Raggedy Ann: An Enduring Story

No doll perhaps has a story behind its genesis as sad and enduring as that of Raggedy Ann. Sad because the creation of this doll was a bereaved father’s unique way of commemorating the joys he had with his departed daughter. Enduring because the Raggedy Ann dolls were first created way back in 1915 and they are still with us. No father had perhaps given the world such a gift.

Johnny Gruelle was an accomplished artist who did beautiful illustrations for books. He was also a cartoonist. He was born in Arcola, Illinois in 1880. He grew up in Indianapolis. Later, in 1910, he moved to Connecticut with his family. It was here that he started spinning stories about Raggedy Ann to entertain his young daughter Marcella. The character originated from a rag doll that was one day found in the attic. It was made by Johnny’s mother, on which Johnny painted a face, and his wife dressed it in the nationalistic red, white and blue. It was a doll for Marcella, and this simple rag doll and Marcella were as inseparable as she was from the stories that her father used to spin for her. But this happy world came to an end when Marcella died of contaminated vaccination in her early teens.

Johnny Gruelle was shattered.

But he gradually came to terms with his grief when he started writing the Raggedy Ann tales – the same tales that he had earlier spun for his beloved daughter. The first Raggedy Ann book was published in 1918. Three years earlier, the Raggedy Ann doll in her flowered dress and colored or striped stockings had already reached the market.

The Gruelle family made the first Raggedy Ann dolls in 1915 in Connecticut. That same year Volland started manufacturing the Raggedy Ann dolls and continued until the early 1930s. The period from 1935 to 1938 saw Molly–‘es producing these dolls. The transition to a new company, Georgene, was made in the year that Johnny Gruelle died. Georgene made the production from 1938 to 1963 and Knickerbocker from 1962 to 1982. Later, Hasbro, Applause and Playskool have also made the Raggedy Ann dolls. Though the usual sizes vary from 15” to 18”, these dolls have come in sizes ranging from a tiny 6” to a huge 48”.

Johnny Gruelle was such a genial person that he could not keep Raggedy Ann alone. Five years after the Raggedy Ann doll was created, Johnny Gruelle created Raggedy Andy, Raggedy Ann’s inseparable playmate in overalls. In the years that followed, more Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy stories came into being, and the characters that peopled the tales were also transformed into dolls. It was a whole gang of lovable dolls that endeared themselves to the children and their parents.

The Raggedy Ann doll was inducted to the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2002. It was a fitting tribute to this doll and its creator. It was also a tribute, I suppose, to the daughter who had inspired her father after her tragic premature death to create a doll that would become a part of American folk lore.

When we wonder about the enduring quality of a minimalist rag doll with button eyes, triangle nose and hair made of red (or brown) yarn, we do not have a simple answer. It maybe perhaps we are all ultimately charmed by the simple things of life. This might be the reason that has made generations of children feel completely at home with the Raggedy Ann dolls. It is so unassuming that you start loving it and it becomes a part of yourself you know not when.