Before Greta Gerwig brought President Barbie to screen, Barbie spent a very important political summer in Philadelphia

Twenty-three years before Greta Gerwig’s army of Barbies made their way onto our screens, Barbie came to Philly.

The 2000 Republican National Convention was held in Philadelphia, where the party nominated George W. Bush for president and Dick Cheney for vice president.

The swag bag for the delegates included a “Convention” Barbie along with an elephant-shaped Beanie Baby, packs of Altoids, elephant-shaped Kraft Mac & Cheese, and other goodies.

“Convention Barbie has a stylish pearl-buttoned red suit, pearl earrings, a convention pass and, naturally, red high heels,” Inquirer journalist Jane M. Von Bergen wrote at the time.

This Barbie came in four avatars — a Black version with long, straight, dark hair; an Asian American version with black hair; a brunette Latinx version; and a white Barbie with blond hair — though the basic features remained similar for each.

The doll wears a “Convention 2000″ badge around her neck, but there are no party symbols. The box has the same words printed in red, white, and blue, and contains a red plastic hairbrush and two paper signs that say “Barbie Votes.”

Mattel donated the same dolls to the Democratic National Convention the same year. (The dolls are identical; the color of the box changes from red to blue for the Democrat Barbie.)

This political neutrality argues Levi Fox, former Allen F. Davis fellow at the Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent, “did not reflect the realities of political difference between the two major parties in 2000.”

In an essay that accompanies the entry of the “Convention” Barbies on the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia website, Fox mentions that, in 2000, “the Democratic Party platform focused extensively on the need to increase economic and political opportunities for both women and minorities, but the Republican Party platform had little to say about issues of gender and race.”

Mattel’s approach to racial diversity has been criticized for years.

The “Stereotypical Barbie” — as Gerwig calls Margot Robbie’s Barbie — with blond hair, blue eyes, and an impossibly svelte body, was released by Mattel in 1959.

A Black Barbie, named Christie, came out only in 1968, after “Vintage Bubblecut” Barbie, “Swirly Ponytail” Barbie, seven versions of “Ponytail” Barbie, and more. “Ken with Flocked Hair” made an appearance in 1961.

After stints as a veterinarian, an aerobics instructor, a nurse, a police officer, and more, Barbie finally ran for president in the early 1990s. In 2000, the “Barbie for President” doll wore a blue pencil skirt and a blazer, and had her hair in a blond bob.

Stephanie Mangino, a 2000 GOP convention spokeswoman called this Barbie “almost as stiff as Al Gore,” referring to the Democratic presidential candidate, Von Bergen reported.

In 2012, the “I Can Be U.S.A. President” Barbie came in blond and brunette versions.

In Gerwig’s film, actor Issa Rae plays “President” Barbie wearing a candy pink jumpsuit with a blue sash that spells out her designation, as she sits in a made-of-plastic (it’s fantastic!) “Pink House.” Mattel has released a corresponding president doll that resembles Rae and wears a glittery pink inaugural gown, complete with matching sash.

The Black and white “Convention” Barbies from 2000 are now part of the Atwater Kent collection at Drexel University. The museum, whose collection is now under the aegis of Drexel, supplied paintings by Arrah Lee Gaul to the Republican Party’s downtown office in the summer of 2000. Lee Gaul, a Philadelphian artist, was the official painter of the 1926 Sesquicentennial International Exposition.

The Barbies were “a part of the gift the Republican National Committee gave to us, among other things,” said Jeffery Ray, senior curator at the former Atwater Kent Museum.

Though Ray wanted the other versions of the Barbie for the collection as well, he was told those were “too popular.”

“An officer from the committee imagined that she’d go home and find several of these dolls on eBay for sale,” he said.

The Republican Party’s decision to include the “diverse” dolls was in line with its effort to project itself as a “Big Tent” party — especially for women.

“I would hope that the message — if a doll could have a message — is that women do represent the Republican Party and do represent politics and more of them should enter politics,” Jan Larimer, then-cochair of the Republican convention, said to Von Bergen.

Five of the 13 speakers at the 2000 convention were women; four were married to Republican politicians.