March 7th is Sock Monkey Day

Is it homemade toy, or a piece of folk art?

Is it a touch of the exotic in an American nursery, or corn-ball kitsch?

Yes, yes, yes, and yes.

Sock monkeys are of course, just as you would suspect, toy monkeys made from socks.

During the later years of the Victorian era, there was a craze for imitation stuffed animals for children. At around the same time, there was a huge Arts and Crafts Movement that elevated the decorative arts, AND there was a Scramble to colonize Africa, and therefore interest in African animals. So by the early 1900s, lots of nurseries had toy stuffed monkeys.

But those monkeys were not generally made of socks.

In the meantime, John Nelson, a Swedish immigrant to the United States, patented a sock-knitting machine that created seamless work socks. The Nelson Knitting Company's socks (called Rockfords, because the Nelson Knitting Company was located in Rockford, Illinois) were so popular, soon others copied the technology and started pumping out imitation seamless work socks. So Nelson trademarked a red heel to set their socks apart from the crowd.

The same year that the red-heeled socks appeared, the iconic sock monkey with a red mouth was introduced to the world. A variety of American crafters made sock monkeys from worn out red-heeled socks, but in 1955 Nelson Knitting was awarded the patent for the sock monkey doll.