Presidential Doll Collection

The Presidential Doll Collection was created by Mr. Lewis Sorensen. Mr. Sorensen was born in 1910 in Salt Lake City, Utah. He left school in the 8th grade to work in a dress shop. He soon began designing dresses and the “Lewis Dress” became the store’s best seller.

Mr. Sorensen became a leading artist and sculptor, specializing in wax. After World War II, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt commissioned Mr. Sorensen to create a set of presidential dolls for her home in Hyde Park. Mr. Sorensen created three sets of presidential dolls. Besides the set for Mrs. Roosevelt, one set went to a museum in Santa Claus, Indiana, and the other set now owned by Fullerton College belonged originally to Mrs. Dorothy Atherton of Fullerton.

The Administration at Fullerton College saw the opportunity to purchase the dolls that included all the presidents and their wives from Washington to Truman for the college for $454.50 at auction after Mrs. Atherton’s death in 1962.

The Faculty Women’s club was able to raise enough money to repay the three administrators, and when the library building was remodeled in 1967, a special case was created for them. Mr. Sorensen had then completed President & Mrs. Eisenhower and President & Mrs. Kennedy and donated them to the collection.

During the summer of 1977 Mr. Sorensen again brought the set up to date for Fullerton College and presented the college with eight more dolls, from President & Mrs. Johnson through President and Mrs. Carter. He added his final pair, President and Mrs. Reagan, in 1980, making the FC Collection the most complete set of dolls. Lewis Sorensen died in Fullerton in 1985.

Mr. Sorensen developed his own method of making the dolls, first sculpting the features in clay. This is covered in order to make a mold. In the mold is cast papier mache which is covered in a thin coating of wax. His own formula incorporated the flesh tones and the color right into the wax. The bodies are made of cloth and the head, arms, lower legs and feet are made of wax. Using his dressmaking talent, Mr. Sorensen sewed each costume for the dolls right onto the body.

Credits: Anne Riley, FC Archivist, Retired, and Fullerton News Tribune article, 1963

Last update: December 12, 2007