The Incomparable Rose O'Neill
The inspiring true story of women’s rights and Kewpie Dolls.
Rose O’Neill was a suffragette of renowned beauty and a self-taught artist. At a young age, Rose gained notoriety illustrating popular books and magazines of her time. Before long, Rose was the highest paid, and youngest, women in the business. But she is not known well for this. Her most famed accomplishment is her invention of the beloved Kewpie Doll.
GROWING UP
On June 25, 1874, Rose Cecil O’Neill was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Her father was William Patrick Henry. Her mother was Alice Cecilia Asenath Senia Smith O’Neill, but everyone called her “Meemie.” She had two sisters named Lee and Callista, and three brothers called Hugh, James, and Clarence.
Rose descended from a long line of art lovers of all types; her father sold books, and her mother was a gifted musician, actress, and teacher. In her youth, Rose traveled with her family by wagon to rural Nebraska, where she spent her formative years. Her family supported one another fiercely in their artistic endeavors.
Rose was something of a prodigy. She entered and won a drawing contest for the Omaha World-Herald when she was thirteen. Rose left Nebraska for Manhattan at the tender age of 19 and sold her first novel, The…
