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THE "TEDDY
BEAR" HISTORY
All
Teddy Bears are
stuffed toy bears, but not all stuffed bears are teddy bears. The name
is actually a nick-name for toy bears which caught
on when President Theodore Roosevelt became associated with stuffed bear
toys after the appearance of a political cartoon in 1902. President Roosevelt,
an ardent outdoor enthusiast, was invited by Mississippi Governor Andrew
Longino to join several other hunters in a competition. Most of the other
hunters had already had a kill, but the President late to the party had
not. So, rather than the great fervant outdoors man return trophy-less,
Roosevelt's guides chased an American Black bear with dogs and and clubbed
it senseless. They tied the exahusted bear to a tree and propsed Mr.
Roosevelt should shoot it. The president was disgusted by the clear unsportsman
idea and refused to shoot the bear himself. He told the handlers to put
the bear out of its misery with a knife. The cartoon in the Washington
Post of November 16 by Clifford Berryman showed the annoyed presient
and
big
bear lashed
to the tree. Over time and several more interations of the cartoon, the
bear got smaller and cuter as Roosevelt became more outsized and epic.
Morris
Michtom was inspired by the drawing to create a new toy, asking his
wife to sew
a stuffed
bear cub and called it "Teddy's Bear" after
sending one to the president, who was tickled by it and allowed the use
of his name. The little bears were a hit and allowed to Michtom found
the Ideal Novelty and Toy Co to make them. About the same time in Giengen
An Der
Brenz Germany,
Richard Steiff, the brother of Margaret
Steiff, who had been creating
european stuffed animals, designed a new stuffed bear with articulated
arms and legs, known at first as Bear 55. After the Steiff bear appeared
at the Leipzig Toy Fair in March 1903 and brought to the United States,
it became even more popular and called a "Teddy Bear" or a "Roosevelt
Bear". Other manufacturers got in on the craze, and pretty much
every toy bear began to be called a "Teddy Bear", falling into
commen usage. Stuffed toy bears come in all shape and sizes. One of Michtom's
original "Teddy's Bear" from 1903 is in the Smithsonian
National History Museum in
Washington, but the "Teddy
Bear" is
perhaps most commonly associated with the Steiff design.
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