Call Number:

C1153

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 1 box
• 0.2 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Rose Cecil O'Neill letters to Mr. and Mrs. William Curtis Gibson, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1912-1927 (inclusive)

Creator:

Princeton University. Library. Special Collections and O'Neill, Rose Cecil, 1874-1944

Form:

Drawings -- 20th century. and Letters -- 20th century.

Abstract:

Consists of letters by Rose Cecil O'Neill, the American children's book author and illustrator, and inventor of the Kewpie doll, to her friends William Curtis and Fannie Gibson.

Rose Cecil O'Neill was an American children's book author and illustrator. O'Neill was born in Wilkes-barre, Pennsylvania. Her family later moved to Taney County, Missouri, where her brother built a large family home which they named Bonniebrook. In 1893 O'Neill moved to New York and sold illustrations to many of the prominent periodicals. Her work appeared in such magazines as Collier's, Truth, McClure's, and Harper's. She also worked as a staff artist for Puck magazine. It was at Bonniebrook in 1909 that O'Neill created the Kewpie doll, a roly-poly elf with a child's body, small wings, and a turnip top head. The Kewpies made their first public appearance in Women's Home Companion in December 1909. They were immediately popular and quickly became a large merchandising industry. O'Neill was commissioned for her Kewpie designs for magazine stories, paper dolls, and advertisements appearing in Good Housekeeping and Ladies' Home Journal, as well as other periodicals, and as a comic strip for The New York Journal in the 1930's. Popular at this time were the "Kewpie Kutouts", the first of its kind double-sided paper doll. The first Kewpie children's book, The Kewpies and Dottie Darling, appeared in 1910, followed by two more in 1912, and the last one, The Kewpies and the Runaway Baby, in 1928. The Amsterdam Theater on 42nd Street in New York was the site of a Kewpie musical production in 1919. O'Neill's sister Callista, whom she mentions in her letters, worked as her business manager.

The collection consists of sixteen illustrated autograph letters, four note cards, and a postcard from Rose O'Neill to Mr. & Mrs. William Curtis Gibson. In the bulk of the letters, addressed to William C. Gibson while he worked for Good Housekeeping and as art editor for Cosmopolitan Magazine, O'Neill discusses her Kewpies characters, publishing contracts, her life, her travels, and other daily activities. She often addresses him as "Dear Gibbles" or "Dear Gibbons" and addresses Mrs. Gibson as "Dear Girl" or "Dear Fannie." Most of the letters are in O'Neill's very distinctive script and style in which she also uses baby talk, and they all contain original drawings of her Kewpies, birds, and other characters. In some of her letters she uses a rubber stamp of the Kewpies next to her signature. Included is a typed letter from an unidentified person on Cosmopolitan Magazine letterhead, dated 2 October 1913, about wanting to publish three pages of Kewpies each month in Good Housekeeping Magazine. Also included is a photograph of O'Neill by Paul Thompson, N.Y., and a clipping of a family of birds with annotations in ink by the author.

Material is organized in one folder by date.