-Golliwog- still bank c. 1910 - 1925

Here's that "Golliwog" still bank, probably made of cast iron by John Harper & Company at some point during their long run. You know, objects like this, they carry a weight, don't they? Thinking about who was making it, who was buying it, and what that meant back then—it's heavy. The dark paint, the exaggerated features... you can see how this object was designed to provoke a reaction, to reinforce harmful stereotypes. The figure is frozen, like a dark mirror of the past. It’s kind of rough, like folk art, but it's not exactly charming, is it? I guess when we look at something like this today, we have to ask ourselves, what does it mean to keep these things around? Can we learn something from them, or are they just reminders of a really ugly history? I don’t know, but maybe just by looking closely, we can start to have a conversation about it.