Golda Meir

The birthday girl with Gertrude and Alice, 2006.

Erin left me a voicemail last night.  She's at her parents' house for a week or so, and was doing some cleaning when she stumbled upon the birthday gift I gave her for her 22nd birthday, a paperdoll set of notable women.

I had this paperdoll set when I was little.  Dover Books produces hand-drawn paperdoll sets on a range of subjects, from presidents to movie stars to fashion from a decade to Notable Women in history.  Because my mum is wise and I am neurotic, I  was never allowed to cut up these paperdoll books, but could use them to draw my own paperdolls.  This was quite smart, since I could keep the books as reference forever.  In fact, I still have them all in my closet at my parents' house.

One day in college, I was telling Erin about these paperdolls and she remarked that it was the strangest set of paperdolls imaginable.  This is mainly because while they did have more "glamorous" women like Harriet Beecher Stowe, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Edith Wharton, they included significantly less paperdoll-ish women like...

...a bare-breasted Pocahontas
...Gertrude Stein, with Alice B. Toklas as her accessory plate
...Golda Meir

Erin couldn't imagine what this book would look like, so I decided to buy her her very own copy of this book.  She thought the plates were hilarious.  I think it was published as a historical toy for young girls who like paper dolls.  I tried to find it on the Dover website, but I think they've discontinued it for other paper doll sets.  Like notable TV moms.  And Vampires.  It's a shame, because every little girl out there should be able to play paperdolls with Gertrude, Alice, and Golda.