LE ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - SEPTEMBER 3, 2023 by Lynne Belluscio In 2019, the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls announced that Rose O’Neill would be added to their list of notable women. The induction ceremony was held at the Casino Del Lago near Waterloo on September 14, 2019 and at the invitation of the O’Neill family, I was able to attend. We had front row seats. There were ten inductees which included Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor; Civil Rights activist, Angela Davis; Native American lawyer, Sarah Deer; retired Air Force fighter pilot, Nicole Malachowski; New York Congresswoman, Louise Slaughter. The recognition for O’Neill was over ten years in the making. In 2009, the niece of Rose O’Neill had asked the LeRoy Historical Society to write letters of support for O’Neill’s nomination. When Rose O’Neill was admitted to the Hall of Fame in 2019, it was not as an artist, but rather for her advocacy for women’s rights and support for women’s rights to vote. It was also noted that she promoted more sensible clothing and attire for women instead of the corseted Edwardian fashion. With the interest in Rose O’Neill, the Historical Society made plans to put together an exhibit of 100 pieces of Rose O’Neill’s Jell-O advertising and examples of her clothing as well as her illustrated Jell-O recipe books. A focal point of the exhibit was to be the four original Jell-O drawings that had been donated to the Historical Society in 2017 by her nephew. Unfortunately, the exhibit never came to fruition because of the pandemic. But now, those four original drawings are on exhibit at the Sordoni Gallery in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, on loan from the LeRoy Historical Society. Rose O’Neill was born in Wilke Barre. Her family lived in a home known as the “Emerald Cottage.” Her father was a successful bookseller and her mother was a former schoolteacher and a gifted musician and actress. There were six children in the O’Neill family but they did not live in Wilkes Barre very long. Rose’s father, William became influenced by Henry David Thoreau, and he decided to pack up his family in a Conestoga wagon and move west. After several stops, they ended up in Nebraska. Rose attended parochial school in Omaha and attended Sacred Heart Convent. She apparently had no formal art instruction, but when she was thirteen, she submitted an illustration to the Omaha World Herald. She won an award for that illustration and six years later she headed off to New York City with a portfolio of sixty sketches. She walked into the office of editor of the well-known magazine “Puck” and was hired to do some illustrations and her career as an illustrationist began. Rose became known for little cartoon characters that she called Kewpies. She said that the tiny creatures appeared to her in a dream. Kewpies were small elves that looked like little Cupids. They had little blue wings and a little top knot on their head. These cartoon characters became very popular and O’Neill contracted a company in Germany to manufacture Kewpie Dolls. The Kewpies became so popular that Rose became a millionaire on their popularity. It should be mentioned, that Kewpies are older than Walt Disney’s 1928 Mickey Mouse. O’Neill began illustrating for Jell-O in 1908. The Kewpies were included in a Jell-O recipe book in 1915. She drew Kewpies mixing up Jell-O and riding an eggbeater like a bicycle. Rose became famous in a field that had not included women. As Rose O’Neill’s career grew, her family moved from Nebraska to a homestead in Missouri in the Ozark mountains. On a visit to her family, she fell in love with the mountains and built a large homestead that she called Bonniebrook. She spent time between Bonniebrook and her Manhattan apartment. She also maintained an estate in Connecticut and a villa on the Isle of Capris. She spent money lavishly and went through several marriages. She became involved with the Women’s Rights Movement and supported voting rights for women. After a while, the popularity of the Kewpies began to wane as animated cartoons like Mickey Mouse began to be popular. O’Neill decided to retire and write her autobiography. After a series of strokes, she died in April 1944. Her beloved home, Bonniebrook was destroyed by fire in 1947. The doors were left open and much of her original artwork was stolen. It was at this time, that her nephew David rescued some of the art and soon after opened a museum. In 1993, Bonniebrook, was rebuilt and it is now on the National Register of Historic Places. The exhibit in Wilkes-Barre is scheduled between August 25th and October 8th. It coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Sordoni Gallery which is named for a state senator and commemorates Wilkes Barre’s native, Rose O’Neill. The Sordoni Gallery is located in the Karambalas Media and Communication Center, 141 South Main Street, Wilkes-Barre, on the Wilkes University Campus. Free visitor parking is available nearby. The Gallery is open Tuesday through Friday, 10 to 5; Saturday 12 to 5; closed Sunday, Monday and university holidays. Rose O’Neill Exhibit
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