Recently, Debra Gulea was able to purchase the lifetime collection of Dorothea H. Williams of Pennington, NJ. Dorothea was an only child who was devoted to her parents, and who collected dolls alongside her mother, also named Dorothea. She worked in the pharmaceutical field and traveled extensively. Her diverse collection included dolls of wood, wax, bisque, paper mache, china, and other mediums. You will notice that many dolls on the Antique Dolls and Vintage Dolls pages of our site come to you from Dorothea's exquisite collection, and from time to time we will introduce more dolls that Dorothea owned and loved.

I never knew Dorothea, but there are several things about her that I admire. Her dolls are costumed exquisitely, and I suspect that she made several of the costumes herself, from antique materials. She was a dedicated record keeper, and most of the dolls in her collection retain typed note cards with the original price Dorothea paid for the dolls, plus from whom she purchased them. And Dorothea genuinely loved her dolls, because she gave each and every one a name, which she recorded on the inventory cards.

Dorothea was born on February 16, 1928 and died during the Fall of 2002 after a long illness. Funds raised from the sale of her collection benefited two area children's hospitals, as Dorothea never had children of her own, and had no heirs. On this page, please enjoy pictures of Dorothea as a child, along with some snapshots which were taken before her collection was packed by Debra Gulea of Debra's Dolls. Look for the words "Collection of Dorothea H. Williams" in the descriptions of dolls for sale on the site, and remember this wonderful woman who grew up with dolls and cherished them.