Doll makes debut at GR library

Her name is Samantha and lived in New York in 1904.

Samantha is the fourth American Girl doll on loan in the Sweetwater County Library's collection, joining Kaya, Kit and Josephina. The American Girl dolls are constructed to reflect multiple ethnicities and time periods throughout American history. Josephina is from New Mexico in 1824, Kaya is a Native American from 1764 and Kit lived during the Great Depression in 1934. There's also a line of dolls offered reflecting contemporary life.

According to Becky Iwen, youth services director for the library, the dolls are on loan for a week and contain a set of pajamas, a sleeping bag, a brush, some care instructions and a journal for the child to write about what they did with the doll. The doll also comes with a book written about the doll's character and some historical information pertaining Sweetwater County during the character's time period. For Samantha, information about the Woman's Sufferage movement in Wyoming and New York is included. Iwen said the historical information comes from the Sweetwater County Historical Museum through a partnership between the library and museum.

Iwen said many libraries are pioneering a more interactive lending system, with some developing American Girl doll lending libraries to help educate and inspire girls. Iwen said the dolls are taken on vacations and other activities.

"It's fun to see what they do when they're checked out for the week," she said.

For far, the American Doll lending library has proven to be popular since the library debuted the program with Kit in 2016. Iwen said the library is looking to expand the program to include dolls aimed at boys.