RICHMOND, Va. — A Civil War-era doll suspected of carrying medicines to wounded and malaria-stricken Confederate troops has been X-rayed, taken a trip to Virginia's crime lab and starred in a nationally televised investigation.
Nina still isn't giving up her 150-year-old secrets.
While X-rays revealed that her papier-mÂchÉ head was in fact hollow, technicians at the Richmond crime lab swabbed the inside of Nina's head and found no residue of either quinine, used to treat malaria, or morphine.
The tests are inclusive, however, because the drugs could have been sealed tightly with paper, muslin or oilcloth before they were stuffed into Nina's head.
"It's not definitive in any manner, no," said Robert Steiner, principal forensic scientist at the Virginia Department of Forensic Science. "We can only say that we didn't detect it."
Nina was given to the Museum of the Confederacy in 1923 by donors who said she had been used to smuggle medicine past Northern blockades to Southern troops. The doll with red felt boots and a salmon-colored smock was donated in 1923 by the children of Gen. James Patton Anderson, who commanded the Tennessee Army of the Confederacy.
Cathy Wright, curator at the Museum of the Confederacy, said a note from the family when the doll was donated said Nina's head was filled with quinine and morphine and was carried in the arms of Anderson's niece.
The museum had Nina X-rayed last October, then the sleuths at History Detectives picked up the case.
The PBS show researched Anderson and his family and consulted experts in hopes of establishing some links between the 28-inch doll and an obscure chapter of the Civil War. The evidence was primarily circumstantial.
The findings might have been anti-climactic, but the investigation illuminated issues beyond the battlefield, such as the role of women and the terrible toll of disease on soldiers — more died from infection and disease than on the field of battle.
"We learned ways of looking at the Civil War that were absolutely crucial and most people, including myself, had not given sufficient attention to," said Gwendolyn Wright, who led the History Detectives segment that first aired in late August.
The show examined the life of Anderson, who lived on a plantation near Monticello, Fla., with his wife, Etta, and their children.
History Channel's Wright interviews Coast Guard historian Robert M. Browning, an expert on the blockade, who said he had not heard of dolls being used to smuggle drugs to troops. He notes a woman or a child could have crossed the blockade much easier than a man.
George Wunderlich, executive director of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, Md., also had not heard of dolls used to smuggle contraband. Women, however, were a different story.
There have been accounts of women smuggling supplies within the stiff petticoats of the era, he said. "When it comes to smuggling, they were incredibly ingenious," Wunderlich said.
Sharon M. Scott, who has written about toys in American culture, offers the strongest evidence of dolls being used to smuggle medicines, citing a detailed reference in a book written 25 years after the Civil War.
"I do believe that there were many, many other women doing this that we just have no record of," Scott tells Wright during the History Detectives broadcast.
While evidence of dolls being used to smuggle during the Civil War is scant, the History Channel's Wright said she attempted to develop a broader narrative.
"I was more interested in what we could learn about the Civil War through this object," said Wright, a professor of architecture and urban history at Columbia University. And she's convinced women carrying contraband played a role in passing Union troops enforcing the blockade.
"These were Southern belles who could bat their eyelashes and they (troops) wouldn't have thought to look into these dolls," Wright said.
The blockade from 1861 until 1865 was intended to stop the delivery of arms, soldiers and supplies, including medicine, to the South. Rhett Butler, the fictional rogue in Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind," was a blockade runner.
Nina was one two suspected smuggling dolls held by the Museum of the Confederacy. The other, Lucy Ann, also was X-rayed and tested for medicines, which also proved negative.
No additional testing is planned, said Cathy Wright, the museum curator.
"The forensic swabbing was fairly thorough, so there really aren't any additional areas to swab for traces of quinine or morphine," Wright wrote in an e-mail. She added there is growing evidence the practice occurred.
As for Gwendolyn Wright, she suspects Nina was a smuggling doll, as her previous owners claimed, despite conclusive evidence.
"History is very rarely for sure, this is absolutely true."
Steve Szkotak can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/sszkotakAP
Online:
The Museum of the Confederacy: http://www.moc.org
History Detectives: http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/