Elsie the Cow Marionette
name: label: user
content: Haines, Elizabeth L.
label: user
content: Haines, Frank D.
label: maker
content: Haines, Elizabeth L.
label: maker
content: Haines, Frank D.
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Elsie the Cow marionette is hand carved from wood and operates using a 6-piece wooden airplane control and a separate one-piece bar control with 13 strings. Her cow head with the distinctive horns is on a swivel neck and her jaw is moveable. She is wearing a refined blue suit, white gloves, high heels and a black net hat. She was used to promote Borden products. From the late 1930s to the 1950's puppets became popular for use in advertising.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Elsie is one of large group of advertising puppets used by Elizabeth and Frank D. Haines, a husband and wife team of puppeteers. They operated a puppet troupe in and around Philadelphia, and performed on television and in window displays to subsidize their business. While they were not fond of using their puppets for advertisements, Elsie the cow is just one of their puppets used to promote a popular brand of milk products--Borden.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
topic: label: classified
content: Puppetry
label: used
content: Television
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Entertainment
label: See more items in
content: Advertising
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2007.0137.011
label: accession number
content: 2007.0137
label: catalog number
content: 2007.0137.011
objectType: label: Object Name
content: puppet
label: Object Type
content: puppets
label: Object Type
content: marionettes
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: fiber, synthetic, rayon (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: velvet (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: leather (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paint (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 21 in x 8 in x 3 1/2 in; 53.34 cm x 20.32 cm x 8.89 cm