Cornell's Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections includes medieval studies and Icelandic culture as well as materials on human sexuality and witchcraft. But homemade dolls in very old clothes?

The Dora Erway Doll Collection is one of the many samples of Cornell student projects over the years that the division collects and preserves. From the 1920s, the collection comprises 37 costume dolls whose clothing and bodies were largely made by students, who in many cases adorned the doll heads with their own hair.

"The students really did their research [on these dolls], even down to their underwear and shoes; the dolls are very authentic," says Eileen Keating, university records manager in the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, who says she often pulls several of the dolls out for Cornell Reunion, just for fun.

The dolls represent various historical periods and nationalities. Many are exact replicas of authentic gowns, made from fabric that in many cases was already more than 100 years old in the 1920s.

The original assignment was given by Professor Dora Wetherbee Erway, who taught at Cornell from 1921-1945 in the Department of Household Arts (which became the Department of Housing and Design, and later merged to form the Department of Design and Environmental Analysis) in the College of Home Economics, now Human Ecology.

A 1912 graduate of the Massachusetts School of Art, Erway studied painting, design, crafts, sculpture, interior decoration, theater design and crafts with experts in Chicago, Boston, Manhattan, Hollywood and Nantucket. She also studied the life habits and crafts of the San Ildefonso Indians of New Mexico Inca civilization and culture in South America; and painted in Cuba, Japan, China and India.