Jackie Kennedy Paper Doll

Ken Brekke

Copyright La Crosse County Historical Society

Catalog Number: 1984.041.02

The glamour associated with Jacqueline Kennedy never seems to go out of fashion.

This Jackie Kennedy paper doll set, donated by Virginia Larkin of La Crosse, is part of the La Crosse County Historical Society's collection from the '60s.

Even now, nearly 25 years after her death, the former first lady’s reputation for style, elegance and grace is intact.

The Magic/Wand Corp. of Charlestown, Mass., was among the first companies trying to take advantage of that Kennedy magic when it produced a Jackie Kennedy paper doll in the early 1960s.

Virginia Larkin of La Crosse paid a dollar or two for that paper doll, probably sometime in 1962. The cardboard figure stands nearly 30 inches tall, and the folding support that props the cutout up provides a 10-inch diameter base when the doll is in its standing position.

The “First Lady” doll set, donated by Larkin to the La Crosse County Historical Society in 1984, marks Jackie’s term as First Lady, from January 1961 until the assassination of her husband, John F. Kennedy, in November 1963.

The doll set includes a wide variety of skirts, pants, blouses, hats, shoes, coats, purses and other accessories.

Rubbing the back of the clothing with the set’s plastic wand triggered an adhesive reaction that caused the clothing to stay on the cardboard doll.

The Kennedy family inspired several other paper dolls, and cutouts featuring Jackie and first daughter Caroline apparently were especially popular, judging by their availability on websites today.

An evening dress, riding habit and fur coat are among the more elegant pieces that came with the doll, but a replica of the pink suit the first lady was wearing when her husband was shot in Dallas is not among the collection of outfits in the box.

The tragedy-touched original suit was donated to the National Archives in Washington, D.C., by Jackie herself shortly after the assassination. The suit, stained with her husband’s blood, remained her property, though it has been stored in the National Archives ever since in an acid-free box in a climate-controlled vault. Ownership of the pink suit, which has never been cleaned, passed to Caroline Kennedy when her mother died in 1994.

The daughter donated the suit to “the people of the United States” in 2003, with a stipulation that it can’t be publicly displayed until 2103, and then only after the Kennedy family has granted permission. It has yet to be exhibited. The outfit’s matching pillbox hat was not part of the clothing turned over to the National Archives and has disappeared.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on January 26, 2019.

This object can be viewed in our online collections database by clicking here.

1960s Record Player

Robert Mullen

Catalog Number: 1990.075.02

Copyright La Crosse County Historical Society

Vinyl records are experiencing a surprising resurgence in popularity in the twenty-first century. Considered an obsolete technology for some thirty years, audiophiles are returning to LP (Long Play) vinyl records because they consider their sound to be warmer and richer than digital versions. Over ten million vinyl recordings were sold in the U.S. last year, but these sales don’t come close to meeting the numbers of fifty years ago, when vinyl was supreme.

Most homes of the 1960s had a record player, either a large console cabinet or a smaller portable player. Some young people, however, wanted to take their music with them when they were away from home with friends. Like most American teenagers, they needed to express some independence, to listen to the music of their choice without parental oversight. Manufacturers saw a demand for a mobile device and began to offer battery-operated record players for sale.

The player shown here is a small, lightweight Solid State Panasonic SB-330 that dates to about 1968. Its plastic case measures eleven by twelve inches including a molded carrying handle. It ran on six C batteries and could play 33 1/3 and 45 r.p.m. (revolutions per minute) vinyl records. In the late 1960s, some of the most iconic music of the era were likely played on this record player: songs like the Beatles’ “Hey Jude,” Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay,” or Simon and Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson.”

While this machine required manually placing a single vinyl record on the turntable, other models were designed to stack several records on a spindle, dropping a new record when the previous one finished playing. This record player enabled its young owner and friends to listen to the latest hits wherever they went, to the beach, the park, or the back yard. The sound quality of this machine, with its small built-in speaker, would likely not satisfy today’s audiophile.

This battery powered portable record player was donated to the historical society by Corinne Martell in 1990.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on January 19, 2019.

Dr. Wolf's Ashtray

Amy Vach

Catalog Number: 1996.030.04

Copyright La Crosse County Historical Society

Knowledge changes how we perceive habits. Today, the act of smoking a cigarette is generally regarded as a harmful, expensive habit, accompanied by surgeon general warnings.

However, 60 years ago cigarettes had a different meaning. This glass ashtray from the 125th anniversary of the State Medical Society of Wisconsin from 1966 is representative of that time.

This ashtray was donated to La Crosse County Historical Society by Nancy Wolf in 1996.

Her father, Herman Wolf, and brother, Frederick Wolf, were both doctors in the La Crosse area and were a part of various medical associations throughout their careers.

This ashtray likely belonged to Frederick Wolf since he served for 16 years on the Commission on Medical Care Plans of the Wisconsin State Medical Society.

Throughout the first half of the 20th century, cigarettes were advertised and viewed as glamorous and sophisticated. These perceptions persevered because a health threat from smoking was not widely identified. While this ashtray may seem a bit ironic today, in the 1960s it was a normal practice.

It was not out of the ordinary to see a doctor smoking in a hospital. A mid-20th century Camel advertisement boasted “More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette.” Advertising often made it seem as if smoking was a healthy habit.

In 1964, Luther L. Terry, M.D., Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service, issued the first report to address the direct link between cigarettes and lung cancer, as well as identifying smoking as the most important cause of chronic bronchitis.

A few years later, warnings became mandatory on cigarette packages and an annual report was required to share the health consequences of smoking.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on January 12, 2019.

This object can be viewed in our online collections database by clicking here.