Classic American Dolls

In July 1997, the U.S. Postal Service released the “Dolls of America” stamps. Reproduction dolls were commissioned for release at that time. Some were reproduced using the instructions in original patents; others were made by the original company. The reproductions are now collector’s items.

Alabama Baby (1905-1920s)

Ella Smith patented her “indestructible” play doll in 1904 after having repaired many china dolls for friends. It was made of alternating layers of plaster of paris and Stockinette fabric, which was painted with flesh-colored waterproof paint. The body and limbs were stuffed fabric. She later received patents for jointing mechanisms that allowed the doll’s head to turn and arms and legs to move. She was one of the first to make black dolls to sell specifically to black families in the south.

Izannah F. Walker Doll (1840s-1870s)

Izannah Walker (1817-1886) was one of America's earliest known female doll maker-manufacturers. She began making dolls for friends, and received a patent for “improvement in the manufacture of dolls” in 1873. The doll was inexpensive, easily kept clean, and “not apt to injure a young child which may fall upon it.”

Native American Doll

Native American dolls were used to teach young girls how to make garments and how to decorate them in traditional designs. A young girl usually made her doll a tipi and all the necessary items for daily activities. The doll was simple in shape, with plain faces, often stuffed with moss or grass and horsehair for hair. Garments were made of scraps of hide and later, when trading with settlers was common, cotton “trade cloth.”

Ludwig Greiner Doll

The Greiner family was one of the founders of the great porcelain doll industry in Germany in the 1700s. Ludwig Greiner (1858-1938) emigrated to the United States in the early 1800s as a teenager. The company he founded became America’s earliest commercial doll manufacturer. He received the first U.S. patent for a doll in 1858. It was for a papier-mâché “shoulder head” reinforced with fabric. The patent recipe for the papier-mâché called for a pound each of rye flour, dry Spanish whiting and pulped white pape, plus an ounce of glue. The Greiner firm only manufactured the heads; the fabric bodies were to be made at home by the doll’s new owner.

American Child (1939)

Ella Dewees Cochran (1892-1991) created the first dolls made in America that resembled real children. They were also the first to have separated fingers. They were made of a painter’s plaster composition. The doll was one of four designed by Cochran for Effanbee Doll Company, and she was featured on the cover of Life Magazine, April 3, 1939. The body and head of the reproduction doll was made from the original molds, and the clothing is a replica of the original.

Baby Coos (1948)

Baby Coos was designed by Bernard Lipfert, “Dean of American Dollmakers,” best known for his Shirley Temple doll. Baby Coos was modeled after his granddaughter. She was the first truly beautiful baby doll; before then, most realistic baby dolls were not pretty. A cooing bellows was installed in her arm so that when it was squeezed, she cooed. Her soft vinyl body was a rubber composite nicknamed “magic skin.” The head was molded of a hard plastic based on then-new World War II wartime technology. The hard plastic turned out to be very durable but the soft vinyl decayed and turned black. The reproduction doll was recreated in porcelain since the original technology was not acceptable.

Skippy (1930s-1940s)

Artist Percy Crosby (1891-196) created a cartoon character named “Skippy” for Life Magazine in 1923. He became a syndicated comic strip in 1925. He was a commercial sensation with dolls, toys, food products, comic books, “Big Little” books, even a feature film and radio show. Skippy composition dolls were manufactured by Effanbee Doll Co. Known as the “All American Boy,” he was the inspiration for Charles Schulz’s “Peanuts” cartoon character.

Betsy McCall (1951-current)

Betsy McCall started out as a paper doll in McCall’s magazine. She represented a little girl of about seven, featuring typical activities with a wardrobe to match her adventures. Ideal first created her as a doll; but in 1957, American Character Dolls produced an 8” hard plastic version with bendable knees. Many other companies created Betsies, including today’s Tonner Doll Company. The reproduction is based on the American Character Doll.

