Dec. 24, 2023 (post)
Warm wishes to all for a happy and safe holiday season and all the best to everyone in the coming year – Sincerely, IROCF
Dec. 9, 2023 (post)
“VOICES AND VOTES Democracy in America” is a Museum on Main Street national traveling exhibition, a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and state humanities councils nationwide. The exhibit is provided for smaller towns museums and libraries. It consists of six two- or three-sided free-standing displays featuring founding fathers’ historical art and contemporary photos, historical objects such as campaign souvenirs, voter memorabilia, and protest materials. Woman’s suffrage is included: “The Right to Vote is the Basic Right” panel. The Kewpie postcard (Campbell Art) “Votes for Women Kewpie on the cloud, Do I get your vote?” is on one of the panels. Visit https://museumonmainstreet.org/voicesvote to find out if the exhibit is headed to a town near you. Registration requesting the exhibit visit your community also may be possible through state humanities councils.
Nov. 20, 2023 (post)
Help put Rose O’Neill in the Hall of Famous Missourians. A website is available where you can make your vote count: “There is currently an effort underway to nominate Rose O’Neill to the Hall of Famous Missourians. For more information and a link to vote go to Rose O’Neill – Home (weebly.com)
Nov. 12, 2023 (post)
IROCF dues now may be paid online through our membership page.
Oct. 29, 2023 (post)
All dressed up to wish you a Happy Halloween!
Oct. 29, 2023 (post)
The Fall 2023 Kewpiesta Kourier now is available in the Member’s section of the website. This issue includes the following articles: The Sordoni Exhibit, O’Neilliana Music – Continued, Schafer & Vater Kewpies (includes Schafer & Vater jasperware, history of Schafer & Vater, modern Kewpie jasperware, Lenwile Ardalt Inc. Corp, NC mark associated with Lenwile Ardalt pieces, modern jasperware plaques, and reproduction Schafer & Vater jasperware), the story behind Kewpie “cutie” jewelry.
Oct. 14, 2023 (post)
Congratulations to the diligent collector who has discovered Kewpie Dress No. 17. It has been added to the Kewpie Dress Company article in the Kewpieology section of the website. Thank You for sharing!
Oct. 12, 2023 (post)
The Springfield News-Leader has a story on Bonniebrook today. It is posted online available by going onto the newspaper’s website and entering “Bonniebrook” into the search box. The newspaper’s website will not link directly to our website without an error message coming up from that site.
Oct. 4, 2023 (post)
An interesting twist on Kewpie-type items appeared on an Antiques Roadshow from Houston. The item is
a Wedgwood Fairyland Lustre plate decorated by Daisy Makeig-Jones. Online research available at madelena.com describes the artist as “an eccentric, employed to bring fresh imaginative design to a market heavy with World War I and its aftermath.” The plate, at right from the program, depicts the 
Kewpie-like figures. The same pattern as seen on madelena.com, at left, is titled “Wedgwood Fairyland Lustre Imps on Bridge, circa 1923.” 
Additional information and photos are available on this website including, that the Fairyland Lustre came in a range of bone china shapes and patterns manufactured from 1915-1930. Images at left compliments of Ben Tulk, Madelena Antiques. Additional images are available on the Madelena website. A compilation of information is available for members in the Kewpieology section: Wedgewood Fairyland Imps.
Sept. 12, 2023 (post)
The Toy Association™ Inducts Six Legendary Trailblazers Into Toy Industry Hall of Fame announces Rose O’Neill is among its list of posthumous inductees. The award recognizes recipients’ “significant contributions to the industry and the impact they have had on the lives of children through a lifelong commitment to toys and play.” The announcement includes the following:
Rose O’Neill (1874-1944)
Rose O’Neill was a self-taught artist, toy inventor, and trailblazer in the women’s suffrage movement. She was the first woman to publish a comic strip in the U.S. and was the sole female member of humor magazine Puck from 1897 to 1903. In 1909, O’Neill introduced her most renowned creation: Kewpie dolls. These winged, child-like creatures with topknot hairstyles were an instant hit, and the public’s demand for Kewpies prompted O’Neill to establish a factory in Germany for their production. Over the following years, she became a millionaire through doll sales. Starting in 1915, while residing in New York’s Greenwich Village, O’Neill actively participated in the women’s suffrage movement; she marched in parades, delivered speeches, and created illustrations for movement posters. Even after 113 years, Kewpie dolls continue to be manufactured and sold by various toy companies, a testament to O’Neill’s enduring contributions to the toy industry and society as a whole.
