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but the actual origin may be a surprise to many.
In 1908, art teacher and illustrator Florence Pretz of Kansas City,
Missouri designed and patented a new image called "A Billiken". The
Billiken was manufactured in 1909 as a coin bank and a statuette, as
well as a doll in 1910 (Billiken Co. of Chicago). The figure was a
rage for about six months and then disappeared. The Billiken was
called "The god of things as they ought to be", a slogan paraphrased
from Rudyard Kipling’s famous words from L’Envoi: "Shall draw
the things as he sees it for the God of things as they are". It is to
present day associated with the Saint Louis University athletics
teams.
During the 1909-1910 "Billimania", as small Billiken figures were
sold as publicity for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition by the Times
Publishing Co. of Seattle, a store keeper on Diomede Island introduced
the Billiken statuette into Alaska, giving it to
Angokwaghuk (nicknamed "Happy Jack"), one of the most famous
Eskimo carvers. The Billiken carvings of Angokwaghuk sold fast, and
became a subject of Eskimo carvers to the present day. The Eskimos
regard ownership of the Billiken in any form as a symbol of good luck.
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