First ladies and first gentlemen dolls
The Woman’s Kansas Day Club originated during a meeting of the Good Government Club in Topeka in January 1905. The club’s objectives were to instill patriotism in the young, promote good fellowship, and preserve the early history of Kansas.
As part of their objectives, they coordinated many projects to assist with Kansas Historical Society with collections. One of those projects was to donate dolls wearing the style and fabric of the inaugural clothing worn by the first ladies and first gentlemen of Kansas.
The project began in May 1958 when a group of members found resources in photographs and Godey’s Lady books to recreate the attire of the first ladies of Kansas in miniature dolls. The dolls, eight inches tall, adorned the tables at the annual Woman’s Kansas State club luncheon. Each doll was dressed in a replica of inaugural gowns or an authentic styled dress of the period in which the governor’s wife lived. The dolls were initially displayed at the Kansas Governor's Mansion and were presented to the Kansas Historical Society on January 29, 1959, where they were displayed in the Memorial Hall lobby.
The Eula Huxman doll was dressed in material used on the original gown she wore in 1937. They found it more difficult to research the 19th century inaugural clothing, learned that Sara Robinson, the wife of Charles Robinson, the first governor of Kansas in 1861, loved to wear dresses of merino with large white collars.
The collection of 45 dolls includes the two gentlemen, Spencer Finney and Gary Sebelius.
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| Sara Tappan Doolittle Lawrence Robinson (1861-1863) | Rebecca Ann Canaday Carney (1863-1865) | Isabel Marshall Chase Crawford (1865-1868) |
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| Mary Manning Sturtevant Green (1868-1869) | Charlotte Richardson Cutter Harvey (1869-1873) | Julia Delahay Osburn (1873-1877) |
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| Rosa A. Lyon Anthony (1877-1879) | Susan Jane Parker St. John (1879-1883) | Elizabeth Rider Glick (1883-1885) |
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| Ida Challiss Martin (1885-1889) | Amanda Leonard Humphrey (1889-1893) | Ida Bishop Lewelling (1893-1895) |
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| Caroline Jenkins Nash Morrill (1895-1897) | Sarah J. Boyd Leedy (1897-1899) | Emma Lenora Hillis Stanley (1899-1903) |
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| Ida B. Albert Weede Bailey (1903-1905) | Sarah Louisa Dickerson Hoch (1905-1909) | Stella Hostettler Stubbs (1909-1913) |
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| Ora May Murray Hodges (1913-1915) | Florence Crawford Capper (1915-1919) | Elsie Jane Nuzman Allen (1919-1923) |
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| Mary Purdom Davis (1923-1925) | Barbara Ellis Paulen (1925-1929) | Minnie E. Hart Reed (1929-1931) |
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| Lida Woodring, sister of the governor (1931) | Theo Cobb Landon (1933-1937) | Eula M. Biggs Huxman (1937-1939) |
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| Cliffe Dodd Ratner (1939-1943) | Marie Thomsen Schoeppel (1943-1947) | Alice Frederickson Carlson (1947-1950) |
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| Elisabeth Blair Sutton Hagaman (1950-1951) | Marcella Tillmans Arn (1951-1955) | Leadell Schneider Hall (1955-1957) |
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| Cora Hedrick McCuish (1957-1957) | Mary Virginia Blackwell Docking (1957-1961) | Arlene Auchard Anderson (1961-1965) |
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| Hazel Bowles Avery (1965-1967) | Meredith Marina Gear Docking (1967-1975) | Olivia Fisher Bennett (1975-1979) |
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| Ramona Lenore Hawkinson Carlin (1979-1980) | Karen Bigsby Hurley Carlin (1981-1985) | Patti Ann Rooney Hayden (1987-1991) |
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| Spencer Finney (1991-1995) | Linda Graves (1995-2003) | Gary Sebelius (2003-2009) |
Entry: First ladies and first gentlemen dolls
Author: Kansas Historical Society
Author information: The Kansas Historical Society is a state agency charged with actively safeguarding and sharing the state's history.
Date Created: January 2016
Date Modified: December 2017
The author of this article is solely responsible for its content.
