Collection: Diahann Carroll, Julia, and the Julia Dolls: Beauty, Brilliance, and the Battle for Representation

(On Display: 1969 Nurse Julia Doll & 1969 Talking Julia Doll)

Look closely. What you see before you is not just a doll. Not just a costume. Not just a television show.

 What you see is a cultural breakthrough, a moment when Black America stood taller because one woman stepped into America’s living rooms and redefined what was possible.

 Diahann Carroll was elegance, intelligence, and defiance wrapped in poise. In 1968, when she became the star of “Julia”, the first U.S. network television show to feature a Black woman in a non-stereotypical lead role, she did more than act. She challenged the nation’s conscience.

I say this with pride: Julia was not just a nurse on TV: she was a revolution in a nurse’s uniform.

Up until then, Black women on screen were maids, mammies, or comic relief: never professionals, never dignified, never fully human. But Diahann Carroll’s portrayal of Julia Baker, a widowed single mother and registered nurse, gave America a new image of Black womanhood: educated, poised, professional, and loving. She gave Black girls a reason to dream beyond the scripts society wrote for them.

 And then came the Talking Julia Doll.

Released by Mattel in 1969, she was one of the first Black dolls based on a real Black woman—a bold, brown-skinned beauty in a nurse’s outfit who could speak words of inspiration. In a world flooded with blonde-haired, blue-eyed dolls, Julia stood out. She said, I see you, little Black girl. You are worthy of love, of care, and of your own story.

 These dolls weren’t just toys.

They were tools of cultural affirmation.

They were subtle acts of rebellion on bedroom shelves across the nation.

 For Black America, Julia was not perfect, and she was not meant to be. But she was powerful. She cracked open a tightly shut door, showing that representation matters and image is everything in the fight for liberation. Every time a Black child played with that doll, they were reprogramming the narrative: reclaiming identity, possibility, and pride.

This artifact is more than vintage plastic and fabric.

It is a symbol of the beauty of Black womanhood

and a reminder that we have always belonged on the main stage.

So when you see Julia, see your mother, your auntie, your teacher, your sister...

See the promise that our stories will never again be silenced.

“Before we could become what we dreamed, we had to first see ourselves on the screen; and on the shelf.”

- Dr. Tracy P. Washington (Curator, United Crowns Mobile Museum of Black History & Culture)