Little Houses of Ancient Times

 I've been to lectures and read articles stating doll houses and miniatures in general date to the late seventeenth century with the Dutch Baby Houses, magnificent in their own right. Yet, we know Henry VII contributed to the Royal miniature collection in the late sixteenth century. Miniatures and tiny buildings and room, however, were known in the Ancient World and are often discovered in tombs even today.

A wonderful article by the Editors appeared in the March/April 2026 Archaeology magazine.  The article is called "Model Homes; A Look Inside Miniature Worlds Created for the Living, the Dead and the Divine."

 Structures covered include Ancient Egyptian rooms representing a granary and a bakery with miniature figures.  I've seen one in a local museum and more figures at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, San Jose, CA.  There is a home for Maya God, done as a terracotta miniature, AD 700-850, a Pigpen and Penthouse from China, with tiny inhabitants, AD 25--220.  Also, from central Italy, 900-700 B.C., come terracotta hut  urns and a tower urn, used to contain ashes of deceased persons, usually women.

From Iran, 11-50 to 1250 AD comes a courtyard, enclosed, with tiny figures appearing to have a party.  I question the editors on this one; it may be a toy.  Many Islamic countries eschew human figures, statues, and photos, unless the figures are dolls, meant as toys for children.  Doll collecting exists, but it is not officially sanctioned.  

From Greece comes a house model 9.5 inches tall, c. 1700 B.C.

From north Macedonia, 6400-5500 B.C., come houses with human figures built on top.  These are clay.  They remind me of German Kitchen Dolls; the doll's skirts open up to reveal a tiny kitchen.

It's worth buying this issue for your files.  Below are some pictures of the mini rooms and houses of American Doll and Toy Museum.  Besides doll houses, we have Dept 56 homes and others, David Winter and other cottages, small souvenir buildings, dioramas, and shadow boxes.

American Doll and Toy Museum: Christmas 2025; the State of the Doll Museum

American Doll and Toy Museum: Christmas 2025; the State of the Doll Museum:  Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! The solstice has come and gone, and it is truly winter.  I thought I would share some f...

Over 400,00 Strong!!

 We are over 400,000 strong!  Thank you.  We have also picked up some new followers in our fifteenth year.  I love you all and am grateful.  The museum continues to grow and thrive.  We will soon be expanding with over 2000 donations last year of dolls, toys, and books.  We have had some financial donations which go to our building and which we truly appreciate.

Our flower bed is full of hibiscus and milk weed, along with miniature roses and bachelor buttons.  A friendly squirrel runs around outside.

We have displays of dolls and toys representing prehistory to the present.  We're grateful to Erin and the folks at Rescued, Pat D., and our many friends an contributors, to our Board, to my husband who does it all.

Here are some recent photos to enjoy, with more on Instagram under ellen_tsagaris.

Books update; Thinking outside the Doll House available from Austin Macaulay till June 27th.  Capital Punishment in Popular Culture: Toys, Games, and Nursery Rhymes-Toying with Death, available from Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Warpaint-Ethics and Beauty available from the Ethics International Press.

Some are available in paperback, some in eBook format, also some have sample chapters on their sites and available discounts. Also check out my author's page on Amazon.  Some of my books are available on Kindle, free on Unlimited.

American Doll and Toy Museum: Only two dolls?

American Doll and Toy Museum: Only two dolls?:   Recently, a major public figure voiced the opinion that no child need more than one or two dolls.   We won’t get into politics, but I will...

Happy St Patrick's Day

 Monday will once again celebrate one of my favorite holidays.   I've always worn green, or had a St. Pat's sweater.  I love all things Irish and Celtic, so here are some dolls too help you celebrate.

Child's

playhouse decorated for St. Pat's

Boadicea, Celtic Queen

Celebrating Christmas

 Happy Holidays, everyone.  We are on the sixth day of Christmas, and a day away from New Year's Eve.  Kwanzaa and Hanukkah are ongoing.  I wanted to take time to share Christmas memories, since that is pretty much what I have left, but for three cousins, my family is pretty much gone.

We had wonderful family Christmases in Illinois and California.  We had big trees, often real, lights, cookies, homemade potpourri, stockings, and presents.

In California, we had roses and birds of paradise.  We went to Race Street Fish and Poultry for seafood, and we baked sweets, baklava, melomacarona, kourambedes, nut cake, butter cookies, so much. My family  on my mom's side went on a European vacation in 1938 that trapped them in WWII Greece.  After the first year when my grandfather lashed cypress branches together to make a tree, they didn't have Christmas till around 1947 when they came home.  Everything was gone from inside their houses.  They had to start over.  Christmas became important more than ever; the decorations we have started after 1947, but it all lovely, and someone played Santa.

My earliest memory of Christmas, or anything else, occurred when I was two.  My dad finally got out of the Greek air force, and after a year and a half, he was home at my grandparents' house.  It later became our house when everyone else moved to California.  I remember wearing a red snow suit, and my mom and dad pulling me on a sled in front of the house.  It has already snowed.

The next year, all but two of my uncles were in a bad accident a few blocks away from our house on December 23d.  I was there, but did not get hurt.  My dad and grandma were hurt badly, my grandpa, mom, and Aunt Connie were banged up.  My uncle Jim broke his ribs.  We were a few feet away from the old hospital, luckily.  I remember fighting to get off the examining table, and a neighbor who had come to help trying to give me chocolates.

Everyone recovered, but it was tough.  We still did Christmas.

At home, we went to Marshall Fields on Black Friday and Boxing Day, shopped after Christmas sales, and had duck or pheasant, sometimes turkey.  I don't eat any of that now, but memories were terrific.  My mom made oyster dressing for the holidays, I made pecan pie, which was Dear Abby's published recipe.

Dad put lights up, and set up the tree.  My dogs had their stockings, and I made ornaments and gifts all year in anticipation.  I often sang in choir programs, and played Christmas music on our piano at home.

Mom knitted and made gorgeous stockings and gift containers out of old pill bottles.  Our presents were small, a few dolls, an outfit or two, coins or tiny minis in the pill bottles, all decorated with lace, beads, and trim.

Every year my mom, and often grandma, would take a doll of mine and dress her, then wrap her for Christmas.  It was a beloved tradition.

We had all the old carols sung by choirs, and our beloved school program.

My babysitter, Aunt Rose, loved me like her own.  She made wonderful gifts and painted ceramics. One year her gift was a reproduction of an antique china head doll.  My mother sewed her a wardrobe.

We were together, and safe, and healthy.  We handled airlines, with dad one year in O'Hare getting us seats while picking up tiny Barbie accessories that had spilled on the floor out of my carry-on Barbie case.

These memories are all ghosts of Christmas past.  Now, it's my friends, and my husband and our son with two cats.  I still send cards, and remember my dad showing up in second grade with a box of cards for me to give out in class.  He was there in his suit, tie, and overcoat, and the cards were a white snow man with drifting snow on a black background. 

May your memories sustain you.  Merry Christmas and Peace in 2025.  God bless us, everyone!