Doll

The October 1911 issue of "Ladies Home Journal" carried an advertisement that emphasized the virtues of Martha J. Chase's Stockinet dolls: "The faces are formed to natural features, beautifully hand painted. They can be washed with warm water, keeping infecting germs from our babies." When Chase sold her dolls in the first decades of the 20th century, advocates of "domestic science" and public health officials had raised mothers' awareness of germs and the diseases they caused. Mothers sought dolls that best protected their children from sickness.