Updated:
July 18, 2007
ollecting objects was a multi-generational avocation at the Mission Inn. Frank Miller’s granddaughters, Isabella Hutchings and Helen Hutchings, amassed a collection of several hundred dolls and animals. In the Dolls and Animals of the World, their mother (Hutchings, A., n.d.) writes the following:
The Dolls and Animals of the World are two of the international
collections at the Mission Inn that appeal to all ages. They were
started several years ago . . .(Isabella) mothers the little people of
many lands, and her sister, Helen, . . . who is the keeper of the
international zoo. . . (The dolls) are being collected with the idea of
stimulating international friendship among the younger generations. (p. 3).
Represented are dolls from countries and regions of Canada, Mexico, South America, Europe, Asia Minor and Asia, Oceania, Africa, and the United States. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, a golden bear, a glass horse from Mexico, and the Japanese dolls Miss Chiba and Miss Fusa, were part of the collection.
Miss Chiba and Miss Fusa arrived in the United States in 1927. Dr. Sidney L Gulick established the Friendship Doll program between Japan and the United States (http://www.mfwi.org/jcc/Doll.htm). He believed dolls would instill peace in the minds of children. Nearly 13,000 dolls arrived in Japan from the U.S. in February 1927. Japan, in turn, sent to the United States fifty-eight dolls, each about 32 inches in height. Several locations in the United States, including the Mission Inn, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, hosted the Japanese Friendship Doll exhibit. At the end of the tour, Miss Chiba and Miss Fusa became part of Isabella and Helen Hutchings collection. For several years, the Inn celebrated Girls Festival Day (Hina Matsuri), a 1,000-year-old Japanese festival. Miss Chiba and Miss Fusa were included in the festival, along with Emperor and Empress dolls. (Hutchings, A., n.d. p.73) (Riverside Enterprise, December 9, 1927)
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