Rose O'Neill

Who was Rose O'Neill?

Rose Cecil O'Neill was an American illustrator, artist, and writer who created the popular comic characters, Kewpies. After the growing popularity of O'Neill's Kewpie cartoons upon their publication in 1909, the characters were made into bisque dolls in 1912 by a German toy company, and later in composition material and celluloid. They were wildly popular in the early twentieth century, and are considered to be one of the first mass-marketed toys in America.

O'Neill also wrote several novels and books of poetry, and was active in the women's suffrage movement. She at one point became the highest-paid female illustrator in the world upon the success of the Kewpie dolls.