Rose O'Neill
Rose Cecil O'Neill (born June 25, 1874 in Wilkes-Barre , † April 6, 1944 ) was an American artist. She became famous for the Kewpie dolls , which were first manufactured according to their originals in 1913 in Ohrdruf in Thuringia . O'Neill was the first American woman whose cartoons found commercial distribution.
Childhood and family
Rose O'Neill was a daughter of William Patrick Henry and Alice Cecilia Asenath Senia Smith O'Neill. She had two sisters named Lee and Callista and three brothers named Hugh, James and Clarence. Her father, of Irish descent, was a bookseller and loved literature, art and theater. Her mother was considered a talented musician, actress and teacher. At a young age, O'Neill drove her family to a Conestoga in rural Nebraska , where she spent childhood and adolescence. In 1896 she married Gray Latham, in 1902 Harry Leon Wilson. She illustrated her second husband's books and in 1903 wrote her first own work, The loves of Edwuy . After 1907 she lived unmarried.
While she was working in New York, her family moved to Taney County . On her first visit, she fell in love with the property and called it "Bonniebrook" all her life.
Work
O'Neill proved to be a talented draftsman and author from an early age. At the age of 13, she won an Omaha World Herald drawing competition . At the age of 19 she went to New York City alone and sold her first novel there. During her trip, she presented editors and publishers with sixty drawings and sketches, which they then printed out as illustrations or posters. At the turn of the century she was a nationally known illustrator in the USA, whose work appeared in magazines such as the Ladies Home Journal , Good Housekeeping and the Woman's Home Companion . She also drew for Kellogg's Cornflakes, Jell-O, the Edison Phonograph, and Rock Island Railroad. She also created several hundred humorous cartoons for the satirical magazine Puck. In the 1890s she had an exceptionally large and diversified portfolio and worked for well-known companies. Advertisements with their illustrations appeared across the United States.
In December 1909, a cartoon by the O'Neill created Kewpie Dolls appeared in a women's magazine for the first time , which was immediately popular with adults and children. She herself said that the idea came to her during a dream. The pictures were printed in the Ladies Home Journal , Good Housekeeping and Woman's Home Companion . The comics were one to three pages long and had a signature. From 1909 to 1922 she created around 100 drawings for Jell-O. With the Kewpie Dolls, she quickly had worldwide success with adults and children. In 1913 she received a patent for a corresponding doll. The German Geo. Borgfeldt & Co. manufactured these toys and sold them very successfully worldwide. There were also numerous merchandising items such as tableware, textiles and jewelry. In 1914, she was the highest paid illustrator in the United States.
Literary works
O'Neill was also active as a poet and author. She wrote novels and poems in which she addressed the complicated relationship between men and women. There were also children's books on their Kewpie dolls.
Engagement in the women's movement
Because of their gender, O'Neill was not allowed to vote in public. Together with her sister Callista, she campaigned for women's suffrage , designed posters and cartoons and took part in protest marches. With her representations she not only reached the underrepresented sections of the population. In doing so, she helped ensure that women in the United States received the right to vote in 1920.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d McCabe, Caitlin, et al .: CBLDF Presents: She Changed Comics . Image Comics, October 11, 2016, ISBN 978-1-63215-929-8 .
- ^ A b Trina Robbins: Pretty In Ink: North American Women Cartoonists 1896–2013 . Fantagraphics, 2013, ISBN 978-1-60699-669-0 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g Rose O'Neill (1874-1944) on The State Historical Society of Missouri . Retrieved January 6, 2018.
- ↑ Hartwig Moltzow: Borgfeldt, Georg . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, p. 59.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | O'Neill, Rose |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | O'Neill, Rose Cecil (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American artist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 25, 1874 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Wilkes-Barre |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 6, 1944 |