The innocuous sock monkey, a common staple of kindergarten classrooms and grandparents’ antique collections, has cemented its place in the hearts of Americans across generations with its simplistic charm. These seamed simians, however, have a more complex history than meets the eye.
The sock monkey’s origins begin with the Nelson Knitting Company, located in Rockford, Illinois. The company was founded by John Nelson, who settled in Rockford after immigrating to the United States from Sweden. The city is now also home to the Midway Village Museum, which has a permanent exhibition on the Nelson Knitting Company and the celebrated socks it produced.
“They [the Nelson Knitting Company] started producing socks in the 1870s and ‘80s,” Laura Furman, the curator of collections and education at the museum, said. “It wasn’t until 1932 that they introduced their red-heel sock that provides us with sock monkeys that have the typical red lips and red rear end, and it was jumping off from that, that the sock monkeys that we think of today started to evolve.”
The darling dolls themselves were originally created in the home, not on a factory floor, as mothers crafted the monkeys by taking advantage of that distinctive red pattern on Nelson socks.
“This [Sock Monkey] was really [a] kind of grassroots creation of women making toys for their kids out of what they had available, and improvising accordingly,” Furman said.
This resourceful fervor was born out of necessity. The mid-20th century was largely characterized by both economic and political unrest, with the Great Depression rapidly followed by America’s involvement in World War II. It is during this time that women, particularly mothers, first crafted the titular monkey dolls from Nelsons’ socks, a spark of whimsical ingenuity in a period known for scarcity.
“You’re not getting as much plastic from across the seas,” Furman said. “[Sock monkeys are] real accessible when you can just pick up a pack of socks and make it on your own sewing machine at home relatively easily, or with your needle and thread.”
The rising popularity of the sock monkey dolls did not go unnoticed by the Nelson Knitting Company, which acquired the patent for dolls in 1955 and began packaging their socks with instructions on how to create the now iconic toy.
“It’s cute to look at, and I think it’s accessible to people in every class and every kind of ethnic group, and it has a sort of an American down-home flair to it,” Luke Fredrickson, the marketing director at Midway Village Museum, said.
Until today, sock monkeys have endured as a nostalgic and cozy staple of children’s playrooms and household collections. The sock monkey may have been born from scarcity, but it is sustained by passion.
The Midway Village Museum has played a crucial role in keeping the sock monkey’s legacy alive in Rockford not only through its museum displays, but also by hosting the annual Sock Monkey Madness Festival, which celebrates all things surrounding the titular toy.
“It’s sort of a multi-generational thing,” Fredrickson said. “You find grandparents and parents and little children all can participate and enjoy creating their own sock monkey, and it kind of becomes a family heirloom and develops some memories.”
Sock monkeys, while seemingly a footnote in Midwest history, speak to a regional story of struggle, perseverance and passion — one that residents still resonate with today.
“It helps people feel a little bit of community spirit, and kind of ties the community together,” Fredrickson said. “You know, Rockford’s small enough that we all kind of attach ourselves to the few iconic things that are unique about our history, and the sock monkey’s definitely one of them.”
Great story – never thought about their origins. Well written – I love “seamed simians!”