A trip to Bonniebrook

Today was girl's day out.  Adrienne, Grandma and I headed out to visit a place nearby that we've wanted to visit for a long time now.  It's called Bonniebrook and you can read about it here.  It's the home of Rose O'Neill, who is probably best known as the creator of the Kewpie dolls.  You can read about Rose here.  Now around this area most everyone is familiar with the name Rose O'Neill and her famous Kewpies. Bonniebrook is where Rose's family lived when they moved to Missouri and settled in the Ozark hills.  But today we learned that there was much more to Rose O'Neill than simply the chubby, smiling little cherubs she created. 

We learned that in the late 1800's, at the age of 19, Rose headed to New York City to seek work as an illustrator.  Quite a bold move at that time.  Because of her talent, she was able to sell her illustrations to magazines such as Life and Harpers and was eventually hired as the first female staff artist at Puck Magazine (although she signed her illustrations with only her last name so readers would not know the artist was a woman).  Not only a gifted artist, Rose was an author and a staunch advocate for women's rights, especially women's right to vote.

In 1909 she created the Kewpies and they soon became a phenomenon.  For several decades, Kewpies were everywhere.  These chubby little cherubs were extremely popular and their smiling faces helped sell a variety of products over the years.  The success of the Kewpies made Rose a very wealthy woman, however, we learned that she did not hoard the money she earned but spent it quite freely to help support family, friends and fellow artists.  So much so, that when she died in 1944 at the age of 69, she had very little money left to show for the huge amount she'd made over her lifetime.  But the value of her life, we learned, was not to be measured in dollars.  She was an artist, sculptor, writer, advocate of women's suffrage, businesswoman, and philosopher.  She lived a very rich and full life.

We topped off our girl's day out with lunch at Ruby Lena's Tea Room.  It was SO yummy and check out that meringue on the piece of pie we're about to dig into!