The story about the Teddy Bear originates 100 years ago when the 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, decided to take time out for himself following some difficult bargaining over the disputed boundaries between Mississippi and Louisiana.

In November 1902, President Roosevelt, who truly enjoyed the outdoors, nature, and especially being in the woods, among the animals, set out for a bear hunt with his aides. Because he was the president, the people organizing the hunt wanted to be sure that the Presidents hunt was a success.

After a day in the woods, having not fired one shot, the President was called to kill a bear cub that was stunned, tired and tied to a tree. This, the aides thought, would ensure that the President would have an easy target and a trophy to go home with.

However, the plan backfired because the President refused to shoot the bear. Feeling it was un-sportsman-like and inhumane to shoot a defenceless cub, President Roosevelt ordered that the bear be set free.

The following day a popular cartoonist, Clifford K. Berryman (Bear-y-man!) captured that moment in the woods in the November 16, 1902 cartoon for The Washington Post. He captioned the cartoon, "Drawing the Line in Mississippi." The cartoon emphasized the childlike helplessness of the cub and conveyed the political message that such an upstanding President, as Roosevelt, could not be persuaded to make decisions for the wrong reasons. The cartoon was printed in many papers and Roosevelt's popularity soared as a result of his actions.

The restrained bear cub in the cartoon was variously called, "Berryman's Bear", "The Roosevelt Bear", and "Teddy's Bear"… In just a few years, the lucky "Teddy's Bear" became the "teddy bear" and toy companies sprang up all over the United States to produce this popular toy.

Who made the first teddy bear?

There are several stories that could answer this question. The most popular story is about a man named Morris Michtom. He made the first official toy bear called the teddy bear. Mr. Mitchtom owned a small candy store in Brooklyn, New York and his wife, Rose, made toy bears to sell in their store. Mr. Mitchtom sent President Roosevelt one of Roses' bears and asked permission to use the teddy bear name. Following the Presidents approval, Mr. Michtom consulted a company called Butler Brothers to start mass-producing the teddy bear. Within a year, Mr. Mitchtom closed his candy store and started a company called the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company, which remains one of the biggest toy companies in the world today.

At the same time the teddy bear was born in The United States, it was also born, across the ocean in Giengen, Germany. Richard Steiff was working for his aunt, Margarete Steiff, in her stuffed toy business. Richard, a former art student, often visited the Stuttgart Zoo to sketch animals, especially bear cubs. His design talents led to the creation of a toy bear prototype in 1902, the same year the Michtoms made "Teddy's Bear." Steiff bears were first introduced at the 1903 Leipzip Fair, where an American buyer saw them and ordered several thousand for shipment to the United States.

Although both the Michtoms and Steiff created their toy bears at the same time, it is believed that neither knew, at a time of poor transatlantic communication, about the other's creation. Besides, the Michtoms bear resembled the wide-eyed cub in the Berryman cartoon, while the jointed Steiff bear, with its humped back and long snout, looked more like a real bear cub, like the ones at the Stuttgart Zoo.

While there are other stories that have been told about how the teddy bear came to be, and nobody knows for sure whose story was first, the simultaneous births of the teddy bear in Brooklyn and Giengen are the best substantiated.

By 1908, there were more than 20 companies making teddy bears in the United States alone. Consumers were in love with teddy bears! The popularity of the toy led to its use in every imaginable consumer good-candy containers, music boxes, clothing lines for bears, specialty bears that performed and lit up and innumerable teddy bear novelties.

Today the Steiff teddy bears are still being made. Steiff is a well-respected manufacture with its distinct button sewn to one ear and very characteristic shape. Although no longer classed as a child’s toy, they are prized and highly sought after by collectors. Original old Steiff bears are fetching many thousands of £/$’s at Christie’s and Sotherby’s UK’s top Auction houses, on the rare occasions they come up for re-sale, attracting bidders from around the world.
By
Oaky Woodã2005

Oaky Wood was a qualified professional toy maker / designer running his own craft workshops for over 10 years in the UK, and is currently retired through ill health. His main business now is designing and running his own websites The Oakwood Grafix Group http://oakwoodgrafix.co.uk/ and is currently developing “The Corner” an eZine for every woman, http://oakwoodgrafix.co.uk/TheCorner/ and is the resident Agony Uncle, article writer and poet.