Kewpie Doll, made of Composition
Kewpie Doll, made of Composition. Wearing white crocheted underwear, and off white shoes with pink ribbons. Facial features are painted on. Arms and legs move.
Rose O’Neill, a Midwest native who had worked as a writer and illustrator in New York City, initially conceptualized the Kewpie as a cartoon intended for a comic strip in 1909. According to O’Neill, the idea for the Kewpies came to her in a dream. The comic, featuring the cherub-faced characters, was first printed in Ladies’ Home Journal in the December 1909 issue. O’Neill described the characters as “a sort of little round fairy whose one idea is to teach people to be merry and kind at the same time. The name Kewpies is derived from Cupid, the Roman god of erotic love. The Kewpie dolls were initially made out of bisque exclusively, but composition versions were introduced in the 1920s, and celluloid versions were manufactured in the following decades