Vintage 1984 The Original Doll Baby Doll "Doll Baby" by M. N. Thomas

This doll is a Rare Treasure from the distant past, before Cabbage Patch Kids come alive. This is what a doll used to be like back in the day. A face of the Cabbage Patch we would come to know and love with the body to fill clothing we used to make ourselves!

Martha Nelson Thomas began making the Original Doll Baby in 1971. Martha was an American folk artist, known for her work in soft sculpture dolls. Thomas was the creator of "Doll Babies," the inspiration for Cabbage Patch Kids.

After doing some research online, I found out that "M.N. Thomas" was actually a woman named Martha Nelson Thomas, a shy yet talented doll artist from western Kentucky.
In the early 1970's Martha began to create a series of soft-sculptured rag dolls which she named and also gave adoption papers, which provided the buyer with information about each of her dolls' unique personalities.

In 1971, she designed her "Doll Babies" with input from children she knew, and made them by hand. She then sold them at craft fairs around Louisville, Kentucky In 1976. Martha's philosophy about dolls is simple.... Cuddle, Love, and Play with them!

Martha Thomas met Xavier Roberts at one of these craft fairs. He asked her to supply him with dolls to sell in Georgia, where he lived and worked. Thomas briefly let him sell her Doll Babies, but stopped.

Roberts created his own version in 1978, and in 1982 he licensed the dolls to Coleco for mass-production under the name Cabbage Patch Kids... and the rest is history.

This doll has brown hair and has hazel eyes with a Ponytail, this is handmade doll by Martha Nelson Thomas.

In preloved, used condition.

From a smoke free home.