Toys & Teddy Bears

The Teddy bear is a stuffed toy bear for children. It is an enduring, traditional form of stuffed animal, often serving the purpose of comforting upset young children. In recent times, some teddy bears have become expensive collector's items. more...

The world's first Teddy Bear Museum was set up in Petersfield, Hampshire, England, in 1984. In 1990 a similar foundation was set up in Naples, Florida.

Naming

Theodore Roosevelt, whose nickname was "Teddy" and who enjoyed big game-hunting. The name is said to come from an incident on a bear-hunting trip in Mississippi in 1902, when Roosevelt's attendants found and caught an old injured bear. Roosevelt refused to kill the lassoed animal, calling it "unsportsmanlike", and "Teddy's Bear" was immediately publicized by political cartoonists, taking journalistic licence and changing it to a young cute bear. The first such cartoon appeared the following day, November 16: Clifford Berryman, an editorial cartoonist for the Washington Post, immortalized the incident as part of a front-page cartoon montage. Berryman pictured Roosevelt with his gun beside him with the butt resting on the ground and his back to the bear, gesturing his refusal to take the trophy shot. Written across the lower part of the cartoon were the words "Drawing the Line in Mississippi," which coupled the hunting incident to a political dispute (see picture to the left).

Producers

Morris Michtom and his wife Rose displayed two stuffed bears in the window of their Brooklyn store shortly thereafter (February 15, 1903), and said they had received President Roosevelt's written permission to call them "Teddy's bears".

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