No one knows really. The finger puppet is so simple to make, that it’s probably something made several hundreds of years ago; perhaps even thousands of years ago. Additionally, it’s something that any nanny, nurse, or mother might have made for their children, and who made the first one is lost in time. Many people have tried to research the history, but not much has been found out.

Finger Puppet Heaven also concludes this, and states that in "Peru the only evidence is oral," and that descendants recall stories of their grandmothers weaving materials into dancing characters in order to help keep local myths alive.

Even Wikipedia is at a loss; searching for finger puppets will astoundingly send you to the page on glove puppets, and the main ‘Puppetry’ article with its section on history offers no insights either. Granted, no site on the net is going to be exact, but hunting for the history of finger puppets is probably something for a PhD dissertation or something…

If you have some info to share or a link that provides something enlightening on the history of finger puppets, leave a comment!

Read the posts on making a finger puppet here and here, how long does it take to make a finger puppet, what materials to use, and free patterns are listed here.

Want more? Help build a puppet!