Rain, Rain, Go Away..

[New York]: Ullman Manufacturing Co, 1906. Ephemera no binding. Near fine. [EPHEMERA] [WOMAN ILLUSTRATOR]. 5" x 12" in a 6 ¼" x 13 1/8" frame; chromoxylography on stiff paper stock; a few small chips on upper edge extending into image; near fine. In the small varnished oak frame in which it was found; reframed with archival backing, and ready to hang. Bertha Corbett Melcher (1872-1950) was an artist and illustrator from Minnesota whose most enduring work was the Sunbonnet Babies. The Sunbonnet Babies and Sunbonnet Twins, little girls dressed in large bonnets whose faces never showed, first appeared in children's books and print advertising from about 1900 and remained very popular, with Overall Boys, through the 1930s. Often copied without giving her credit, her little girl images spread rapidly. This little decorative card was designed by Bernhardt Wall (1872-1956), a lithographic illustrator, and printed by the Ullman Manufacturing Company. The basic little rhyme can be traced back centuries in England, but in the mid-19th century, James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipp's version became the rhyme with which we are most familiar today.