Sprinkles and Ellie: An investigation of girlhood experience and memory

Abstract

In this research study, I analyze a cultural object from a childhood experience in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The research participant chose significant objects from her childhood: two plush toy elephants she’d named Sprinkles and Ellie, gifts received during periods of hospitalization. The purpose of the study is to explore an adult-memory, using photographs of the participant as a child with her toys, in order to understand what the toys represent. The ethnographic study uses visual research methods and textual analysis to investigate the memory of a childhood experience. The adult’s memory of her relationship to the toys reveals the tension she felt between vulnerability and agency. Sprinkles and Ellie assume the role of transitional objects between the safety of home away-from-home, and remain as keepsakes in the adult’s current life.