Figure 1.--This Fauntleroy page was one page of a paper doll set published in 1922 based on literary characters.

Paper dolls are cut-out figures. Separate, cut-out clothes allowed little girls to try on different outfits. They could be fastened with tabs bent around the edges. Paper dolls originated in the early 19th century as inexpensive playthings for children, and remained popular for the next 150 years. The first sets were expensive hand-colored engravings, which evolved into the delightful full-color lithographs of the early 1900s, and later still, into the beautiful books that many recall from childhood. The fashions depicted for the paper dolls, especially when depicting contemporary clothes, provide useful information on fashion. After the turn of the 20th century we see magazines including paper dolls as an added attraction for children.

Fashion Information

Paper dolls often focused primarily on women's fashions, but by the turn of the 20th century family sets appeared which provide some useful information on how children including boys were dressed.

Chronology

Paper dolls originated in the early 19th century as relatively inexpensive playthings for children, and remained popular for the next 150 years.

The 19th century

The first sets of paper dolls were expensive hand-colored engravings. They were not cheap, however, as through much of the 19th century they had to be hand colored. This changed in the late 19th centiry with the development of high-quality lithography.

The 1900s

Advances in printing technology by the turn of the 19th century made possible delightful full-color lithographs. As they were printed in large numbers they did provide a very simple plaything for little girls.

The 1910s

We notice magazines like Ladies Home Journal including paper doll cutouts as an attraction for children, presumably the girls. We are not sureprecisely when magazines first began doing this are which magazine was the first. The first we note are American magazines. Here we see a Ladies Home Journal 1915 paper doll cut out. It was the monthly feature in what the magazine call the children's page. They were not always paper dolls, but this was a popular item. Apparently they were built around the various members of Betty Bonnets's family. The boy depicted in 1915 was brother Bob. Notice it was done in black and white. Color printingwas still expensive.

The 1920s

Playmates from Storyland by Harold Cue came from The American Woman magazine, 1922. This particular doll is Little Lord Fauntleroy. There are two figures, boy and dog. Each has a front and back version, which I suppose glues together over cardboard. There are also front and back hair, hat and clothes for the boy. The Fauntleroy pictured here is the boy right out of the Frances Hogdsen Burnett's book and not the suits more commonly worn.

Figure 2.--This modern paper doll set also had a Little Lord Fauntleroy character. The costume illustrated is a bit more elaborate than the actual Fauntleroy suits most boys wore, but some boys did actually elaborate suits like this.

The 1940s

After World War II (1945) beautiful paperback books appeared with paper dolls. Many girls, now grown up, remember these books from their childhood.

1990s

Paper dolls continue to be oppulae with girls in the modern era.

Types

Paper dolls were primarily created for fashion concious little girls to play dressup. They dealt with popular contemporary fashions. Other paper doll books were created with rhemes like literary characters or popular film stars.

Gender

Playing with cut-out dolls was a major form of entertainment for children in the early decades of the 20th century in America. Such dolls were particularly popular with girls, but boys probably engaged in the activity to some extent also--especially in their younger years. The fact that these dolls appeared in a woman's magazine is significant. I doubt that a boy's magazine would have carried them. But the Ladies' Home Journal does carry many ads pertaining to boys' clothing, probably because, typically, mothers did the shopping rather than fathers.

Created: March 10, 1999
Last updated: 9:59 PM 5/10/2006