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Who invented the Jolly Jumper?

  • Writer: MIP Author
    MIP Author
  • Jun 25
  • 5 min read
Black-and-white historical photograph of Mary Butler, a Makah mother, seated on a woven cedar bark mat beside her infant, Lyda Butler Colfax, in a traditional wooden cradle.
Mary Butler of the Makah Indian Tribe rocks her infant, Lyda Butler Colfax, in a traditional wooden cradle while seated on a woven cedar bark mat. She is shown wearing a Hudson’s Bay Company blanket, with weaving materials nearby. The image does not show Olivia Poole, but it helps illustrate the wider Indigenous knowledge of cradle care, movement, and practical design. Photograph by Samuel Morse, 1897–1903. Courtesy of the Makah Cultural and Research Center / University of Washington Libraries.


Olivia Poole and the Ojibwe Knowledge Behind the Jolly Jumper


A young Olivia Poole and baby. This image is also found in a book by Frieda Wishinsky and Elizabeth MacLeod, How to Become an Accidental Genius (2019). (Courtesy Julie Shepherd) https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/olivia-poole
A young Olivia Poole and baby. This image is also found in a book by Frieda Wishinsky and Elizabeth MacLeod, How to Become an Accidental Genius (2019). (Courtesy Julie Shepherd)

A baby bouncing in a doorway may look like an ordinary piece of modern family life. For Olivia Poole, that motion reached back to something older: a childhood memory from White Earth, where Indigenous mothers used cradleboards, movement, and practical design to care for babies while daily life continued around them.


Poole, born Susan Olivia Davis in 1889, grew up on the White Earth Indian Reservation in Minnesota. She was of Ojibwe descent and became familiar with the child-care practices, customs, and everyday work of the women around her. One practice stayed with her: mothers and caregivers securing babies to cradleboards, then suspending them from a sturdy support so the child could be gently rocked or bounced.



A Memory from White Earth


Cradleboards were practical, protective, and deeply connected to family life. They allowed babies to be safely secured while mothers, relatives, and caregivers worked, traveled, gathered, cooked, cleaned, or made things by hand. The design kept the child close and visible without stopping the movement of daily responsibilities.


As a child, Poole saw mothers hang cradleboards from tree branches or other strong supports. A light pull on the strap could create a steady bouncing motion. The baby was comforted, the adult could keep working, and the two remained connected through rhythm and movement. That small observation became the seed of an invention.




Turning Indigenous Knowledge into a New Design


Olivia Poole Olivia Poole's patent for the Jolly Jumper. (courtesy Canadian Intellectual Property Office)
Olivia Poole Olivia Poole's patent for the Jolly Jumper. (courtesy Canadian Intellectual Property Office)

In 1910, after the birth of her first child, Joseph, Poole remembered what she had seen at White Earth. She did not have a cradleboard of her own, so she used what was available. Accounts describe her first version as a homemade device using a cloth diaper as a harness, a wooden handle or bar for support, and later a spring that helped create a soft bouncing motion.


The result was not a cradleboard. It was a new design inspired by the same principle: secure the baby, allow gentle movement, and give the caregiver more freedom to work nearby. In Poole’s version, the child’s legs were free, and the swing was low enough for the baby’s toes to touch the floor. With a small push, the baby could bounce, move, and build strength while remaining supported. Poole called her invention the Jolly Jumper.


Did you know that Ojibwe woman Olivia Poole was one of the first Indigenous women in Canada to patent an invention? Inspired by the motion of a swinging cradleboard, Poole invented the Jolly Jumper.


From Family Invention to Household Name


At first, the Jolly Jumper belonged to Poole’s family life. She used it with her seven children, then continued improving the design for her grandchildren. Like many useful inventions, it proved itself at home before anyone thought of selling it.


By 1948, Poole’s family encouraged her to bring the baby jumper to market. MONOVA: Museum and Archives of North Vancouver describes how Poole and her daughter-in-law Betty demonstrated the jumper at the Hudson’s Bay Company. A crowd gathered, the store ordered six units, and the family returned home to begin production.


Poole later helped establish Poole Manufacturing Co. Ltd. in British Columbia. Her son Joseph helped with the patent process, and the invention became known formally as a “Baby Supporter and Exerciser.” Sources place the patent history in the late 1950s, with Canadian patent No. 568775 connected to the Jolly Jumper.



Why Olivia Poole’s Story Still Matters


Poole is often described as one of the first Indigenous women in Canada to patent an invention. That recognition matters, but the larger story is even stronger. Her invention did not come from nowhere. It came from watching Indigenous mothers solve real problems with the materials, knowledge, and design principles available to them.


The Jolly Jumper shows how Indigenous knowledge can move through time. A practice remembered from White Earth became a household product used by families far beyond Poole’s own community. It also challenges the false idea that Indigenous innovation belongs only to the distant past. In Poole’s story, Indigenous knowledge enters the worlds of manufacturing, patents, retail, family care, and modern design.


Her invention was not simply clever. It was observant. It carried forward a practical understanding of babies, movement, work, and care.



The Photo: Mary Butler, Makah, and Everyday Indigenous Knowledge


The photograph used with this article does not show Olivia Poole. It shows Mary Butler of the Makah Indian Tribe with her infant, Lyda Butler Colfax, in a traditional wooden cradle. The photograph was taken by Samuel Morse between 1897 and 1903 and is held through the Makah Cultural and Research Center collection at the University of Washington Libraries.

In the image, Mary Butler is seated on a woven cedar bark mat, wearing a Hudson’s Bay Company blanket. Her infant rests in a wooden cradle nearby. The scene shows more than a mother and child. It shows care, work, movement, and material knowledge happening together.


Mary Butler was Makah, from a people whose homeland is centered around Neah Bay on the northwestern tip of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. The Makah Tribe describes Neah Bay as home to the Makah people since time immemorial, and the Makah Cultural and Research Center preserves archives, collections, language resources, education programs, and cultural history connected to the Makah people.


This photograph should not be used as a substitute portrait of Olivia Poole. It belongs to its own Makah context. In this article, it helps readers see the broader point: Indigenous child-care technologies were thoughtful, functional, and woven into everyday life across many Native communities.



A Contribution Still Felt Today


The Jolly Jumper became a familiar baby product, but its deeper story begins with Indigenous observation and family care. Olivia Poole remembered what she had seen as a child, trusted that knowledge, and adapted it into something new.


Her story belongs inside a larger history of Indigenous contributions to science, design, technology, and everyday life. These contributions are not always recognized when people use the products, systems, foods, medicines, and ideas shaped by Indigenous communities. Poole’s invention is one reminder that Indigenous innovation is not hidden because it is small. It is hidden because people have not always been taught where it came from.


To learn more about Indigenous contributions to culture, science, technology, governance, and the arts, visit CONTRIBUTIONS, a featured exhibit at the Museum of Indigenous People in Prescott, Arizona. The exhibit explores Indigenous innovation across agriculture, medicine, engineering, water systems, astronomy, governance, and more.



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