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Helen Fox Trowbridge Collection
Gift of the Trowbridge Family.
Helen Fox Trowbridge (1882-1970) was born in New York City and went on to study chemistry at Cooper Union and sculpture at the New York School of Applied Design. She also apprenticed with famed sculptor, Gutzon Borglum. She began her career creating clay medallions featuring portraits of babies and children. It was this work that caught the eye of doll manufacturer, Edward Horsman, Jr., who approached Helen in 1909 with an offer to design dolls made of Horsman's patented "Can't Break 'Em" composite material. During that same year, Helen married Mason Trowbridge, a young attorney. The couple settled initially in Port Washington, NY, where Helen set up a home studio. Using her eye for detail, she began designing realistic dolls for the company. She even used one of her six children as a model for a baby doll. She later expanded her range to cloth dolls and miniature dollhouse accessories before setting the work aside to raise her family.
Along the way, Mrs. Trowbridge also developed an interest in books about women and became an avid collector, searching second hand book stores for volumes on etiquette, dress, household management, health, child-rearing, character development, and faith, as well as fiction and biographies of women. The books resided at the Trowbridge summer home in Yelping Hill, West Cornwall, CT, a small community of houses established in 1922 by seven founding families, including Helen and her husband. The Trowbridge family has graciously donated this collection to the Library, in the hopes that students and scholars at Brown will benefit from Helen Fox Trowbridge's intellectual curiosity.