History of the BAPS Dolls

The following is a summary from an article from “A World of Dolls” written Wednesday, July 4, 2012.

The BAPS Dolls of Frau Edith von Arps

The dolls were made by Frau Edith von Arps in the 1940’s through the 1960’s. Her design concept was to make dolls which represented fairy tale characters. According to the article she originally sold her dolls door to door until the demand made it possible for her to expand her market. Later she would add regionally dressed German souvenir dolls.

The article goes on to say that her dolls were discovered by Bob and Ruth Morrell. In the 1950’s the Morrells  were sent to Baumholder, Germany to serve in the Quartermaster Corp. “In that small village, they met Frau Edith von Arps from whom they purchased 25 of her BAPS dolls. The couple were so inspired by her dolls that when they returned home to the United States they created a theme park patterned after the fairy tale dolls and called the park “Storyland”.

The Birmingham Doll Club of Alabama on February 6th, 2014 provided the following article on BAPS Dolls.

” Where did the BAPS dolls come from? Lets’s go back to the 1940’s and meet Frau Edith von Arps. She was born and lived near Burgkunstadt in the northern part of Bavaria. -not far from Thuringia. She founded the firm in 1946 and registered it under the name BAPS.

Frau von Arps suffered the deaths of her husband and two sons during WWII. In order to support herself, she returned to a hobby that she had done in her past-doll making. She was well traveled and educated-and a natural born businesswoman. With the influx of U.S. military personnel near Nuremberg where she lived, her customer base was easy. Who wouldn’t want a sweet doll souvenir to take home to kids…

Many people with BAPS today will tell of an older woman bringing the dolls on the Army base and selling them to Americans. The items were also sold in the local German shops and exported to the United States and beginning in 1948, the dolls were sold in Harvey Stores and several department stores in the U.S. As the Business grew, Frau von Arps hired village women to help with the sewing and selling the dolls. These Women peddled the dolls by going door to door…”