| Note: Articles below are Single section articles. Meaning they were snipped as one section and can be down loaded as one picture per article. |
| Thomas Edison's "Dollphone" Newspaper Articles & Snip-its From 1887-1893 Page #2 Click here for page #1 |
| New York Sun Dec 10, 1888 (Also on Page #1) |
| Omaha Daily Bee Apri l2 , 1889 |
| Stark County Democrat Pittsburg Sept 25, 1890 |
| Wichita Daily Eagle Kansas Dec 23, 1888 (Parts of this one Page #1) |
| Andreson Intelligent Jan 16, 1890 (50,000 Dolls Planned To Be Made) |
| Saint Paul Daily Globe April 28, 1889 |
| Bee April 1889 (Speed of Doll, Clock Works) |
| 1889 (Clock Works) |
| St. Paul MN May 1889 (Size of Doll) |
| St. Paul MN May 1889 ( Doll Made Of Of Paper Mache) |
| Pittsburg Dispatch Jan 31, 1890 (Says "First Doll" but other articles say the doll was out and for sale to the general public by Oct/Nov/Dec 1889. Plus Read 1889 Right--> |
| 1889 This article was found many times in many different newspapers in 1889. |
| Clinch Valley VA May 1889 |
| Arizona Sentinal May 1889 |
| Talking about how the limbs and head were imported from Europe. |
| Omaha Daily Bee June 4, 1888 |
| New York Sun |
| 1889 |
| Clinch Valley VA Sept 1889 |
| 1890 |
| Daily Yellowstone Journal MilesCity Mont Aug 1889 |
| Salt Lake Sept 1890 (Electrical Doll) |
| July 1889 Talking about how there were many people that worked for Edison trying to make a perfect talking doll. As it turned out she wasn't perfect but she was not a failure! She was the beginning! |
| 1889 |
| Bristal News Dec 31 1878 Patent Trouble. |
| Wichita Daily Eagle Kansas Oct 31, 1889 |
| Salt Lake June 1889 |
| Telegraph Monrow LA Dec 1, 1888 "Will be sold for 3 to 7 apiece" |
| (Handle has to be turned in order for her to talk.) |
| (Handle has to be turned in order for her to talk.) |
| April 1890 Ad says she came with a Bisque Head and Articulated limbs/limbs that bend. And she would say one of 12 nursery rhymes. 1.-Mary Had A Little Lamb. 2.-Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. 3.-There Was A Little Girl and She Had A Little Curl. 4.-Little Bo-Peep. 5.-Little Tom Tucker. 6.-Hickery, Dickery, Dock. 7.-Little Jack Horner. 8.-Ba-Ba, Black Sheep. 9.-Jack and Jill. 10.-Two Little Black Birds. 11.-Old Mother Hubbard. 12.-Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep. |
| Daily Morning Astoriam Oregon June 8, 1888 (I wonder if this doll was ever made) |
| Evening Bulletin Maysville KY Dec 26, 1889 Doll sent to Europe |
| (Handle has to be turned in order for her to talk.) |
| 1889 Clock Works |
| November 1889 (That number is a Million) I think this is a copy/snip-it from a article that was printed jokingly talking about how Edison's factory was so “wonderful and fast� it could produce more dolls in less time than any factory in the city producing other things. |
| Pittsburg Dispatch May 11, 1890 Note: 2 sections here bottom and top of page. |
| 1890 |
| Evening Star June 19, 1897 Electric Doll, this doll I do not think was ever patent. Also some might say these people might of just thought she was electric but I don't think so because I have found a few of these clippings. Plus the date is 1897, seven or eight years after his Dollphone came out. |
| 1895 Number 3 article found talking about kids getting board with the doll but also notice she was still talking in 1895! That is 5 or 6 years after she was made. A lot of the Chatty Cathy dolls didn't talk after 5 years. Some after a year. So this doll was popular and wanted by all the little girls of their time. |
| Morning Call San Francisco Dec 22, 1892 Second one of 3 articles found talking about the doll having problems. But she had been out on the market for 3 years already. |
| Evening World Dec 18, 1888 |
| New Yok Sun 1888 |
| New York Tribune Feb 18, 1912 At Thomas Edison's Birthday party at age 65 a report a report asked Edison how much he paid his workers back in the 1880/90's. Just weeks before the sinking of the Titanic! Note: I put this here to show how much a working man made back then. |
| Wichita Daily Eagle Kansas Nov 23, 1890 First one of 3 articles found talking about the doll costing too much and having problems. Note; This is the only one I found up to 1890 and then no more until 1892. |
| Pittsburg Dispatch May 11, 1890 |
| Kansas Oct 10, 1991 |
| Kansas 1889 (Talking about how except for her body she is imported from Europe) |
| New York Sun Dec 29 1889 (Snip-it Doll sent to Austria) |
| 1877 Patent Dispute |
