Description: Postcard with photograph of Miss Edna Earl Gaston and friend (doll in carriage).
ca. 1925.

it's not known if the doll belonged to Edna, or was a prop in the photographer's studio.
The doll appears to be a brown composition Mama doll. The Horsman doll company is known to have produced similar dolls along with other early American doll companies. "

A message on the back of the postcard in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library reads:
"9-25-25. 'To Uncle John from Edna Earl Gaston.'
John Clark, 709 E. Nash St, Wilson, N.C.

A different notation says, that Uncle John was John H. Clark , who was a founder and Sr. Warden of St. Mark's Episcopal Church and an organizer of their parochial school for Blacks. Mr. Clark as the first Black mail man in Wilson, NC.
.

Source of some of the narrative: Black Doll Collecting by Debbie Behan Garrett

Photograph source: Durwood Barbour Collection of North Carolina postcards in the North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.