February 11, 2024, Meeting

Member Elaine Jackson lead the program, which was on books and dolls. She started out with one of the most famous books featuring a doll, Hitty. Hitty is the wooden doll heroine of Rachel Field's 1929 children's novel, Hitty, Her First Hundred Years. In the book, the eponymous Hitty (short for Mehitabel), a simple wooden doll carved by a peddler in the 1820s, narrates her adventures over her century of existence. Jackson explained that Fields was friends with illustrator Dorothy Lathrop and sometime in the 1920s, while strolling together in New York City they saw a small time-worn wooden doll in an antique shop window. All the shop owner could tell them about the doll was that she was at least 100 years old. Neither woman could afford the doll by herself, so they pooled their resources and purchased her jointly. Inspired by the diminutive doll, they created a history for Hitty, written by Fields and illustrated by Lathrop. The book was a success and was awarded the John Newbery Medal of Excellence in 1930.

Elaine discussed several other books with dolls as protagonists, including the famous Raggedy Ann series, the first book published in 1918 by Johnny Gruelle, a cartoonist and illustrator, and The Legend of the Bluebonnet by Tomie dePaola, in which a young Comanche girl sacrifices her beloved doll in order to bring much needed rain and is rewarded with the creation of the bluebonnet flowers. Another doll whose book won the Newberry Medal was Miss Hickory. Published in 1946, the main character is a doll made out of twigs with a hickory nut head.

Elaine shared two artists' interpretations of Miss Hickory and Hitty. 

Member Elaine McNally displayed her latest creation, this cloth frog doll she made using one of the original molds from artist Martha Chase for her series of dolls based on the book Alice in Wonderland. This mold was originally used for the frog footman.

 

Member Myrna Loesch shared the book, The Lonely Doll by photographer and author Dare Wright. Her version of Edith, the lonely doll of the book, is by Madame Alexander, but Myrna noted that the original Edith was actually a cloth doll by Lenci.

Member Kenneth Reeves discussed several books featuring dolls, including Little Mommy by Little Golden Book which features a little girl learning how to be a mommy by playing with her dolls, and The Doll's House by Rumer Godden about two little girls repairing a doll house they find in an attic. He also brought this Madame Alexander doll based on the story of Rapunzel. . . 

and this Effanbee doll portraying Sleeping Beauty. 

And finally, he presented a doll reading a book. This is Emma by Richard Simmons, but Kenneth replaced the mirror she once held with a book.

Member Sylvia McDonald brought the little girl in brunette braids who represents Pollyanna. The little wooden Pinocchio is a doll she inherited from a relative.  The other two little girl dolls are Muffie dolls by the Nancy Ann Storybook Doll Company belonging to member Pam Hardy.

Sylvia brought this book, Mimi, based on the famous painting "Doctor and the Doll" by Norman Rockwell. . . .

as well as these dolls based on the same painting by Rumbleseat Press.

She also discussed several doll related books, including the book Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans about a little French schoolgirl, with the cloth doll it inspired.

Jan Irsfeld shared this Cissette doll by Madame Alexander representing Morgan Le Fay from the King Arthur legends.

Member Kathie Tovo brought a Raggedy Ann book that belonged to her mother and two cloth Raggedy Ann dolls. The larger doll is homemade while the smaller may be by P. F. Volland Company, which made the first commercially produced Raggedy Ann dolls beginning in 1918.

She also displayed doll related books from her collection, including the Racketty-Packetty House by H. Burnett, first published in 1906.

Kathie said that this German peg-wooden doll reminded her of the wooden dolls who lived in the Racketty-Packetty house.

Member Sharon Weintraub shared several books. The Better Homes and Gardens Story Book belonged to her as a child and includes "The Story of Live Dolls" by Josephine Scribner Gates. The tiny green book was published in 1863 and the full title is The Dolls' Surprise Party. The blue book is entitled The Story of the Little White Teddy Bear Who Didn't Want to Go to Bed.