| Oct 1889 (Another snip-it on Edison making a "Million dolls. That did not happen!) |
| Holt County Sentinal Oregon MO Feb, 1889 |
| St Paul 1889 (Talking about how except for her body she is imported from Europe) |
| 1889 Note: 2 sections here bottom and top of page. |
| Dec 1889 (Doll was for sale by December of 1889 and her cost was $7 dollars) |
| Orangeburg SC Jan 31, 1879 Patent Trouble |
| New York World April 30 1891 (Price of doll after she had already been out over a year. She was $7 in Dec of 1889 and $10 by April 1891. But i do not know why she went up in price.) |
| New York World Dec 11, 1891 |
| World Dec 10, 1888 |
| Evening World NY Dec 12, 1888 |
| World Dec 10, 1888 |
| 1889 Christmas Present 1889 Doll Shipped to Austria |
| EveningWorldNYDec131888Christmas |
| Sent doll to Austria |
| April 17, 1890 |
| New York World Dec11 1891 |
| New York World Apri l8, 1890 (Could this have been where these other 2 articls (left) on "Electric Dolls" came from?) |
| Ilander Harbor San Juan Washington Jan 31, 1895 |
| Houston Texas Feb 14 1898 Edisons life at age 51. Doll is also listed in this listed as Phonograph for dolls and toys. Click Here For "PDF" |
| New York July 9 1890 Same Year The "Dollphone" Was Patent. Thomas A Edison was already a very rich man by 1890! Also talks about how many phonograph dolls his daughter has, noting "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star". |
| Note: Articles below are "Multi" section articles (pictures). Meaning they were snipped as more than one section and will have to be down loaded as more than one picture in order to get the whole article. Also the last sentence in each section start again at the beginning of the second section and so on and so forth. There are duplicate articles on this page to show how these articles were shared across the country with many different newspapers in many different states. Plus the red marks you will see in some of the articles and in a lot of the snip-its is from the words I used to find this stuff and rather then down load the whole PDF I just snipped it off the page. Also most are dated some are not. Read and Enjoy! Also where it counts, I added small notes about the articles |
| Minnesota Nov 11, 1891 Very cute article, it talks about how girls recorded the dolls voice and talks about how repairing dolls is to hard for women to do. LOL.... I have been doing it for years....OMG What did we give up ladies? |
| Richmond VA 1889 Doll shipped to Austria |
| St. Paul MN 1889 (Clock Works) |
| Sacramento Daily July 28, 1891 (Cost of doll) |
| Kansas City June 21,1895 Another snip-it about his "Electric" Doll But how? Did you plug her in? If you did she would of been more like a electric phonograph/record player than a doll. Heck maybe she was just like a one time invention, Edison had a lot of one time didn't work out inventions. In fact that is why I think the Dollphone has been so miss represented for years. |
| Morning Call San Francisco Feb 16, 1894 (doll in 1994) |
| Kansas Jan 15, 1891 (Talk about how the doll can now say 135 words! That is a lot of words) |
| 1895 |
| Wichita Daily Eagle Kansas Dec 1893 Notice how the doll was still for sale in 1893. Look at the picture it says Dec 15 -93 |
| New York Sun Dec 16, 1888 |
| Note: Snip-its below are not full articles they are just one section snipped out of an article. |
| Note: Christmas Snip-its below are not full articles they are just one section snipped out of an article. |
| Telegraph Monroe LA Dec 11, 1888 |
| Weekly Gazette Fortworth June 5, 1890 |
| Woodstock Viginia Jan 17 ,1890 Dolls Shipped To Europe |
| New York Sun 1889 |
| April 26, 1890 |
| Sacramento CA January 26 1890 (A snip-it talking about building 50,000 dolls) |
| 1889 |
| Los Angeles Dec 1889 Doll sent to Arch-Duchess Elizabeth, daughter of the Arch-Duke Rudolph, Crown Prince of Austria. Also this snip-it was captured with news date showing. |
| Washington Critic June 17, 1889 |
| Note: Snip-its below are articles I found about the doll not being a good buy. |
| Pittsburg Dispatch May 11, 1890 (Edison and his people had many plans for this small phonograph) |
| Saint Paul Feb 12, 1892 "Joke at a city Meeting" |
| 138 Fifth-ave New York |
| May 1890 |
| Lancaster Daily Intelligencer July 15 1890 |
| Note: Lets not forget about the man and his wife! |
| NY, NY April 17, 1890 "First Advertisement" |
