Fifty years ago this week, 42 of the china dolls from the Kendall Young Library collection were stolen.

Norma Jeane Bell, former children’s librarian recounts the tale. Bell, now 91, is the last living librarian to remember the event first hand.

The 170-piece china doll collection was donated to the library by Eveyln Foster’s son after her death in 1944. Mrs. Foster spent 15 years collecting and dressing the dolls. Most of the dolls in the collection were made between 1850 and 1890; one dates back to 1800.

Bell remembers the events of that day.

-Messenger photo by Chris Fullerton
Three of the dolls in the Foster Doll Collection are pictured.

“It was Beverly Hupp who discovered the theft. She knew something was wrong when she entered the library and smelled fresh air.”

Hupp quickly found a broken window and the door to the doll case broken. She called the head librarian, Mary Hanna, who alerted the local police of the theft.

This is where the real story begins. In a time before Google, cell phones or social media, the librarians embarked on their detective mission to find the stolen dolls.

They began by placing ads in hobby magazines and antique collectors bulletins describing the dolls and calling for their return.

Surprisingly, an antique dealer from Galena, Illinois, answered the ad. He had purchased a dozen dolls from a young man. Bell recalls that the dealer personally returned the dolls to the library.

-Messenger photo by Chris Fullerton
Two of the dolls in the Foster Doll Collection are pictured.

Armed with a clue as to where the rest of the dolls may be, Hanna and Bell drove more than three hours with only a paper map to the small town in Illinois to begin their search in earnest.

Bell recalls browsing the antique stores in town and talking to shop owners about the dolls.

After hours of searching, they came across a dealer who had purchased about a dozen of the dolls.

The dealer told Bell that there was something suspicious about the seller, so he wrote down the license plate number on the seller’s car.

This later turned out to be the key detail in locating the thief.

Still on the road, the pair continued their search. With a tip from another dealer they set out to Sterling, Illinois. There, they found a dealer who had purchased and already resold seven of the dolls to a cash buyer.

Unfortunately, with no paper trail to follow, that is where their sleuthing ended.

Today, one can find the glorious china doll collection in the lower level lobby of the library in Webster City. In their 175-year history, that “Nancy Drew” journey may have been their most thrilling.