Tillie, the Typist—A Colored Cut-Out Toy for Children

This paper doll cutout represents the newspaper comic strip's evolution beyond sequential narrative into merchandised entertainment. Tillie the Typist, a working-girl character popular in early comics, appears here as an assembly toy—readers collected and constructed the figure using numbered tabs and slots. The design reflects the newspaper Sunday page's role as interactive media: comic strips drove toy sales, merchandise, and reader participation long before modern licensing. The anthropomorphized typewriter and office furniture anchor Tillie in the contemporary working world, making her a marketable stand-in for young readers navigating modernity. Such cutouts demonstrate how comics pioneered the cross-media character economy that defined twentieth-century popular culture.