Florence Kate Upton

Florence Kate Upton (22 February 1873–16 October 1922) was an American-born English cartoonist and author most famous for creating the Golliwog character, featured in a series of children's books.

Florence's father, Thomas Harborough Upton, worked as a confidential clerk at the American Exchange Bank in New York.

This prompted her father to enroll in evening classes, and Florence, at 15 years old, joined him for the beginning of her formal art training.

Her older sister, Ethelwyn, found work, while her younger siblings, Alice and Desmond, remained in school.

Numerous illustrated magazines existed at this time, mainly as vehicles for advertising and light fiction of varying merit.

By 1893, the Upton family's finances had stabilised to such a degree that it was able to pay an extended visit to Bertha's relatives, the Hudsons, who lived in the Hampstead area of London.

When the rest of the family returned to the United States, she opted to stay in England and began experimenting with ideas to supplement her income so that she could afford further art training.

Her aunt, Kate Hudson, found a blackface minstrel toy in her attic that the Upton children had owned but left behind on an earlier visit.

After the manuscript was rejected by several publishing houses, John William Allen of Longmans, Green & Co. took it home and read it to his children.

The American Society in London also commissioned a series of drawings and cartoons to decorate the souvenir programme of their November 1896 Thanksgiving Banquet.

After three years of work, she returned to New York to attend the Art Students League, then continued studies in Paris and the Netherlands.

She exhibited at the Royal Academy and other prominent venues and rapidly established a reputation as an accomplished society portraitist.

Instead, she aided the war effort by donating her original dolls and drawings to a fund-raising auction for the Red Cross, conducted by Christie's in 1917.

The sale of the dolls, which as a lot fetched 450 guineas, funded the purchase of an ambulance: it was christened "Golliwogg" and served at the front in France.

The original Golliwogg and Dutch Dolls resided for many years at Chequers, the Prime Minister's country estate in Buckinghamshire.