Initial processing was done in 1982 and notes from that year read as follows:

These paper dolls were removed from their original folders in the spring of 1982. The present folders are acid free and should help preserve the dolls. The dolls are not secured in these folders – as they were in the originals – so please be careful upon opening them.

For the most part, the dolls were unmarked. However, Miss Percival had established a set of categories. We have tried to maintain these which are obvious; our categories undoubtedly vary from the original. Still, it is some form of classification. A bulk of the folders are unmarked. These dolls we were unable to classify and leave to your judgement.

Enclosed is Miss Percival’s list of categories. Find also a box of paper scraps.

Current processing involved assigning dolls as accurately as possible to the categories established by Olive Percival on a hand-written list dated June 24, 1939. A second, undated, typed list also asssembled by Olive Percival includes categories similar in description but with different names. It appears that the typed list may be an earlier version. In handwriting, Olive Percival has noted the following on this second list: “1939 ~ Shown so many times that some need retouching ~ re-doing ~” and “Made circa 1922 ~”

Because the majority of the dolls were unmarked when originally received, it is not always clear how Miss Percival arrived at her totals. A few categories on her 1939 list proved especially ambiguous. In order to distinguish “Wee, Wee Ones” from “Tiny,” an arbitrary division was set. “Tiny” dolls are considered to be less than 2 inches tall, and “Wee, Wee Ones” are considered to be more than 2 inches tall and less than 3 ½ inches tall. It was also difficult to differentiate dolls in the “Primer Class Children” from the “Boys & Girls” category. Therefore, all boy and girl paper dolls were placed in the latter category. Finally, it is now impossible to know which 5 items were not boxed.