The YouTube algorithm has recently entertained me with clips from Pawn Stars episodes. Beatles memorabilia, a vintage plane, and poker cheat’s tools from the 1920s are among the interesting objects that have been featured. While the sellers can provide personal and historical context for well-documented pieces or family heirlooms, the sights and sounds the items have been privy to over the decades can only be imagined.
During college, I lived in a historic campus dorm known as “The Dow House,” affectionately called “The Paul House” by students in a nod to its onetime owners. This two-story Victorian home was a fascinating collection of rooms, many of which were covered in layers of wallpaper. Before my junior year, the college gave my family permission to repaint and redecorate some of the main rooms. During our wallpaper-scraping spree, we discovered a company name and date from 1920 penciled on the wall behind layer No. 3. If only these walls could talk!
Author Rachel Field plays upon the desire for intimate details about an old space in her Newberry Award-winning book Hitty: Her First Hundred Years. This beloved children’s book follows a small wooden doll named Hitty, short for the biblical name “Mehitabel,” from her creation and beginnings in early-1800s Maine up through her arrival at an antiques store in mid-1900s New York.
Field’s portrayal of Hitty is magical. Hitty has a distinct voice that is amusing, disappointed, and indignant in turn. She weathers many storms, both literally and figuratively, and is held dear by quite a few owners, never passing too much judgment on any and painting the portrait and character of each in interesting terms.
The tale balances a doll-sized view of the world with major historical changes. During her first adventure on a whaling boat, we learn about the mighty trade and dangerous lifestyle surrounding the production of whale oil. Over the decades, she observes the effects of the Civil War, is held by Charles Dickens during one of his U.S. visits, has a poem written about her by John Greenleaf Whittier, hears Adelina Patti sing, has her daguerreotype taken, rides a train, and gets tossed out of an automobile.
The twists and turns in Hitty’s life keep readers fascinated. The winding ways through which she passes from one owner to the next are highly plausible. Toys are constantly being lost amid cushions, hidden in attics, dropped into the ocean, or mailed to the wrong addresses. These twists and turns keep the book from becoming a series of vignettes and instead make it one cohesive whole. While Hitty stays with her first owner for a fair amount of time, we quickly learn that this petite doll, or any toy, in the hands of a small child is apt to be misplaced, and we are primed to expect her adventures.
Creative scenes, a witty protagonist, historical information, and much more await the curious reader upon opening this charming book. If you’re lucky enough to find an old copy, revel in the musty smell and think briefly about the countless other hands that have held it and the numbers of eyes that eagerly read those words. Settle back and prepare to be swept away on a doll-sized tale spanning years and continents.