| According to the sales ads and from what I can gather in 1890 when the finished doll was finely ready to be sold to whole sellers, she was advertised as a French jointed doll 22 inch tall with articulated limbs/limbs that would bend and said one of 12 nursery rhymes. Her head was Bisques, her limbs were molded wax/bisque and her body was tin. She was of perfect form, meaning her head and limbs were sized to fit her body. That she came blonde with blue or brown eyes or brunette with brown eyes. |
| Notice in the very first paragraph above it says; "Count" Thomas A. Edison, commander of the Legion of Honor. And further down it says Mrs. Edison has become a countess! ... I looked this up and it is a Europe thing to use those titles instead of Mr. and Mrs. but it has to be bestowed on you. But I mainly put this here to point out the fact that by 1890 Thomas Edison was a very rich man and hung around the elite. Also for those of you that like this history stuff if you read the article you will read the reporter talks about Mrs. Edison having a small onyx stand, it being one of only two in the country and the other belonging to Mrs. Astor. Wikipedia says that; "Mrs. Astor and her ladies therefore represented the Aristocratic, or the Old Money, whereas the newly wealthy Vanderbilt family would establish a new wave of New Money". This is the kind of high society/filthy rich people Thomas Edison hung around with in 1890. By the way this was Thomas Edison's second wife he was 19 years older than her. |
| November, 1890 How Thomas Edison Got His Start |
| Saint Paul Feb 12, 1892 "Joke at a city Meeting" |
| Note: Snip-its below are just a few articles I have put on this page to show how Edison was in all kinds of disputes over his patents, companies and pretty much on just about everything he developed somebody out there was after him. I bet there are hundreds, if some one wanted to spend the time looking. I only went back to 77 looking because I wanted the date to show on the snip-it, there were so many I just picked a few. So if there ever was a dispute on the Dollphone (which I never found) to Edison it would of been like "Join The Club" everyone is after me anyway, what's one more. In one article I read Edison said something like this in todays words. "I go to court to settle these patent disputes and I get a judges that maybe reads the patent for 15 minutes then talked to a couple of lawyers, and non of them know the first think about inventions, nor what goes into these patents". That if he is going to be judged he should be judged by Inventers and Scientist not Judges and lawyers. I lost the article but if I find it again I will post it here. My Opinion: When reading about Thomas Edison you should know that every Tom, Dick and Harry was in some kind of dispute with him over this or that patent, or contract, or company. He was a rich man and had many patents so everybody wanted a piece of him so to speak. He was the inventor of the day. He worked with and side by side with other great men like "Alexandra Graham Bell" and "Henry Ford". In comparison (if you could compare them) the closest men I can think of in today's time would be "Steve Jobs the inventor/creator of Apple Computers" or "Bill Gates inventor/creator of Windows". All of these men were and are great men of their own time and very rich men. As it being so, rich and powerful men get sued all the time. So it was inevitable Thomas Edison would be accused of stealing ideas and sued over just about anything and everything he invented including his dollphone ("if" that even happened) "If" meaning... in all of these news paper article I found, I didn't find one single dispute over his dollphone just over other things he invented. The facts are it was his phonograph/record player that everyone one else tried to steal from him! Funny how people really are when it come to Money & Fame. My point: Thomas Edison also invented the "Electric Chair" see how funny it is that nobody seem to what to take claim to it! |
| The doll is patterned after the French jointed dolls in appearance and size. They are 15 to 18 inches long. The head is made of china and the arms of paper mache, The body is made of tin holding the miniature phonograph |
| "Phonographic animals" A cat that purrs, meows, spits and caterwauls. A horse that neigh's and whinnies. A dog that barks, snaps and howls. A sheep the baas and phonographic birds a lark, finch, robin and a canary. |
| Picture (above) is not an Edison doll. I put this here to show you other mechanical dolls that were made back in the late 1800's. This is of a crawling baby. It is so different and amazing. |