Multicultural doll families
The baby girl is given a soft animal or Japanese doll to play with, but later on grows up enough to be given a doll that looks like her. But if she keeps all the dolls and tries to love them all the same....? An intrinsically funny idea is the "little mother" whose large family of "children" represent a mix of races and even species (note the teddy bears). In narratives, the hierarchy of the dolls is often worked out in a way that respects a supposed social status of their real-life prototypes: the Japanese and black dolls may be the "maids" of the lady dolls or little girl dolls, or perhaps the Japanese doll is a visitor from far away. But some artists enjoyed presenting the indiscriminate love of the "little mother" for her "babies." As one artist put it, in a 1917 amateur illustration showing  a child holding a Japanese doll,

"... your chick, lady small,
Does not resemble you at all."

An especially charming example is the song "Oh My Goodness" Shirley Temple sings to her doll collection in the film Poor Little Rich Girl, imitating the different accents of her "children."

1913, US

Mailed in Iowa. Refers to Teddy Roosevelt (= "Col. Roastwell)'s support for immigration and large families: "Six in one year!"

Below:  Two less political cards of  girls with comically disparate "families" of dolls including black and Japanese "babies" and in one case a teddy bear. The "Old Maid" card, like "Col. Roastwell," plays with the idea that these "mothers" don't know where babies come from. The beautiful, flirtatious-looking "Happy Mother" seems to be sending a different message, but it's hard to say.

.

Tuck's Oilette series, 192-; Agnes Richardson

Another version of this card includes the French phrase, "J'arrive avec la famille" ("Here I come with the family") .

Richardson was a prolific illustrator of children, often depicting little girls with teddy bears or golliwog dolls. This child has a golliwog plus a black girl doll, a Struwelpeter redheaded doll, two dollies, a teddy, and what might be a "Dutch" wooden doll, as well as the cheerful Japanese doll. 

Richardson created another postcard image on a similar theme, of a little girl with her arms full of dolls, including a Japanese doll, on her way upstairs to bed, hoping to "get all her children comfy."

This artist created many lovely images including Japanese dolls, including a couple of complete series showing a little girl or girls feeding, doing the laundry for, and teaching their doll families. I have a separate page for her work: Susan B. Pearse page.

E. Schwarzer, 1915 (or 1905?)

An unmailed postcard with the title on the other side in German, so presumably a German image. The image may have an allegorical quality--at any rate it is striking, especially if created at the time of World War I. The multicultural doll family is being read to by a very Northern-European looking girl in what seems to be Classical Greek dress. The Japanese doll is significant; all the other dolls could have been made in Germany, and the Germans did manufacture dolls representing the Japanese, but this doll is clearly an authentic import. 

Nina Kennard Brisley (British, 1898-1978) for Vivian Mansell publishers
192-?

Note the difference between Pearse's illustrations, in which the dolls are dolls (though we see them arranged at table or in a schoolroom formation) and this picture, where the dolls are alive. The dutch doll and tiny golliwog doll recall the famous Golliwogg stories originated by Florence Upton, with their lively doll characters.