World War I Ignites the American Doll Industry
American Dolls for American Girls
Learn about American dollmakers of the World War I period and the bisque dolls they created to fill the wartime void of European toys. Rare bisque characters, baby dolls, mechanical dolls, all-bisque Kewpies and Peterkins are identified and photographed. The book chronicles the efforts of The Fulper Pottery, James S. Taft and The Hampshire Pottery, Ernst Reinhardt, Lenox/ Effanbee, The Paul Revere Pottery Company and many others. This is a new essential research tool collectors will use to identify their dolls or acquire new ones.
Mary Ward Frohn is a long-time doll collector and American history buff. Graduating from The College of William and Mary with concentrations in English and modern American history, she enjoyed a career in news writing, grant writing, and public information with The Calcasieu Parish (Louisiana) Library System and The Literacy Council of Southwest Louisiana. She has served as president of her south Louisiana U.F.D.C. affiliated doll club, Acadiana Babes. She has also traveled extensively in the U.S., Europe, and Japan visiting doll museums, doll shops, and auctions. She developed the idea for this book from an educational program she originally presented to her doll club. After ten years of research, Frohn now shares her curated collection of American bisque dolls along with new historical research on the American doll makers of the first decades of the twentieth century.
Author: Mary Ward Frohn
Page Count: 96
Size: 8.5x11 Hardcover
Illustrations and Photos: Full Color Images
Published: 2026
ISBN: 978-1-68593-299-2