Babyland Rag (1893-1910)

Edward Horsman (1843-1927) opened one of the first toy companies in the United States, in 1865. They began making Babyland Rag Dolls about 1893. The dolls were simple cloth dolls with mitts for hands. Early dolls had painted faces (pre-1905), but later dolls had a lithographed face. The doll bodies were stitched on treadle sewing machines. Cross seams on the legs and below torso allowed them to sit. Black Babylands were especially popular. The reproduction doll, “Althea,” is typical of early Babylands with painted faces.

Martha Chase Doll (1880s-1900s)

In the late 1800s, Martha Wheaton Chase (18576-1925) opened a small factory in Rhode Island, The Doll House. After Izannah Walker’s doll patent expired in the 1880s, she began making dolls using Walker’s methods. She used sized cotton pressed into molds, fitted the molded parts around a core of cotton, then the two pieces were stitched together. Thumbs and ears were applied. The body was filled with cotton and painted with oil paints. Several layers of varnish were added to make it waterproof. Martha’s most famous dolls were hospital dolls that had body openings lined with rubber tubing so nursing students could practice cleaning ears and taking temperatures.

Columbian Doll (1893-1910s)

Emma Adams (1867-1900) of New York began making dolls in 1890. Emma oil-painted features on cloth dolls; her sister Marietta sewed the clothes. At the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, the Columbian Exposition Commission gave one of her dolls a Diploma of Honorable Mention. The “Columbia” doll then traveled the world raising money for children’s charities. Emma used small wooden sticks inside the arms to stiffen them. The body was coated with a sizing and painted in flesh tones. Early bodies were muslin stuffed with cotton or excelsior and an inner core of sawdust in the head and torso. They sold through Marshall Field & Co., Chicago, department store, for $1.50-$5.

Raggedy Ann (1915-today)

Johnny Gruelle (1880-1938) was a young commercial cartoonist. He found an old faded family rag doll in the attic, and she inspired him to create Raggedy Ann. He applied for a patent for a rag doll; and in 1918, his first book, Raggedy Ann Stories, was printed. It was an instant success. He and his family began making dolls to go with the stories. But demand was so great that he had to turn production over to Volland, a manufacturing firm. The original doll had shoe-button eyes and a “candy” (cardboard) heart stuffed inside her body. The reproduction Raggedy was created by Applause to resemble the Volland doll.

Maggie Mix-up (1960s)

Madame Beatrice Alexander (1895-1990) was the daughter of poor Russian immigrants. The family lived over her father’s doll hospital – the first in America. During World War I, she and her sisters made cloth Red Cross nurse dolls to sell. In 1923, she borrowed money to set up the Alexander Doll Company. An astute businesswoman, by 1936, she was one of the top three manufacturers in the United States. She was the first to create a doll based on a licensed movie character and the first to create dolls in honor of living people. She introduced the first full-figured high-heeled fashion doll, Cissy, three years before Barbie. Maggie Mix-up was introduced in 1960 and made of a new plastic, with saran hair.

Scootles (1925-1940s)

Rose O’Neill (1874-1944) was from a poor family who recognized her natural talents in writing and art. She sold illustrations to many magazines but signed her work with her initials because illustration was considered a man’s profession. In 1909 she introduced “Kewpies” – impish little Cupids with tiny wings – in Ladies Home Journal magazine. They were wildly popular, and in 1912, she introduced the Kewpie doll. Scootles appeared in 1925, first in a bisque version, and later in composition by Cameo Doll Company. Scootles had molded hair and painted eyes. The reproduction was produced in porcelain to resemble composition.

Schoenhut Dolls (1911-1920s)

Albert Schoenhut (1863-1921) came from a family of doll-makers in Germany. Around 1870, 17-year-old Albert emigrated to Philadelphia. He began manufacturing toy pianos. In 1909, he applied for a patent for a new doll jointing system. Perfection Art Dolls were made of wood with joints of steel spring hinges, double spring tensions and swivel connections. This allowed a doll to hold human-like positions. At that time, most dolls were held together with rubber cords to connect joints and had to be re-strung often. The reproduction dolls are wood with the jointing system of the early Schoenhut dolls.

Hot Springs Greater Learning Foundation

Thermopolis, Wyoming