Dolls Houses Past & Present began in 2009 as an online meeting place for owners and collectors, conservationists and restorers of both old (sometimes very old) and new dolls houses, with the intention of helping to fill the gap left by the demise of the print publication International Dolls House News. From that very small beginning, it has grown considerably and is now an internationally significant collaborative information site which:
* is referenced by museums and sellers of antique and vintage dolls
houses
* researches and documents dolls house makers of all
periods, especially the 19th and 20th centuries, in production in the
USA, the UK, Germany, Sweden and other countries
* holds
detailed photographic databases of dolls houses made by the famous UK
firms G & J Lines and Lines Bros Triang
* has a Photo
Gallery with over 38,000 photos in over 2500 photo albums, uploaded by
individual members
* lists over 165 dolls house makers as
Categories in the Photo Gallery, aiding recognition and identification
of their dolls houses
* has 30 back issues of our e-zine
(average 14 pages each), which publishes original research, presents
rare antique dolls houses, and shares members’ collections and
original creations
* has Discussion Forums with over 32,000
posts by members in over 2500 topics, which are particularly important
for enabling members to get help identifying and restoring their dolls
houses. There are nearly 1200 members worldwide, many of whom gladly
share their expertise in identifying makers, restoration, or finding
materials and miniatures.
*has a strong social function. Friendships have been forged between members. Some members have described the site as a lifeline, which has got them through dark or difficult times in their lives.
*is also fun!
Dolls Houses Past & Present is not a business, so has no income. Membership is required to be able to post on site, but joining is free. The site is not monetised and carries no external advertising.
Dolls houses can be culturally significant, adding to social history by perfectly preserving, in miniature, homes of a given period in time. Queen Mary's early 1920s dolls house at Windsor Castle in the UK is one well-known example, but by no means all are royal residences! Many examples of much more humble homes exist, and a great number are represented in the Dolls Houses Past & Present photo albums.
The site is now in crisis, because the structure of the website itself is failing. The web host we have had since the beginning no longer supports the site. The alternative site builder we have been offered by the current host is not compatible with our needs. We have only recently learned that the host does not hold back up of our files, neither can we access our data by any file transfer protocol, so there is a very real danger that our unique archives may soon be lost. We are now faced with the need to raise £10,000 for a new website to be developed urgently to our specification.
Please, are you able to help Dolls Houses Past & Present? Any contribution, no matter how small, will be very gratefully received. We recognise that this is not a life or death cause, and it may affect only a small number of people, but this unique specialist archive once destroyed would be very difficult, if not impossible, to restore.
