An investigation of the elusive 1894 McLaughlin Coffee XXXX Paper Doll

How my search for an antique paper doll unearthed a book that lead to a greater exploration of the McLaughlin mystery

​Note: The intention of this article is to study evidence and discuss likelihood. There is no “matter of fact” determination, but rather a plethora of details and information in which the reader can draw their own conclusions.

When researching the first basketball card or early ephemera, you may find an honorable mention for the paper doll and costume outfit released in 1894 by the W.F. McLaughlin Coffee Company of Chicago. This information is typically partnered with an acknowledgment that the ball being held by the child may or may not be a basketball. The intrigue and image of the doll piqued my interest, and I began a diligent search. If the ball was indeed a basketball, then this would likely be the first item ever featuring basketball that was produced specifically as a collectable. I knew I would have to accept that the ball type would always be a debated conundrum, but I was determined to find one regardless.

From 1894 to 1900, paper dolls were distributed to children in every one-pound package of McLaughlin’s XXXX Coffee. The die cut lithograph dolls were a far higher quality than earlier hand cut dolls and the McLaughlin releases help boost the popularity of collectors “scrapbooks”. Each series released consisted of 16 dolls, with accessory pieces for each ranging up to as many as 7.

The McLaughlin Coffee XXXX paper dolls may often be categorized as a trade card, but their issue is actually classified as a Z-Card in the American Card Catalog (ACC) by Jefferson Burdick. Specifically, it is a Z-9 Issue (among others) as it is a coffee and food insert. I do not consider die-cut dolls to be cards, but rather collectibles or ephemera.

The initial search

​​After monitoring eBay and inquiring with paper doll collectors for nearly a year, my search seemed futile. McLaughlin XXXX dolls that did show up never included the costume outfit in question. One did show up on eBay last year, but was quickly proven to be inauthentic. I suppose someone out there knew it was desirable enough to replicate, although I haven’t seen another forgery appear in the market since. I eventually did manage to find half of the costume after networking with some paper doll collectors, which I just assumed would be as good as it gets. My search then certainly slowed, but it continued to quietly fester, as I really wanted to find a complete example.

The book

All this initial searching wasn’t completely fruitless, however, as it lead to the discovery of a small press publication, The Complete Collection of Paper Dolls from the W.F. McLaughlin Coffee Company. The book was published in 2012 and was written by the company founder’s great grandson, William (Bill) F. McLaughlin. This guide is a wealth of information, with 130 pages of color photos and descriptions for every paper doll that the coffee company produced. The book was made possible by a thick journal company scrapbook that Bill McLaughlin had had in his possession since 1968. It included examples of every trade card and paper doll the coffee company produced, including ample notes on the themes, lithography details, and release dates.

The sports themed dolls are featured on pages 30 – 37 and referred to as Series 5 & 6 releases. The doll and ball costume are categorized as Series 5-4 and noted with a release date of October 24th, 1894. It also confirms that the ball outfit was intended to be paired with the doll holding an American flag with a baseball bat at their feet.

Now this is where it gets interesting – In the book, the costume is described as one of the earliest depictions of a basketball and even summarizes the sport and features a photograph of James Naismith.

So the question is - Did Bill McLaughlin have a family confirmation or storied history that confirmed the determination of a basketball?  Did the extensive notes that accompanied the dolls in the company scrapbook contain this information? 
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Arguably, the authors could have taken hearsay and written it as fact in order to take pride and ownership as the producer of perhaps the first basketball themed collectible. That is plausible, but it’s important to note that the two major online resources that mention this doll first published articles about it in 2016, and this book was published in 2012. I’ve scoured message boards prior to 2012 to look for mentions of the doll but was unable to find anything. If the authors were aware of any speculation or intrigue about the “ball”, they didn’t find it online. They also could of simply assumed it was a basketball because of the similarity.
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I attempted to contact the writer(s) of this book for confirmation, but unfortunately, Bill passed away as the book was being finished, and Lance (co-writer) a couple of years after its release. The phone numbers and website listed in the book are no longer active, but I was able to find an archived capture of the website announcing the publication HERE.
I did find another name in the guide, Dave Cheadle, who helped Bill McLaughlin source and organize the collection for the book. Dave Cheadle is an expert in Victorian Trade Cards, writing many articles and an outstanding book on the subject, Victorian Trade Cards: Historical Reference & Value Guide. He runs and operates the website Victorian Card Hub. I was able to have a phone conversation with Dave, who is a wonderful guy, but he did not have any additional information about the ball of this particular outfit, or if Bill had any confirmation of its history. He did tell me that this book was a very limited print run, with likely only about 100 copies published.

