The Antique Shop on West 8th Street in New York City is where we first met Hitty in the book Hitty: Her First Hundred Years (see “Who is Hitty?”). She was sitting on a piece of paper next to a pewter inkstand, holding an old-fashioned quill pen as she began to write her memoirs.
After narrating the entire story of her life, Hitty returned to the Antique Shop, making the shop a convenient bridge between Hitty’s past and the present day.
“And so we return to New York and the Antique Shop on Eighth Street again, and I will bring my Memoirs to a close.”
But the Antique Shop was more than just the setting for the book and a clever literary device. It was also a link between the fictional Hitty and the real one.
How Hitty Happened
In 1928, author Rachel Field was living in New York City, while her friend, illustrator Dorothy Lathrop, lived in Albany. One day when Dorothy was visiting Rachel, they had dinner on West 8th Street. Afterwards, they took a stroll down the street. Dorothy mentioned that they should drop in and visit “Hitty” at the Antique Shop. When Rachel asked who she was talking about, she was astonished to discover that Hitty was the very same doll in the antique shop window that Rachel had frequently stopped to admire.
Dorothy explained that she had inquired about the doll and was told that it was, “a regular museum piece,” and “genuine early American.” The name “Hitty” was written on a piece of paper that was sewn onto her dress. But other than her name, nothing about the doll’s origin was known. Sadly, Hitty’s $25 price tag was so high that neither of them could afford to buy her.
At a later date, Rachel was stunned to discover that Hitty was missing from the shop window. She immediately wrote a letter to Dorothy, expressing how sad she was that they would never see Hitty again. Dorothy wrote back and mentioned that if only they had pooled their funds, they could have shared Hitty and used her as the inspiration for a book. She suggested that Rachel should visit the shop, just in case Hitty was still available.
That very same day, Rachel returned to the shop and asked about Hitty. To Rachel’s relief, the shop keeper had shown Hitty to a customer and had forgotten to return her to the window. Rachel purchased Hitty on the spot and had her wrapped up to send to Dorothy. Then Rachel began daydreaming about Hitty’s adventures.
Courtesy of the Stockbridge Library, Museum & Archives.
During the summer of 1929, the ladies brainstormed furiously until they had agreed upon Hitty’s life story. While Rachel finished writing, Dorothy used Hitty as a model for her illustrations.
Courtesy of the Stockbridge Library, Museum & Archives.
Although I don’t know the exact address of the real antique shop, it was probably in Greenwich Village not far from Washington Square Park. In the book, Hitty said that Washington Square was “scarcely a block away from where I sit today, but there were no skyscrapers then nor any street of little shops like this.” Also, Rachel mentioned having dinner on West 8th Street and then visiting Hitty in the antique shop “a little farther west.” In the 1920s, 8th Street in Greenwich Village was a hub for artists and creative types. It makes sense that Rachel (a writer) and Dorothy (an artist) would have been found there.
Imagining the Antique Shop
I used “DZine” software and Photoshop to create these images of the antique shop and its occupants. The first character in the antique shop mentioned by Hitty was actually a cat named Theobold.
“Theobold is not exactly a bad cat, but he is far from considerate. Besides, he is prowlishly inclined and he has the most powerful claws and tail I have ever known. Then, just lately he has taken to sleeping in the shop window with his head on the tray of antique jewelry. If Miss Hunter could have seen how narrowly he missed swallowing one of the garnet earrings when he yawned night before last, she would be very uneasy indeed. But Miss Hunter has had Theobold ever since she opened the antique shop and she seems to set great store by him for his trying ways.”
The Hitty book included a scene where “two artists” stopped to admire her in the shop window. This is undoubtedly a reference to the discovery of Hitty in real life.
“Many passersby even call me by name. I understand that two artists in particular are often heard to remark when they are out walking: ‘Let’s go home by the Antique Shop and say how-do-you-do to Hitty.’”
Here you can see the artists looking at Theobold in the shop window. Hitty has already been moved to a safer location inside the shop (after Theobold repeatedly knocked the doll off of her chair).
Sadly, the book gave no description of Miss Hunter, the antique shop owner. I surmised that she must have been a lady of discernment when it came to antiques. But possibly she did not keep up with the latest fashion trends, so here she is in an oversized hat and somewhat dowdy dress.
Miss Hunter had a friend who had purchased Hitty at an auction to sell in the shop. He was known only as “the Old Gentleman.” At the auction he wore a gray suit, a hat and had a monocle in one eye.
I like to imagine that the Old Gentleman might have been the great-grandson of the Old Peddler, based on this quote from the book from the auction scene. You can learn more about The Old Peddler in the post about “The Preble Family.”
“The Old Peddler little dreamed when he was fashioning me so long ago that I should ever bring such a sum [of $51.00], and he knew that I was made of mountain-ash wood. Somehow I got so upset in my mind sitting there with all this going on that I began to confuse the Old Gentleman under the pine with the Peddlar. There was something strangely alike about them.“
According to the book The Field House: A Writer’s Life Lost and Found on an Island in Maine, the Old Gentleman was inspired by a real-life friend of Rachel Field’s named Wilbur Macy Stone. Mr. Stone was a fellow collector and admirer of old dolls and toys. He sent gifts to the real HItty, including a miniature rosary. At one point Rachel wrote to him and complained that the success of the Hitty book may have had something to do with inflating the price of antique dolls!
The book ended with Hitty in the Antique Shop sitting amongst her treasures: a little pine bench, a tiny braided rug and a small seashell, all gifts from the Old Gentleman. Hitty heard an odd purring noise outside the shop and saw an airplane. That made Hitty wonder if she might fly in one someday.
As it turned out, Hitty’s daydream actually came true in real life. After winning the Newbery Medal, Rachel flew with Hitty in an airplane to California to accept the award in June 1930.
From the American Library Association Archives, #ALA0004584.
I hope you have enjoyed reading about the blending of Hitty’s fictional and real worlds in the Antique Shop. For reference, I used an article called “How Hitty Happened” written by Rachel Field (see “Hitty in The Horn Book Magazine”). You can read the original article on archive.org. To view more color illustrations from the Hitty book, follow Flat Hitty on Instagram.
Sources:
Field, Rachel. Hitty: Her First Hundred Years. The Macmillan Company, October 1943.
Field, Rachel. “How Hitty Happened.” The Horn Book Magazine. Vol. 6, Issue 1, pp. 22-26.
Wood, Robin Clifford. The Field House: A Writer’s Life Lost and Found on an Island in Maine. e-book ed., She Writes Press, 2021.
