Vivian "Viv" Trillow Smith is best known as the artist who designed the popular Dolls from the Land of Make Believe and Dolls of the Nations series published in 1947 and 1948. Her "This is ... A Hallmark Paper Doll" series of the fifties, highlighted here, is also well-known among paper doll collectors. But those paper doll cards are only a very small fraction of her work. An immensely prolific and versatile artist who worked at Hallmark from 1924 through 1970, she was reported (by the Christian Science Monitor in 1948) to have designed an average of 250 cards per year, or about one per work day. If the estimate is accurate, that would mean a lifetime output of about 11,500 cards. Even if her output was lower in many years, 5,000 is probably a conservative number.

Besides the doll cards and paper doll cards for which she is best remembered, she was also a master of humorous illustrations, lettering, babies and animals, especially cats and rabbits. Some other Viv items on my web site are the Hallmark May Baskets, the Dancing Debbie and Wee Willie gift wrap, a birthday card that I restored for my dad's 83rd birthday, and another card in honor of my mom's 75th birthday.

On July 1, 2010 I exhibited over 400 items from my Viv Smith collection at the 2010 Paper Doll Convention in Kansas City, Missouri. Eventually I will be converting these web pages into an online catalog of the highlights of the collection, but it is hard finding the time to scan and format everything. In the meantime, here are some links to Facebook photo albums:

Photos taken at the actual exhibit

Close up photos of some of the popup items

My visit to the Hallmark Visitor Center (emphasis on Viv's items shown there)

"A Little Bit of Heaven" (scans of baby and angel cards)

The first four "This is ... A Hallmark Paper Doll" cards (not yet clickable):

Later "This is ... A Hallmark Paper Doll" cards currently on this web site (click to view):

More "This is ... A Hallmark Paper Doll" cards (not yet clickable):

(The two Sparkle cards may be by different artists.)

I have only black & white photocopies of the following cards:

(Barbara is wider than the other cards, so she does not fit well in the grid.)

Some of these images were sent to me by other collectors. I am still seeking copies of Mary Jane, Mary Pat, the back view Pam, Priscilla, Sharon, and Susan. In addition, I wish to upgrade my copies of the child Peggy Ann and Sherrie, which are punched out and missing some pieces.

Most of the cards also came in multiple variations and in Ambassador reprints, sometimes with only a change of caption, sometimes with costumes recolored.

If you have any of the cards I am missing available for sale, or any color variations not shown above, please contact me at terikpettit@gmail.com.