Welcome to My Red Cape. Long ago in another time my husband Jack and I lived in a little old red house. It was the stuff of dreams to us for the few years that we were there. I live there still a number of hours every day in imagination, with old dolls and paintings and fabrics and feather trees. I draw inspiration and happiness from the memories of that space in time and share some of it here with friends who remember how to step with Alice through the looking glass and take delight in whimsies and antiquities.
~Edyth O’Neill
Sunday, April 20, 2008
1860 Paper Doll
This sweet Mcloughlin paper doll was given to me in the 1950's by a lady in Hamilton Texas whose name was Katie. Last name began with E, perhaps Edmondson. It had come down in her family from a girl my friend Katie was named after. The doll is thought to have belonged to Katie Holland, a child whose heart never learned to keep a proper rythm and died in childhood. Little Katie must have enjoyed quiet toys. On the back of the doll is written in pencil the name "Helen".
I have kept the paper doll over 50 years, in an envelope. Now I am passing her to a much younger doll collecting friend to ensure safe keeping for another generation! In thinking of how to share this adorable image of the demure little paper doll, so rightly termed ephemera by collectors, I hit upon the idea of printing a book mark with the image. So now when I remember to put it in the books, I mail the book mark to people ordering my books.