Sept. 12, 2023 (post)
The Times Leader newspaper, covering Northeastern Pennsylvania including the Scranton/Wilkes-Barr metropolitan area, on Sept. 10 featured an article on the Sordoni exhibit. “A woman way ahead of her time.”
Aug. 28, 2023 (post)
The ONE Rose Celebrating the Life and Legacy of ROSE O’NEILL at the Wilkes University Sordoni Art Gallery (Wilkes-Barre, PA) is a not to miss exhibit of O’Neill works. The exhibit runs through Oct. 8, 2023. The gallery, located at 141 Main Street, is open M-F 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sat.-Sun. noon-5 p.m., and closed on university holidays. Free visitor parking is available.
Aug. 9, 2023 (post)
The Mini Time Machine Museum of Miniatures in Tuscon, AZ, is a not-for-profit dedicated to preserving and advancing the art of miniatures. Patricia and Walter Arnell’s concept of “the mini time machine” was born out of the notion that a visitor would be seemingly transported to different eras by the stories and history of the pieces in the collection. One of the museum’s newsletters features a delightful article on Kewpies.
July 1, 2023 (Post)
Celebrating Independence Day Kewpie style.
June 29, 2023 (post)
Downtown Branson Mural Project: Renowned muralist Christine Riutzel is raising funds for a Rose O’Neill mural featuring Rose’s art and her creations. The 21×28 foot mural will be on the corner of Commercial and Pacific Street on the side of The Branson Centennial Museum. Please visit https://www.roseoneill.art for more information and learn how you may donate.
June18, 2023 (post)
Vol: LV Issue #2 – June 2023 of the Kewpiesta Kourier now is posted online in the Member’s Section of the website. Included in this issue is a Kewpiesta wrap-up, information on the proposed Rose O’Neill mural in downtown Branson, and Calling All Kewpie Girls by Susan Wilson.
June 12, 2023 (post)
June 12, 2023 (post) 
Information now is available for the art exhibit being featured at the Sordoni Art Gallery at Wilkes University in Wilkes Barre, PA, from Aug. 25 – Oct. 8, 2023. The Gallery will be celebrating its 50th Anniversary, so this will be a special exhibit of a Wilkes Barre native’s accomplishments. It promises to be a wonderful exhibit drawing examples of Rose’s work from IROCF and many museums and private collections.
May 21, 2023 (post)
A very Special Thank You to Dave Cain of Flash Photo in Branson for again doing photography at Kewpiesta. A link to his album is available at https://flashphotobranson.pixieset.com/kewpiegroup2023/
There are two additions to the Kewpieology section of the website for members.
- The Kewpiesta presentation by Dave Edwards and Karen Salaz, Many Facets of Rose O’Neill, now is posted in pdf form.
- Metal Kewpie and Kewpie-Type Item Collector’s Reference Listing: Updated from the 1992 IROC 25th anniversary original version. Fifty-two-page pdf document was compiled solely as a reference for IROCF members and not to be used as an authoritative resource. (Updated to 4/2023)
April 8, 2023 (post)
Wishing Everyone a Happy Easter
March 28, 2023 (post)
Kewpiesta is coming close, so we are getting excited to see everyone. Q&B Foods has highlighted Kewpiesta on their Instagram page at https://www.instagram.com/p/CqRcAECpTrp/ The posting went up yesterday and already has 341 Likes!
March 19, 2023 (post)
2023 Kewpiesta Information, Schedule of Events, and Registration Information: Updated with a New Wednesday Evening Event Added Now Available!
