Our daughter, Amy, acquired Samantha for Christmas when she was about 7 years old, along with ever so many clothes, furniture and accessories to complete her collection in subsequent years. All of that has been faithfully and carefully stored by her parents for all these years.
We have been retrieving contents from every window seat, closet, shelf, cabinet and drawer in our 50-year-old home in preparation for our move to a much smaller abode in One Rangers Way early next year. That has resulted in our re-discovery of Samantha and a necessary determination of what to do with her in the near future since our Amy doesn’t have a daughter to enjoy Samantha nor room to store her.
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When our granddaughter Andie came along, she, too, had an American Girl doll and we visited their original store in Chicago with her Aunt Amy, in college there at the time, for tea with Andie’s dolly in the store’s amazing tearoom. Of course, we went shopping for her dolly on the multiple floors of this Granny-Granddaughter wonderland!
When Ashley came into our family about 6 years later, she was immediately gifted with a toddler American Girl doll and a few years later with a look-a-like-her doll also by American Girl. When their dolls visited Granny the granddaughters sometimes used Samantha’s bed or wicker chairs and table; but, Samantha and her clothes had long before been tucked away in the steamer trunk and stored for Amy.
Who knew what an original 1987 Samantha doll signed by Pleasant Rowland, founder of the Pleasant Company (American Girl) could be worth in 2024? I certainly didn’t; but, our son, Brian, in researching her, discovered that in 2012, a signed Samantha alone sold for $12,000 at auction, and even the unsigned ones have value.
Pleasant Rowland herself has quite a story. As a retired teacher and textbook author from Chicago, she founded the Pleasant Company to offer dolls and their books, representing different stages of American history, for young girls (aged 8 to 12) from which to learn some history while enjoying their companionship in play.
Her company was eventually known as the American Girl Company and is still popular today following her sale to the Mattel Toy Company in 1998 for $700 million. Rowland’s first series of historical dolls were retired and archived in 2008; but, were ultimately reintroduced by Mattel to the toy world some years later.
Each of Samantha’s outfits and accessories was created to replicate some aspect of the books written by Rowland about the adventures or special occasions in the doll’s life. Samantha was an orphan in the early 1900s who was reared by her grandmother, Grand Mary, from a young age who taught all the lessons of how to look and act like a proper young lady.
Brian produced this photo session with Samantha and her gear. We re-created the marketing scenes from the brochures to have among our memorabilia when we move and then to sell her together along with her furniture and accessories to another doll collector or enamored Granny who loves to play dolls with her offspring.
