Mary Boykin Chesnut Doll
Second in Series
Today Mary Boykin Chesnut (1823-1886) of Stateburg and Camden is widely recognized as one of the most astute observers of the events and people of the Civil War. Her diary is generally the first southern woman's voice consulted by historians in search of personal descriptions of the war. Her biographer Elisabeth Muhlenfeld calls it "a work which is in many respects the most remarkable first hand account of the Confederacy ever written." When the U.S.Post Office recently published a sheet of 20 Civil War stamps, Chesnut was one of the two southern women depicted (nurse Phoebe Yates Levy Pender of Charleston,S.C., was the other).
The South Carolina Historical Society has chosen to honor Mary Boykin Chesnut as the second in the Historical Society's "Great Women of South Carolina Doll Series". The hand-painted, full-body porcelain figure is attired in a silk brocade dress reminiscent of the 1860s. The doll is 11 1/2 inches high with articulated limbs, numbered and signed, and of a limited edition of 250. Each is hand-made by Nancy Badgley of the Artisan Doll Gallery.
