Jesse McCutchen Raleigh
From 1916 to 1920, Jesse Raleigh produced composition, molded hair, painted eye dolls as well as doll clothes in Chicago. Ill.
Jesse, born in Lafayette, Indiana, came from a family of artists, authors, and aviators. She distinguished herself as a business
woman. She notes in a 1919 article in Toys and Novelties: "(She) disclaims any artistic ability, laughingly declaring that she is
the only one of th McCutcheon family in business, and that while she designed the Good Fairy, as well as the dolls, she did not
model the former, and that the latter are put into form by skilled workers who carry out her ideas."
She developed dolls to depict "...American childhood...expressive of the child spirit of this country, and are the embodiment of
the childish graces peculiarly America. She believes that American children are the most lovely things in the world,
distinguished by a beauty and spirituelle (sic) of face and form which superior breeding has bequeathed." according to a 1917
article in Toys and Novelties.
Dolls had composition heads with either molded hair or wigs. The dolls may have either painted or sleeping eyes. They may
be on cloth or composition bodies with metal spring joints. Sometimes one arm was bent and the fingers curved so that the doll
could hold an object. Many faces were painted by students at the Chicago Art Institute.
The company became part of the Pollyanna Co in 1920.
Coleman, Dorothy, Elizabeth and Evelyn. The Collector's Encyclopedia of Dolls Vol 1 and Vol 2. New York: Crown Publishers
1986.
Jesse, born in Lafayette, Indiana, came from a family of artists, authors, and aviators. She distinguished herself as a business
woman. She notes in a 1919 article in Toys and Novelties: "(She) disclaims any artistic ability, laughingly declaring that she is
the only one of th McCutcheon family in business, and that while she designed the Good Fairy, as well as the dolls, she did not
model the former, and that the latter are put into form by skilled workers who carry out her ideas."
She developed dolls to depict "...American childhood...expressive of the child spirit of this country, and are the embodiment of
the childish graces peculiarly America. She believes that American children are the most lovely things in the world,
distinguished by a beauty and spirituelle (sic) of face and form which superior breeding has bequeathed." according to a 1917
article in Toys and Novelties.
Dolls had composition heads with either molded hair or wigs. The dolls may have either painted or sleeping eyes. They may
be on cloth or composition bodies with metal spring joints. Sometimes one arm was bent and the fingers curved so that the doll
could hold an object. Many faces were painted by students at the Chicago Art Institute.
The company became part of the Pollyanna Co in 1920.
Coleman, Dorothy, Elizabeth and Evelyn. The Collector's Encyclopedia of Dolls Vol 1 and Vol 2. New York: Crown Publishers
1986.
Courtesy collection of G. St. Rain
Courtesy collection of G. St. Rain
Courtesy collection of G. St. Rain