阿拉巴馬州洛亞諾克:史密斯 (Ella Smith) 娃娃的出生地
地方性遺產

當你喜歡的玩具被弄壞的時候，你有什麼感覺？你想要拿去修理，對不對？1897年， 在喬治亞州洛亞諾克 (Roanoke) ，一個小女孩將壞 掉的娃娃交給住在附近的史密斯太太 (Mrs. Ella Gaunt Smith) ，想要看看她是否可以將它修好。誰能猜得到，這竟開啟了史密斯太太的事業？

在她開始製造娃娃之前，史密斯太太是一個專業女裁縫師和業餘 攝影師。當她收到了壞掉的素燒陶磁 (磁器的一種) 娃娃時，她整整實驗了兩年，才知道如何修復它。她用石膏等混合物倒在娃娃的頭上，再以彈力織物 (一種有彈性的織物) 覆蓋，然後重新刻畫特徵。她將頭跟身體縫在一起而且更換了假髮。完成之後，無法毀壞的史密斯娃娃即告誕生。1901年，史密斯太太 拿到了娃娃的第一項專利，而且在1904年時，她參加了聖路易斯展覽會 (St. Louis Exposition，世界博覽會) 並為她的娃娃嬴得一個藍絲帶獎。

在1900年代早期，她的工廠每年可生產10,000個娃娃。娃娃廣為人知的幾個名字包括：阿拉巴馬娃娃、阿拉巴馬不壞娃娃、 洛亞諾克娃娃或史密斯娃娃。史密斯是南方第一個製造黑人娃娃的製造者 － 她的娃娃有10%是黑 人。時至今日，一個原版的史密斯娃娃價值高達美金20,000 。


How do you feel when your favorite toy is broken? You want to get it fixed, right? In 1897, a neighborhood girl brought her broken doll to Mrs. Ella Gaunt Smith of Roanoke, Georgia, to see if she could fix it. Who would have guessed that this would help start a business?

Mrs. Smith was a skilled seamstress and amateur photographer before she started making dolls. When she received the broken bisque (a type of porcelain) doll, she experimented for two years before she was able to repair it. She poured the head full of plaster, covered it with a scrap of stockinet (an elastic knitted fabric), and then repainted the features. She sewed the head onto the body and replaced the wig. From this, the Indestructible Ella Smith Doll was born. In 1901, Mrs. Smith received the first patent on her doll, and in 1904 she went to the St. Louis Exposition (World's Fair), where she won a blue ribbon for her dolls.

In the early 1900s, her factory produced 10,000 dolls each year. The dolls are known by several names: Alabama Baby, Alabama Indestructible Doll, Roanoke Doll, or Ella Smith Doll. Smith was the first doll maker in the South to manufacture black dolls -- 10 percent of her dolls were black. Nowadays, an original Ella Smith Doll is worth as much as $20,000.

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