Teddy Bear History « A Bear Place Store

eddy Bear History

The name Teddy Bear comes from former United States President Theodore Roosevelt, whose nickname was “Teddy”. The name originated from an incident on a bear-hunting trip in Mississippi in November 1902, to which Roosevelt was invited by Mississippi Governor. Roosevelt was suggested that he should shoot that exhausted American Black Bear which was being tied to a willow tree after a long exhausting chase with hounds. Roosevelt refused to shoot the bear himself, deeming this unsportsmanlike. It became the topic of a political cartoon by Clifford Berryman in The Washington Post. While the initial carton of an adult black bear lassoed by a white handler and a disgusted Roosevelt had symbolic overtones, later issues of that and other Berryman cartoon made the bear smaller and cuter.

Morris Michtom saw the drawing of Roosevelt and the bear cub and was inspired to create a new toy. Michtom’s wife handmade several plush toy bears stuffed with excelsior and decorated them with black shoe button eyes. After sending a bear to Roosevelt and receiving permission to use his name. These bears were put in his shop window with a sign that read “Teddy’s Bear”. The toys were an immediate success and Michtom relocated his business to a larger space and renamed it the Ideal Novelty and Toy Corporation.

About the same time, in Germany, Steiff firm began producing jointed stuffed bears from Richard Steiff’s designs. They exhibited the bears at Leipzig Toy Fair in March 1903 and exported 3000 to the United States.

By 1906, manufacturers other than Michtom and Steiff had joined in and the craze of “Roosevelt Bears” was such that ladies carried them everywhere, children were photographed with them, and Roosevelt used one as a mascot in his bid for re-election.

Early teddy bears were made to look like real bears, with extended snouts and beady eyes. Today’s teddy bears tend to have larger eyes and foreheads and smaller noses, baby like features that make them more attractive to buyers because they enhance the toy’s cuteness. Also, now some bears come pre-dressed, sometimes for winter, spring, summer, or fall.