Good things come to those who wait!
The internet is a constantly changing place, with information being uploaded all the time. Remember microfiche and the dizzy feeling you got looking at those? Many of those old newspaper archives have been digitized and are available online.
Kathy Duncan has done some outstanding research and posted wonderful new information she found regarding Izannah Walker's doll sales. To find an advertisement with the price of an Izannah Walker doll is quite a discovery! This information is posted on her blog, Flimsiest and Frippery in a post entitled "Miss Izannah Walker's Celebrated Cloth Dolls",
Kathy reveals that E. W. Billings acted as Izannah's agent in wholesaling her dolls. Click here to read her exciting post. There is a LOT more information about Izannah, E. W. Billings, and how this information suggests that perhaps Izannah's business was a larger operation than past information has provided.
Ads describing a "Miss Walker" dolls in the Evening Bulletin of Rhode Island are shown below:
This 1874 ad reads:
The Everlasting Cloth Doll.
Tho Proprietor would inform
the trade that be is now pre-
pared to sell at wholesale
MISS WALKER'S
CELEBRATED CLOTH DOLLs
For which he has been agent for so many years
Please send your orders for the Holidays. Those
Who've left their orders at the store to be filled,
Will please call and make their selections at
99 Westminster St., Butler Exchange.
___ ___ ____ E. W. Billings
Below ad from Thursday 15 Dec 1881, p. 1
WELCOME, SANTA CLAUS. - The fabled Kris
Kringle is pictured as bearing upon his back an
Enormous pack, filled with toys and playthings
For children of all ages and conditions, and every
Year he stops at the store of E. W. Billings, in
Butler Exchange, and purchases a large supply of
toys and fancy goods, including dolls of all sizes
and peculiarities. He will lay in a stock of Miss
Walker's cloth dolls this season, their chief merit
consisting in their ability to stand rough usage
and abandonment serenely.
Below is the ad from 1881 on p. 3.
Listed by E. G. Billings
This ad reads:
SANTA CLAUS
HEADQUARTERS
E. G. BILLINGS
Butler Exchange.
Fancy
Goods,
Toys,
Dolls
---
Games and Novelties
---
WHOLESALE AND RETAIL
At lower prices than elsewhere.
Agency for MISS WALKER'S
CLOTH DOLLS; reduced price
$3.75
Also, for DOLLS' DRESSES
And CLOAKS, which are now,
beautiful and cheap.
Again, be sure to visit Kathy's blog. Click here to read her exciting post which has a LOT of information in it.
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