Flashback Friday

Flashback Friday disclaimer:  the following content might not be suitable for the male faithful readers, but I'm writing it anyway, just because I can.

When I was a little girl, I loved my paper dolls.  I would sit for hours playing with them. For that very reason, Mom and Grandma would always have at least one paper doll book stashed away , and would break it out whenever they needed me to be occupied for an afternoon.  I did some research this week, and found the history of paper dolls to be intriguing.

Paper dolls first appeared in Paris in the 18th century, during the reign of Louisv XV.  Early European paper dolls often depicted actors and actresses, and the dolls were used with toy stages.  The literary-minded kids enacted Shakespeare with their paper dolls.  At this time, the dolls had permanently printed costumes; the deprived children during this era would never know the disgust that us 20th century kids would experience when we tore the tabs off of the clothes.

In Pioneer America, paper dolls had more humble beginnings. Paper was a prized resource, and it was rarely "wasted" on toys. If children were lucky enough to get paper dolls, they treasured them between the pages of a book or in a carefully guarded box. This later changed with the invention of the mechanical grinding machines, which became a ready resource for pulp paper.  As paper became less of a luxury, paper dolls were mass produced on inexpensive cardboard. 

Until the development of chroma-lithography printing, paper dolls were colored by hand.  In America, Civil War widows often earned money by painting and decorating the printed paper dolls. An interesting fact about early printed doll clothes was that they did not include the aforementioned tabs for dressing the dolls.  Instead, children painstakingly attached the clothes with tiny drops of sealing wax.  They took great caution in gently pressing when they attached the clothes to the dolls, lest they would tear the paper doll like I often did when tearing it out of the paper doll book.

By the 19th century, children used small bits of cloth, lace, tissue paper and magazine pictures to make clothes for their paper dolls.  Teenage girls would earn spending money by selling such unique creations; some girls even financed their college education throught he sale of original paper dolls.  At the turn of the century, department stores discovered that paper dolls were the ideal fashion advertisement.  Specially designed dolls promoting gowns and new patterns appeared in ladies magazines like Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home Journal and McCalls. As time progressed, paper dolls soon began to depict real life celebrities such as Ava Gardner, Tyrone Power and Judy Garland.  The trend continued with movie, TV and book characters.  I'm sure if you look hard enough, parents today could find Hannah Montana paper dolls for their daughters. 

As I said, I loved my paper dolls, and if I was able to get the clothes out of the book without tearing the tabs off, I took meticulous care of them.  I kept them in cigar boxes that I would get from the little store down the street.  When I tore a tab, which was quite often, I would attempt to repair it with Scotch tape, but it just wasn't the same.  On occasion, I would trace the clothes onto drawing paper, and design my own clothes for the dolls. 

In preparation for this entry, I consulted a few faithful readers, and here's what one had to say about her paper dolls: 

My fave paper doll memory was that they were relatively inexpensive and I could usually con my mom into buying me some.  They were in the coloring book area I believe and it was fun picking them out.  You could hardly WAIT til you got home so you could start tearing them out of the book.  My mom would always say "slow down and take your time, do it nice".  Inevitably I would rip one or rip off a tab.  It was almost impossible to tear them out without it.  You always had a fave outfit too.  One really, really great one that was your fave.  Ahhhhh.......memories!!