Antique Teddy Bears

Who came up with the idea of the teddy bear? While some may think that a Steiff teddy bear was the original bear, teddy bears actually evolved from a hunting incident involving the former US President, Theodore Roosevelt.

Teddy Roosevelt was not a particularly keen hunter but was an avid sportsman. In the course of a bear hunting trip in 1902 where most of the party (but not Roosevelt) had already shot something, some of Roosevelt’s attendants after a long and sometimes violent chase, managed to subdue a black bear and tie it to a tree and suggested that Roosevelt shoot it.

Given the unsportsmanlike circumstances, Roosevelt refused to shoot the bear but had the bear killed to relieve it of its misery. It was this event that led to a political cartoon in The Washington Post.

The cartoon evolved, and later inspired Morris Michtom to create a new toy. This stuffed bear became known as ‘Teddy’s bear”. Michtom’s bear was not the only one to evolve at this time and Richard Steiff also created a similar toy in Leipzig in 1903 after which the Steiff teddy bear was exported in large numbers to the United States.

It only took a few more years for the bear to catch on with other manufacturers and they soon became prize possessions of adults as well as children. Perhaps not surprisingly, Teddy Roosevelt kept the original bear given to him by Michtom.

Although the early bears may not have been safe by today’s commercial standards, they were still much loved and cherished for years to come and the Steiff teddy bear in particular remains a collector’s item all over the world.

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