Doll:Little Women | Beth March

Taught in studio and graphic arts, Martha Thompson (1903-1964) worked as a textbook illustrator, fashion illustrator, and commercial artist before she took up doll making. Thompson made her first doll heads from Ivory soap for her sister's kindergarten students. But Thompson soon perfected the use of porcelain to make her faithful likenesses of famous people. Thompson made several groups of dolls, including the four March sisters of "Little Women," a family depicted in 19th-century French fashion plates, and sets of dolls from the 1950s representing Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip, and their children Charles and Anne as toddlers.