Grace Simpler Herold, an American Dollmaker

Creator of Leah, Sheila, Hester, Jackie Kennedy and Pat Nixon Dolls

Sep 5, 2009

Grace Herold began making dolls after the death of her husband in the 1960s. She painted hair and eyes instead of using the more common hair and glass eyes of the era.

Through widowhood, several moves, and difficulties in getting equipment, Grace Herold still succeeded in creating fifteen original porcelain dolls of high caliber.

Grace Simpler’s Family and Early Life

Simpler was born in June 1896 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the third child of Erasmus and Amanda Simpler. Her father was an engineer and her mother was a nurse who took in sewing and taught her young daughters to sew at an early age. In an interview with R. Lane Herron in 1985, Grace Herold said “she used to let us thread her needles and give us scraps to make dolls’ clothes. When we went to the store, we would buy small china-head dolls and Frozen Charlottes to dress”.

Simpler married Julius Herold, a bookkeeper, and they lived in the Philadelphia area for many years. They moved to Cassville, Missouri to retire, but Julius died suddenly after only a year. She began to make dolls after his death, because it comforted her and she loved the porcelain she remembered from her childhood. She decided to create an original doll, and Leah was the result.

Grace Herold Created Fifteen Dolls

Leah had painted hair because Herold didn’t like the “dusty hair” often found on dolls in the early 1960s. She also painted the eyes instead of using the common glassy ones of the era. She never kept tabs on her expenses or the quantities of dolls, because that seemed like work, and she was just making dolls for her own enjoyment. They turned out to be of very high caliber and very successful.

After Leah became a success, Herold created Leah, Jr., then Sheila and Sheila Jr. Next came her Gibson Girl, the Dana Lynne, and Miss Atlanta, who was made for the Atlanta Doll Club. Hester was a small doll and only eight of them were ever made. Then came Donnie the crybaby and a series of famous women. Jacqueline Kennedy, Pat Nixon, Tricia Nixon and Coretta Scott King were the ones who became dolls, although Herold received lots of requests for Mamie Eisenhower and Mrs. Lyndon Johnson. Eisenhower and Johnson were never made. Herold made only one black porcelain doll, a so-called “one-of-a-kind Negro version” of the Crybaby Donnie.

Doll collectors all over the world can relate to Mark Twain’s comment “by the eternal laws of proportion, a child’s loss of a doll and a king’s loss of a crown are events of the same size”. Grace Herold never lost her love of dolls and she created some beautiful but scarce examples of the dollmaker’s craft.

The copyright of the article Grace Simpler Herold, an American Dollmaker in Antiques & Collectibles is owned by Marie Brannon. Permission to republish Grace Simpler Herold, an American Dollmaker in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.