In the beginning...

... or the story goes, two women in New York, at the start of the 1920s, came across a small, peg-jointed, wooden doll in an antiques shop.  Inquiring as to her lineage, the shop keeper told the women that she was probably created in the early 1800s.

At 6-1/4 inches tall, Hitty was a small, but strong little doll.  The women pooled their resources and bought Hitty.  One of the women was Rachel Field and she wrote the Newberry Award-winning book, "Hitty: Her First Hundred Years" published in 1929.  Rachel's friend, Dorothy Lathrop, illustrated the book.