I also want to include an excerpt from the book, which speaks to Bill’s desire for accuracy: “Presented herein are images from an original company archive, together with such marginal information as available. Most important is the sequence in which the various series were issued as well as the dates for distribution… the collector will learn details not previously recorded – most importantly, the complete collection. Having so stated, with great pride, it is always the hope of an undertaking such as this that the teacher will learn from the students. Comments – and especially corrections – are eagerly sought”.
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Would this statement lend to him defining the ball as a basketball purely based on assumption? Or was it based on something more? I've attempted to contact others who may have worked with Bill on this guide, but the reality is that this question will likely never be answered.

Was basketball being played in Chicago in 1894?

Mclaughlin’s XXXX Coffee was located in Chicago, Illinois.  Amos Alonzo Stagg is credited with bringing basketball to Chicago in the Summer of 1892. He was one of the founding players of the first basketball games that took place in Springfield, Massachusetts earlier that year. Just a year and three months after the sport was invented, Chicago’s first basketball league was formed by a group of YMCA teams. The Chicago Tribune mentions league championships in both 1893 & 1894. By 1895, the Cook County High School League, which included all of Chicago and it’s suburbs public schools, had adopted its own girls basketball league.

A closer look at the McLaughlin "balls"

Size comparison

Out of all the sporting figures, there were two costume outfits in the 1894 release that featured larger round balls, from series 5-4 and 6-3 (pictured here). ​One was brown with ridges and texture, the other was black, perhaps rubber, with similar ridging and a large valve stem air hole. Neither ball shows laces. The brown ball is larger in size than the black one, you can see this below when both images are overlapped at the same size.

In 1894, A.G. Spalding and Bros. began producing leather laced basketballs that had a circumference of 32 inches, larger than a soccer ball by 4 inches. In the late 1800s, standard soccer balls were typically between 27 & 28 inches. Today’s basketballs are smaller, with the modern standard size having a circumference of 29.5 inches. It's important to note that basketball was typically played with association footballs until the mid 1890s, so the ball type isn't the answer necessarily, but for what the ball represents. I can also find no example of any 5 panel ball, which could likely of never existed, rather a choice by the artist.

Proportions

If we assume the diameter of a basketball during that time was a little over 10 inches, then let’s compare it to the size of the doll’s body. When comparing the ball to the child’s waist (without the outfit), it looks like the diameter of the waist is a couple inches smaller than the ball, so if we then assume an 8-inch waist diameter, that will calculate to a waist size of around 25 inches. That is the average waist size for a 10- to 12-year-old. It’s hard to discern the age of the child depicted on the doll, but that looks about right. These are just estimates of course and we’d have to assume that the artist didn’t only draw from memory, but it simply shows that it checks out proportionately.

The balls of the era

When Dr. James Naismith invented the game of basketball in 1891, players initially used a soccer ball. As mentioned previously, A.G. Spalding & Bros. started manufacturing official basketballs in 1894. Some Spalding advertisements from the 1890s are below featuring that first basketball. Spalding was well established in Chicago by 1894, with a large retail store downtown. There were basketballs in that era, but it’s also likely they could of been playing the game with soccer or association football type balls. The real question here is what sport (if any) does the ball represent? The sports items being held by the children on the costumes all seem to represent a particular sport in the McLaughlin series, and a playground ball that doesn’t represent any particular sport or game would be an outlier, but definitely a possibility. I could only find balls using either a leather cover or rubber exterior, I did not find any that used other materials.​ Below are some examples from the era that have a similar look. You can see many other examples of 19th century balls that were used for soccer, football, rugby and basketball HERE.

Basketballs

Let’s look at some photo examples of basketballs from that era. Below is a team photograph that includes a ball from the Ravenswood YMCA 1894 Champion Basketball Team in Chicago, followed by a couple photos of other 1890s basketball examples.

A medicine ball?

Although they have a similar look, I’ve ruled out a medicine ball as a possibility. The common standard weight for medicine balls in the 1890s was 7 to 8 pounds, hardly a ball that would be used for sport by children. Medicine balls were typically used by adults for strength training, physical therapy, and general fitness. I have not found any photographs or references of children using medicine balls for sport in the 1890s.

Soccer Ball? Football? Rugby Ball?

The only other large round balls I’ve seen for sale during that era are Soccer (Football) balls or Rounded Rugby balls. Association Footballs seem to be the best candidate for a match as they were round with similar seams and close to the same size. Below are some examples of different balls sold during that time, available in Chicago from Sears & Roebuck, A.J. Reach Company, and others.

