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Doodlehead puppets, 1 set

A work made of cotton, paperboard, papier mâché, paint, cellophane.

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  • A work made of cotton, paperboard, papier mâché, paint, cellophane.

Date:

1954

Artist:

Ethel Stein (American, 1917-2018)
Croton-on-Hudson, New York

About this artwork

Ethel Stein designed this set of sock puppets for commercial retail following the success of her puppetry work at her son’s nursery school. The Doodleheads were sold at a department store in New York City, where Shari Lewis purchased one. Lewis recognized Stein’s ingenuity and in the late 1950s Stein create several puppets for Lewis’s children’s television program “The Shari Show.” Stein submitted a patent for her sock puppet design in 1954, the same year the Doodleheads were first produced, and it was issued two years later. Stein’s deft approach to design, demonstrated in these early works, would find ultimate expression in her weavings.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Textiles

Artist

Ethel Stein (Designer)

Title

Doodlehead puppets, 1 set

Place

New York (Object made in)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Copyrighted 1954

Medium

Cotton, paperboard, papier mâché, paint, cellophane

Inscriptions

doodlehead A Hand Puppet c 1954, Doodlehead, Inc.

Dimensions

24.1 × 11.4 × 10.2 cm (9 1/2 × 4 1/2 × 4 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of the Stein Family

Reference Number

2019.795.1-4

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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