Made to play house : dolls and the commercialization of American girlhood, 1830-1930 / Miriam Formanek-Brunell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Forman-Brunell, Miriam, 1955- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Doll industry--Social aspects--United States--History.

Doll industry.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (252 pages)

Place of Publication:

New York ; London : Yale University Press, [1993]

Summary:

Dolls have long been perceived as symbols of domesticity, maternity, and materialism, designed by men and loved by girls who wanted to "play house." In this engagingly written and illustrated social history of the American doll industry, Miriam Formanek-Brunell shows that this has not always been the case. Drawing on a wide variety of contemporary sources—including popular magazines, advertising, autobiographies, juvenile literature, patents, photographs, and the dolls themselves—Formanek-Brunell traces the history of the doll industry back to its beginnings, a time when American men, women, and girls each claimed the right to construct dolls and gender.Formanek-Brunell describes how dolls and doll play changed over time: antebellum rag dolls taught sewing skills; Gilded Age fashion dolls inculcated formal social rituals; Progressive Era dolls promoted health and active play; and the realistic baby dolls of the 1920s fostered girls' maternal impulses. She discusses how the aesthetic values and business methods of women doll-makers differed from those of their male counterparts, and she describes, for example, Martha Chase, who made America's first soft, sanitary cloth dolls, and Rose O'Neill, inventor of the Kewpie doll. According to Formanek-Brunell, although American businessmen ultimately dominated the industry with dolls they marketed as symbols of an idealized feminine domesticity, businesswomen presented an alternative vision of gender for both girls and boys through a variety of dolls they manufactured themselves.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

CHAPTER ONE The Politics of Dollhood in Nineteenth-Century America

CHAPTER TWO Masculinity, Technology, and the Doll Economy, 1860-1906

CHAPTER THREE In the Dolls' House The Material Maternalism of Martha Chase, 1889-1914

CHAPTER FOUR Marketing a Campbell Kids Culture Engendering New Kid Dolls, 1902-1914

CHAPTER FIVE New Women and Talismen Rose O'Neill and the Kewpies, 1909-1914

CHAPTER SIX Forging the Modern American Doll Industry, 1914-1929

CHAPTER SEVEN Children's Day Constructing a Consumer Culture for Girls, 1900-1930

EPILOGUE Agents or Agency Dolls in Modern America Since 1930

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-300-15937-4

OCLC:

1322124130