User:RebeccaGreen/sandbox7

Flora Gill Jacobs

Biography
Flora Gill was born in Washington, DC, on 22 December 1918, the daughter of Morris H. and Dora Ceidenman Gill. She attended Alice Deal Junior High, where she began writing for the school paper, and Western High School, then studied at George Washington University. She began writing film and theater reviews for the Washington Times-Herald while still a student, and then took a job at the paper, becoming fashion editor by the age of 23. She then moved to The Washington Post, where she worked as a reporter for the women's page. She married Ephraim Jacobs, with whom she had a daughter, in 1940.

Dollhouse collecting
By 1945, Jacobs had decided to write a book about dollhouses, and purchased her first dollhouse, a derelict post-Civil War mansion, for $35. Her first book, A History of Dolls’ Houses: four centuries of the domestic world in miniature, was published in the US in 1953, and in the UK in 1954. She had intended to write a book for children focusing on only a few famous dollhouses, but the project grew. The first edition .... It was received positively, with Mrs James Ward Thorne declaring it "an informative and comprehensive book" which "will be an inspiration for those who are interested .. by that most fascinating hobby - collecting things in miniature." Another reviewer commented that "its 150 illustrations, index, and bibliography make it invaluable as a reference book .. for decorators, collectors, and students of social history." Museum

For adults

 * 1953 - A History of Dolls’ Houses: four centuries of the domestic world in miniature
 * 1965 - A history of dolls' houses (revised edition of 1953 title)
 * 1967 - A book of dolls & doll houses (with Estrid Faurholt)
 * 1974 - Doll's houses in America : historic preservation in miniature
 * 1978 - Victorian dolls' houses and their furnishings
 * 2005 - The small world of antique dolls' houses : six decades of collecting mansions, cottages, shops, stables, theaters, churches-even a Zoo

For children

 * 1958 - The doll house mystery (with Chuck Gruen)
 * 1960 - The Toy Shop Mystery
 * 1965 - A world of doll houses (translated into French)
 * 1970 - The Haunted Birdhouse