March 17, 2023 (post)
We hope you will join us for Kewpiesta celebrating “The Many Facets of Rose O’Neill.” The Schedule of Events and registration information is now available.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Feb. 28, 2023 (post)
The Kewpiesta Kourier has been posted in the Member’s Section of the website. It includes the 2023 Kewpiesta full schedule of events and registration form as well as an article entitled: Kewpie Fever 100 Years Ago: Tracking Kewpie’s 1913 path to the retail market through trade magazines.
Feb. 15, 2023 (post)
A Special Thanks to Vern Jordan: The May/June 2020 issue of the Kewpiesta Kourier has been updated to include more of the original George Borgfeldt announcements that originally appeared in Playthings Magazine. Pages 9-12 have been added to the original article as a separate link available both with the online issue of the Kourier and in the Kewpieology section of the website.
Feb. 14, 2023 (post)
Happy Valentines Day to All!
Jan. 29, 2023 (post)
The Midwest Regional Conservation Guild announced online the “Conservation of Six Rose O’Neill Kewpie Full-Page Sunday Weekly Comics.” The article is by Thomas Edmondson and Sarah Buhr, Heugh-Edmondson Conservation Services, LLC, Kansas City, MO, Springfield Art Museum.
Jan. 26, 2023 (post)![The Rose of Washington Square: A Novel of Rose O'Neill, Creator of the Kewpie Doll by [Pat Wahler]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51azhUwPnQL.jpg)
A new book on Rose O’Neill has just been released, The Rose of Washington Square: A Novel or Rose O’Neill, Creator of the Kewpie Doll, by Pat Whaler. The publication date is Jan. 20, 2023.
Jan. 24, 2023 (post)
Feb. 16.1935
Sunday Kewpie comic lovers have a rare opportunity to see a nearly complete collection of 1935-37 Rose O’Neill comics on Andy Madura’s Comics & Paper Collectibles (Clermont, FL) website. They show Rose’s true genius for art and humor. The following is an excerpt from the website: “Rose O’Neil created the Kewpies in 1905 as a magazine feature. The feature would invariably show the nymphish babes in character surrounding rhymes. It was that theme which continued into the Sunday Comics of 1917. The feature was easily one of the finest quality strips of the day, but O’Neill would shut down production with the close of the First World War. The strip made a reappearance in 1935 and would take on a new quality. Now the babes were featured strip characters getting into relatively harmless mischief. Unfortunately, this iteration of the strip also lasted only a brief couple of years.”
Jan. 20, 2023 (post)
The State of the Ozarks website has an article by Joshua Heston, The Sweetest of Monsters.” The illustrated article begins, “Form emerging from the formless…. ““There are some people who have found some of my pictures revolting. They hurt the eye. But I am not dejected — like Poe. I am in love with magic and monsters and the drama of form emerging from the formless.” — Rose O’Neill”
Rose O’Neill’s Sweet Monsters: An Exploration in Motherhood and Romantic Love in Early 20th Century America, a thesis
presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School at the University of Missouri-Columbia by Mary Ethier, is available online. The 76-page master’s degree thesis is an interesting study.
Discovering Rose O’Neill contains a two-paragraph quote describing O’Neill’s creative process in developing “the monsters.”
Jan. 13, 2023 (post)
New Finds: Two more Kewpies in their original costumes from a private collection.
Jan. 9, 2023 (post)
This year we are starting a “New Finds” addition to the Kewpie News page. If you have an item(s) you would like to have considered for posting, please email them to keyvranch@gmail.com. Our first discoveries, from a private collection, can be seen below: Original Dressed Kewpies.
Jan. 9, 2023 (post)
Yet another Kewpie Dress Company children’s dress has emerged. It has been added to the Vol LVI No 3 Oct 2022 Kewpiest Kourier Special Section that can be found with that Kewpiesta Kourier online or in the Kewpieology section of the website. Congratulations to that private collector!
Jan. 4, 2023 (post)
Happy New Year! Don’t forget 2023 membership dues were due prior to Jan. 1, 2023, to take advantage of the renewal discount. Dues annually paid after January 1 are: $40 Individual; $45 Family (‘Family’ is defined as members of the same family living at the same address including children up to 18 years of age). If you already have not paid your dues, do so immediately to ensure you receive the 2023 Kewpiesta issue of the Kourier containing the schedule and events.