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Thursday, March 8, 2018

Those Places Thursday: Balzekas Museum Dolls

The Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture in Chicago had numerous displays of dolls of different types in regional costumes.  The dresses of the ones below were woven by Aldona Bobėnaitė Vaitonienė of Toronto, Canada.


From left to right, the costumes represent the regions of Aukštaitija, the Highlands; Klaipėdos Kraštas, the Klaipeda region; Vilnija, the Vilnius region; and DzūkijaAukštaitija and Dzūkija are ethnographic regions; cultural areas defined by traditional lifestyles and dialects of the local Lithuanian population (mostly rural farmers) and not political nor administrative units.

The doll below also wears a costume representing the Aukštaitija region, which is the area my ancestors came from.  The costume was hand-woven and handmade by Aldona Vaselka .




The doll above wears a traditional Lithuanian married woman's outfit.  It was designed and donated by textile artist Aldona Stasiūnaitė Pečiūrienė in 2006.

The dolls below are from the private collection of Paulina Vaitaitis, D.D.S. (1920-2004).



Unfortunately, I did not make any notes about these dolls.



© Amanda Pape - 2018 - click here to e-mail me.

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