Send an ecard of this image

Isn't She a Doll?

The first Barbie doll, invented by Ruth Handler, debuted in stores on this day in 1959.

Steve Ashby's folk art Nodding Woman has Barbie's air of stylish sophistication. But where did he get his inspiration?

The artist once said, "I wake up with an idea that won't let me get back to sleep. So I get up and make that idea." Steve Ashby converted most of his ideas into objects in the early 1960s after his wife had died and he retired from his years of work as a farm hand and gardener. Ashby's favorite subjects were figures and animals, often inspired by the agrarian activities of Fauquier County, Virginia, where his ancestors had been slaves.

To create Nodding Woman, Ashby used tree branches, pieces of plywood cut on a jigsaw, selections from his late wife's clothing, paint, and pasted paper cutouts, all typical features of his construction techniques. Now missing some of her clothing, this jaunty female once sat on a makeshift bench in Ashby's yard, where he frequently placed his sculptures in different settings and costumes. Ashby took pride in endowing his figures with anatomically correct details, sometimes evident, as in this woman's thinly veiled chest, but often concealed under clothing.

Some of his figures were wind-activated to perform various activities that ranged from the domestic to the pornographic. Others include parts that move when handled. This figure's flexible neck—a saw blade—allows her head to nod.

Source: Lynda Roscoe Hartigan. Made with Passion: The Hemphill Folk Art Collection in the National Museum of American Art (Washington, D.C. and London: National Museum of American Art with the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990).

Pictured: Steve Ashby, 1904–1980, Nodding Woman, about late 1960s, painted and unpainted wood, cotton, nylon, steel saw blade, and paper, 48 1/4 x 24 x 17 3/4 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson.