ABSTRACT
When Martha Chase daughters had reached the appropriate age, she constructed dolls for them based upon her own favorite as a child. Helen Young described the Chase creations as being: correctly jointed at hips, elbows, knees, and shoulders; the feet were shaped with a flat sole and natural looking toes; the hands were cupped with separated fingers. In 1891, after a Boston store buyer had seen some of the dolls and sent in an order, the Chase family established a factory. Made in sizes varying from ten inches to life size, the Chase dolls were immensely popular for almost 20 years. Six Alice in Wonderland figurines - Alice, Tweedledum, Tweedledee, the Mad Hatter, the Queen, arid the Frog, were her first and most popular creations in this line. When her 'stocking dolls' began waning in popularity, Chase turned to making life-sized demonstration dolls for hospital and clinic training, filling a need derived from her longtime knowledge of hospitals.
