Summary

Note: This object includes a derogatory depiction of a particular cultural group. Such depictions are not condoned by Museums Victoria which considers them to be racist. Historical distance and context do not excuse or erase this fact.

Toy post stamps, used by Bill Boyd as a child in the mid 1950s. He remembers pasting similar stamps onto letters. The four rows of stamps each feature an icon: a 'golliwog', duck, pelican and bear. Each is anthropomorphized in the shape of a cheerful postman carrying letters.

The William Boyd Childhood Collection includes most of the childhood possessions of William (Bill) Boyd, who was born in 1947 and raised in the Victorian town of Maryborough. Kept by Lillian Boyd (Bill's mother) all her life, and preserved by Bill after her death.

Golliwogs have fallen out of favour around the world in all kinds of commercial areas, from toys to children's books to foodstuffs as they have been perceived as being inherently racist.

Physical Description

Set of 12 stamps, still joined, six red and six blue. The four rows of stamps each feature an icon: a 'golliwog', duck, pelican and bear. Each is anthropomorphized in the shape of a cheerful postman carrying letters. Yellowing glue on back of stamps.

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