Dolls, in one form or another, have been around a long time, but it wasn’t until the early 20th century that dolls became collectible. And the person who created their collectibility was Beatrice Alexander, otherwise known as Madame Alexander.

Beatrice Alexander’s interest in quality doll workmanship began as a child. The daughter of Russian Immigrants, she grew up over her father’s doll hospital in New York, the first doll hospital in the country. Playing with the dolls that needed repair and of watching her father work instilled in her a love dolls and a desire to create sturdier ones than the popular but fragile German porcelain that her father repaired. With the U.S. embargo on German goods, German porcelain dolls comprised the majority of her father’s repair and retail business. She and her three sisters began to create unbreakable, cloth Red Cross dolls at home.

An avid reader, she was able to convince her parents to create a “secret garden” in their small backyard where Bertha would read the books that would help inspire her dolls, including Alice in Wonderland, Little Women, and books by Charles Dickens.

In 1923, at the age of 28, Beatrice obtained a loan for $1,600 to establish the Alexander Doll Company. Hiring her sisters as makers, she designed and sold cloth dolls which were, in a way, the antithesis of the porcelain high-end dolls that she believed were not meant for play but for admiration from afar.

Adding the moniker of “Madame” to her last name felt more in line with how Beatrice wished to be known as both a business leader and doll creator, and the term was added to her brand name. She founded her company with the production of cloth dolls and soon moved to composition creations. These figures offered a less breakable option than porcelain and appeared in elegant fashions. Despite the high quality working of the composition dolls, however, Madame Alexander remained unsatisfied.

Also during the 1920s, Alexander obtained a trademark for Alice in Wonderland, which allowed her to create Alice dolls. She also obtained trademarks to create dolls that coincided with the release of the movie version of Little Women in 1933 and Scarlett O’Hara after reading Gone With the Wind in 1937. This became the first collectible doll based on a licensed character. She was also one of the early creators of mass-produced dolls of living people, with dolls of the Dionne quintuplets in 1936 and a set of 36 Queen Elizabeth II dolls, including the queen, maids of honor, archbishops, choir boys, royal relatives, and honor guards dressed in great detail, right down to their undergarments, to commemorate the 1953 coronation celebrations in Britain.

Madame Alexander had a creative relationship with Disney starting in the 1930s. Leading characters from classic Disney films and stories provided inspiration for some of the most imaginative and best-loved Madame Alexander dolls including Snow White, Cinderella, and even the Seven Dwarfs.

In 1942, Alexander introduced the Jeannie doll, one of the very first walking dolls. She “walked” thanks to a unique walking mechanism with pullies and levers. Other walker dolls included Binnie and Winnie which the company offered in a variety of different sizes.

Shortly after World War II in 1947, Alexander asked the Dupont Company to develop a plastic formula with which she could manufacture beautiful, practically unbreakable playthings. These plastic dolls are the best known and most popular of all her creations.
Alexander developed a durable, hard plastic doll that could be well played with and not break. Thanks to newly developed technologies that came from DuPont, she was able to manipulate the mold used for the face of the doll to let it show more expression. This plastic face mold fundamentally changed the doll industry.

Alexander believed hands-on doll play could encourage compassion, empathy, and making meaningful relationships. She turned to lessons and stories from classic literature and stories from a variety of cultures as she created her dolls, determined to make each one more than just a pretty face.

She based her approach to developing a new doll on her knowledge of the person or character she wanted to portray, and that required in-depth research. The New York Public Library became her resource of choice for learning about all aspects of a doll’s “life”—from era to lifestyle to clothing and accessories, these dolls needed to reflect a true vision of the subject from head to toe.

Not just for girls, Alexander intended her dolls to cut across gender, bias, and age to encourage conversation, curiosity, and understanding among doll lovers.

Not long after starting her company, Alexander built up staff by hiring locals. She carefully trained her employees to have the intricate skills needed to make dolls and the clothing and accessories that came with them. The company had up to 650 employees in the 1960s and manufactured all its dolls at the 131st Street building, with some parts made in The Bronx and White Plains. But production shifted overseas in the 1990s.

One of the most successful dolls created by Alexander was “Cissy,” a 10-inch doll made of hard plastic that debuted in 1955. Cissy was jointed at the neck, shoulders, hips, and knees, and had “high-heel feet.” Her costumes covered a long list of trendy costume options for any character ranging from debutantes to ballerinas, queens, socialites, Gibson Girls, brides, and some that even wore pants.

The company's introduced its most popular doll, the 8-inch Wendy doll, in the 1950s. It was also its first fashion doll. Other Madame Alexander dolls include Mary, Queen of Scots Portrait Doll, Heidi, the characters from Little Women, as well as a series of international dolls dressed in native costumes. Alexander also created many topical doll series, such as "The First Ladies of the United States," depicting each in her inaugural gown, as well as "The Opera Series", and "Fairy Tale Series."

For collectors, Madame Alexander dolls are divided into two groups, those made from 1948 to 1965 and those made fro 1965 to the present.

Her dolls had sleepy eyes set in beautifully painted faces, and all dressed in detailed costumes. Though Alexander used the same range of faces on her dolls, a doll’s uniqueness and value depends on its costume, wig and face painting. Costuming dates the doll. The value of the same 1958 Cissy doll can fluctuate by $1,000 depending on if she wears a simple dress or a detailed ball gown.

Madame Alexander’s exquisite doll clothes were also important for collectors because they literally reflect the best of the world of fashion. In 1951, the New York Fashion Academy, a gold medal for clothing design, the first of four subsequent gold medals. The Academy noted that Alexander’s dolls often dressed better than human models.

Doll clothes often reflect the excellent fashion sense and the attention to detail that appeared in Alexander’s earlier creations. Doll clothes often comprise more than 20 individual components and contain minute detail such as ribbon and lace on pantalets or rhinestones on tiny high-heeled shoes.