Vast doll collection up for grabs in Washington

WASHINGTON — To put it mildly, Kalona community member Annalee (Faris) Lynch was an avid collector of dolls, before her death in 2011.

Gathering an assortment of somewhere between 1,700 and 2,000 dolls over the course of her life — according to family members’ estimates — she kept the collection on shelves lining her basement and filling every corner of her home. More than that, she named and photographed each one, cataloging them on an array of handwritten 3x5’’ index cards, sometimes making up stories to go with each of the characters.

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“My mother was quite an energetic personality, she enjoyed the fantasies that these dolls offered,” said Michael Lynch, Annalee’s son. “My mother was a dramatic storyteller, she was a bit of a jokester, she liked to have fun, she was a grand personality, and she of course found these dolls to be a means by which she could relate.”

Years after Annalee’s death, the family struggled to clear out the collection. A few of the higher-end items were sent to auction houses and secondhand stores, or given away to customers at Lynch’s shop. But the grand majority were packed into boxes — multiple pickup truckloads’ worth — and stored in his garage.

Lynch said he couldn’t bring himself to simply throw the rest away.

“I wanted someone to appreciate the dolls that my mother found value in, I just didn’t want them thrown away, discarded,” he said. “To devote the time and energy, to go through them, to sort them, to clean them, that’s massive … my mother had the time and the energy and the interest to do these things, but when the family comes in and says, ‘Would you like to fill your house with these dolls?’ the takers are few and far between.”

Washington woman coordinates sales, local raffles

Several months ago, Lynch met Washington woman Carrielin Jones.

Fascinated by the breadth of Lynch’s collection and the potential appreciation of local kids, she made it her mission to help get the dolls into the hands of people who would appreciate them.

“I’m honored that he’s letting me do this project,” she said. “It’s something for the children to have, and it’s something for the community to have, too.”

Jones set up a small sales booth at Washington’s Ridiculous Days, sending proceeds to the Chamber of Commerce for more valuable dolls. Another was raffled away at The Chair, a salon downtown.

Throughout June, Jones has coordinated a window display with State Theatre, where the venue has offered two raffle tickets for $5 with proceeds benefiting Main Street Washington, and entries allowed to specify which dolls they want on their tickets. That sale is expected to run through the end of August, according to Jones.

And starting in July, Washington Public Library plans to display the collection and hold a free raffle of its own, also ending in August.

Jones said she hoped to off-load the collection a few pieces at a time, possibly with similar events around the community.

“I plan to go to the library, perhaps, in Kalona, I want to go to Hills Bank because they have a display window there … and if you do it around Christmastime, then they could have a free doll around Christmas,” she said. “And some cherished ones that I really like, I’ll mail them away to my friends!”

Collection amassed over decades of life

Michael Lynch speculates that his mother’s collection stemmed partially from childhood scarcity: Annalee was born in 1931, the 10th child of a circuit-riding Methodist pastor in the swing of the Great Depression, when resources were limited.

Her explanation of the habit, according to her son, was that it started with disappointment over not receiving a considerably smaller collection in her youth.

“There was a distant relative that had died, and in the estate there were two or three dolls and she had an eye on them … she had worked herself up to some expectation that these dolls would be given to her, and they were not,” Michael Lynch said. “Dolls became a bit of an obsession. She collected them and enjoyed them, and we enjoyed watching her dress the dolls, name the dolls, talk about the dolls, show the dolls.”

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There’s no consistent theme among the thousands of items.

The dolls represent countless brands, price points and time periods, according to Michael Lynch. Some are toys, others are promotional materials, or collectibles made to be displayed.

They depict characters, including an original Snow White doll made in the ‘30s, or a Ronald McDonald doll from the ‘70s. They’re made of cloth, porcelain, plastic, and any other viable material under the sun. They’re tall and short, old and new. They include rare finds and mass-produced figurines.

“It’s every kind of doll you can possibly imagine,” he said. “You think about American history and all of the different phases that we went through, and all of them are celebrated through these toys and collecting items. When something was popular, they made a doll to promote it.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com