboring Hopkinton, three miles distant. Another often repeated story is that Tudor used the proceeds from her Mother Goose to purchase the Gerrish farm. Mother Goose was published in October 1944; a first royalty check for the work would have been received in Spring 1945. The McCreadys give their address at the time as Hopkinton, indicating that they had already left Connecticut and were renting temporary housing. Virginia Nell Dorr (of Westport, CT) purchased her property in her own name. John V. N. Dorr signed a mortgage with her, but relinquished his right of curtesy at the same time. Dorr sold her first purchase to her daughter Elizabeth and husband John Howe a year later. She bought another old property nearby and retained it until August 27, 1959, 848:525. She remained in Connecticut until her death. The McCreadys divorced with her husband signing a quit claim deed to Tasha Tudor McCready May 3, 1961, 881:279. His former wife changed her name legally to Tasha Tudor, remarried, divorced a second time, and finally sold her 400 acre farm to a neighbor up the road, Abby A. Rockefeller (daughter of David Rockefeller) September 10, 1971, 1107:405. At that time she moved to her final home in Marlboro, Vermont