Sports in Chicago

As mentioned earlier, the YMCA, Morgan Park Academy, and others were playing basketball in Chicago during 1893-1894. It  had adopted its own girls basketball league in the Cook County schools in 1895. Football was mentioned more often than soccer in my searches, but I could find no examples of younger children playing the game. Football and rugby were more violent and less regulated in that era. There were no helmets, mouthpieces or protective padding; children may have attempted to mimic the play, but likely not wearing the outfit depicted on the ball costume. Although basketball got rowdy, and even violent at times in later High School and University level play, it wasn’t a game that was fundamentally rough, so it was an acceptable sport for younger players.

Boy or Girl?

Although the doll itself is rather ambiguous, all the dolls in the Series 5 release look to be girls. Let’s compare it to a couple other McLaughlin examples from Series 6 that I’ve determine to be boys (images below). There are also many girl dolls that are pictured in their undergarments (without their accompanying costume), while there are no confirmed male dolls in their underwear. Why is the sex important? Because unlike other sports, basketball was a sport that was acceptable for girls to play in the early years and was actually more popular with women then with men for a short period. It was adopted as a girl’s league sport in Chicago schools before any men’s league was established. The costume whose ball resembled a rubber association football was released with the boy dolls in Series 6. Boys were more likely to play football in that era than women. Only the baseball doll seems to come with a uniform, the majority of the other sports dolls have the similar shirt and large bow.​

The Enameline argument

​The other noteworthy set of paper dolls that also feature a figure (with a larger consensus believing to be a basketball) is the 1899 Enameline Stove Polish Dolls. Much of this belief is held due to the fact that there is already a football featured in the set. The McLaughlin Dolls feature a variety of sports as well, and if the black ball is determined to be either a soccer/football, then it would be unusual if the brown ball is either used for or represents the same sport, as no other sports are repeated in the McLaughlin sports series. There is an argument to be made that the Wesleyan Enameline doll could actually be holding a football or an association round football due to it’s look and size. There are many photos of late 1890s football players with the same sweater and stockings outfits as well. Wesleyan didn't have a basketball team in 1899, but did have a football team. I'm only mentioning this as a reason that I believe that the case can never really be closed on pre-war items, and that further discussion should always be welcome as it may have some merit.​

The McLaughlin Company & Children

​This series of paper dolls were just an example of the trade cards and advertising premiums that McLaughlin released. Enticing customers with premiums was pretty common practice of the late Victorian period, but McLaughlin was particularly aggressive in this area. Children were often both the subjects and the attended audience for these promotional items. Children were also no stranger to the company itself, in 1895 over 100 of the 310 employees at the Chicago warehouse were children under the age of 16. Obviously this was before child labor laws were enforced, but to have that many children around, I’m sure that their marketing team was keenly aware of the current trends and pastimes of the youth. The point being that the company was likely aware of the sport of basketball.

The bottom line

I’ve laid out all the information I could muster to help solve the mystery of the McLaughlin paper doll. I know that this evidence is neither 100% conclusive nor decisive, but I do believe it helps bolster the argument that this may very well be a basketball. I now (personally) think this is likely to be a basketball after my research and juxtaposition of evidence. This is merely my opinion. It really boils down to whether you believe it’s simply a playground or association ball used for general play or a ball used to represent the sport of basketball. The sports items being held by the children on the costumes all seem to represent a particular sport in the McLaughlin series, and a playground ball that doesn’t represent any particular sport or game would be an outlier, although definitely a possibility. If we assume the other smaller, yet similar black ball (series 6-3 accompanied with a boy doll) already represents football or rugby, then featuring basketball as a less rough sport for girls does seem to track. I think Chicago history also shows the popularity amongst school girls at the time, as an actual girl’s basketball league was established in 1895 for the entirety of the Chicago school district.  Association footballs are also similar, and were also used for basketball, so this ball definitely doesn’t need to be a Spalding (manufactured earlier that year) in order to qualify as a ball that represents the sport of basketball. As previously stated, I do not consider die-cut dolls to be cards, but rather collectibles or ephemera. My intention for this article was to shine a light on a generally unknown topic and initiate some feedback and discussion. I would appreciate any new evidence or information that continues the conversation, especially knowledge of any particular sports played by young girls during this time or additional catalog images, photographs, etc.
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​My diligent networking into the unfamiliar territory of the paper doll collectors world did eventually lead me to acquire a complete authentic example of both the doll and its enigmatic costume. I cherish it and consider it a trophy representing the thrill of the hunt, my favorite aspect of this hobby. As far as value goes, that’s hard to determine and would be based on if the market actually accepts this is as basketball. I can confirm that it's not easy to find.