The Newbery award-winning book, Hitty: Her First Hundred Years, by Rachel Field is a classic story about a doll’s adventures and travels around the world (see “Who is Hitty?“). Now that the book is in the public domain, my goal is to help people rediscover the story. One of the ways I decided to do that is by creating new illustrations that make the story come alive. First, I made color images of Flat Hitty as a Bride based on the illustrations of Dorothy P. Lathrop.
Next, I had the idea of making portraits of some of Hitty’s owners. None of Dorothy’s illustrations depicted people: they were all pictures of Hitty in her environment. Where were the images of Hitty’s owners, such as seven-year-old Phoebe Preble? What might she have looked like? Rachel provided detailed descriptions of many of her characters, which gave me a great place to start.
She clearly knew her setting well, as a summer resident of Maine. Rachel even dedicated her book, “to the state of Maine and Abbie Evans.” Abbie Evans was a poet and naturalist who was a friend of Rachel Field. In July of 1928, she helped Dorothy and Rachel brainstorm ideas about Hitty’s timeline for the book, during a summer visit to Rachel’s cottage, “Bunchberry Bungalow.” The cottage was located on Sutton Island, one of Maine’s Cranberry Islands, and Rachel’s history there is well researched in the book The Field House: A Writer’s Life Lost and Found on an Island in Maine by Robin Clifford Wood.
Hitty’s fictional birthplace was based on a real house located on Great Cranberry Island. It was built in 1827 by Captain Samuel Hadlock, Jr. Although the Preble family in the book is fictional, there was a real Preble family who lived in the house for generations. This image shows the historic Preble house on Great Cranberry Island.
Courtesy of Becca Green.
I used Dzine software to turn the photo into an antique style painting. Here is my interpretation of the Preble farmhouse where Hitty was “born.” Notice the big ancestral pine next to the house. In Chapter 2, Hitty became trapped in this tree after a large crow carried her to its nest. In Hitty’s words, “The pine tree was tall and bare of branches halfway up the trunk. The tree trunk was enormous and even if Captain Preble lifted Andy on his shoulders there was not a single branch for him to climb by. No ladder was long enough to reach me, and as I hung far out toward the tip, it looked as if the only way would be to cut down the whole tree.”
Fortunately for Hitty, Captain Preble rescued her by lashing a frying fork to a long pole and lifting her off the branch. Captain Preble was the head of the Preble family, but he didn’t appear until the end of Chapter 1, since he was away all winter on his ship. While he was gone, a traveling salesman called simply “the Old Peddler” appeared at the Preble house seeking shelter. He decided to stay and help the Prebles with chores until the roads became passable again.
The Old Peddler was originally from Ireland. He had a large pack on his back and walked with a limp. The pack was so heavy, it made him bend to one side.
During his visit with the Prebles in January, the Old Peddler carved Hitty for seven-year-old Phoebe Preble. He used a very special piece of mountain ash wood which he had brought with him from Ireland. Here is an image of the Old Peddler painting Hitty.
Phoebe was anxious to play with Hitty, but Mrs. Preble insisted that she must make her some clothing first. Hitty’s first dress was a made from a pretty yellow calico fabric printed with tiny roses. The dress took some time to make because “Phoebe’s stitches were not always of the finest. She was apt to grow fidgety after ten or fifteen minutes of sewing.” Here is Hitty in her brand new dress.
Rachel described Phoebe as a “little girl of seven with gay and friendly ways and fair hair that hung in smooth, round curls on either side of her face.” Phoebe loved her doll Hitty more than anything and took her everywhere she went.
Mrs. Kate Preble was a devout woman who was left alone to raise Phoebe for many months at a time, while her husband was away at sea. She could be stern and serious. When Phoebe wanted to take Hitty to church, her mother refused to let her touch the doll during the Sabbath and hid Hitty in a drawer. But Mrs. Preble was also a resourceful woman who was clearly devoted to her husband. She spent months on the Diana-Kate cooking for the crew, and she showed grit and determination in times of crisis. She even offered up her best paisley shawl to burn in an attempt to signal a rescue ship.
Captain Preble returned to his family in early spring, bearing many exotic gifts from his travels. He was a large man who stood over six foot four inches tall, and he had bright blue eyes. “When he laughed, they almost shut up tight and lots of little lines spread out at the corners like rays from the sun in old pictures. He laughed a great deal, too, especially at things Phoebe said. Whenever he did so it seemed as if the sound began at the toes of his enormous sea boots and went rumbling up and up till it came bursting out of his mouth in great ho-ho’s.” Captain Preble renamed his ship the Diana-Kate in honor of his wife.
A description of the Preble family would not be complete without mentioning Andy. Although he was first simply described as “the chore-boy,” Andy later became a cabin boy on the Diana-Kate, and he shared in all of the family’s adventures at sea. Rachel did not mention his age, but one of the sailors called him a “young man.” He was a hard worker and brave. It was Andy who rescued Hitty from a tribe of savages in the South Seas. He was extremely proud of his cabin boy uniform: a blue shirt, pea-jacket and sea boots.
Flat Hitty Curriculum
I hope you have enjoyed learning a little more about the Preble family of Maine. I will be using these illustrations as part of the curriculum I am developing about Flat Hitty.
It will be aimed at elementary school students using content based on the Hitty book. Hitty traveled widely and had some of her most exciting and harrowing adventures with the Preble family. All of the content that I develop will be free to download. I will include a study guide with vocabulary words, questions and topics of discussion, suggested activities and videos to watch. The study guide will be useful for teachers who want to include classic literature in their lesson plans. The Hitty book discusses nineteenth century customs and events, teaching history in an immersive and exciting way.
I am looking for elementary school teachers who would like to volunteer to test the content as I develop it. If you can help, please Contact Me.
To view more color illustrations from the Hitty book, follow Flat Hitty on Instagram. You can also see the post about “The Antique Shop” to learn more about Hitty’s origins.
Sources:
Field, Rachel. Hitty: Her First Hundred Years. The Macmillan Company, October 1943.
Field, Rachel. Hitty: Her First Hundred Years. Internet Archive digital scan: https://archive.org/details/hittyherfirsthun00fiel/ Accessed June 2025.
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.
