Rose O'Neill

American illustrator

Died when: 69 years 286 days (837 months)
Star Sign: Cancer

 

Rose Cecil O'Neill (June 25, 1874 – April 6, 1944) was an American cartoonist, illustrator, artist, and writer.She built a successful career as a magazine and book illustrator and, at a young age, became the best-known and highest- paid female commercial illustrator in the United States.

O' Neill earned a fortune and international fame by creating the Kewpie, the most widely known cartoon character until Mickey Mouse.

The daughter of a book salesman and a homemaker, O'Neill was raised in rural Nebraska.She exhibited interest in the arts at an early age, and sought a career as an illustrator in New York City at age fifteen.

Her Kewpie cartoons, which made their debut in a 1909 issue of Ladies' Home Journal, were later manufactured as bisque dolls in 1912 by J.

D.Kestner, a German toy company, followed by composition material and celluloid versions.The dolls were wildly popular in the early twentieth century, and are considered to be one of the first mass-marketed toys in the United States.

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

O'Neill has been inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.

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