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How the teddy bear got its name
The teddy bear is named after a real president. It all began with a bear hunt in 1902.
The president said no
In November 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt was on a bear hunt in Mississippi. His assistants cornered a black bear and tied it to a willow tree, but Roosevelt thought this was extremely unsportsmanlike and refused to shoot it.
SourceA cartoon told the story
A political cartoonist called Clifford Berryman made gentle fun of the president's refusal. His cartoon appeared in the Washington Post on 16 November 1902.
SourceTeddy's Bear
Morris Michtom ran a sweet shop in Brooklyn, and he and his wife Rose also made stuffed animals. After seeing the cartoon, Morris made a toy bear, called it 'Teddy's Bear' and, once Roosevelt gave permission to use his name, made it in great numbers.
Source
AI-generated illustration
Meanwhile in Germany
Bear 55 PB
In Germany, Richard Steiff, the nephew of Margarete Steiff, joined her small company in 1897. He often visited Nill's zoo, where he drew the brown bears. In 1902 he made a toy bear with arms and legs that could move. Its name, Bear 55 PB, sounds like a code, but it simply described the bear: it was 55 centimetres high, made of mohair plush, and movable. Margarete was not convinced at first, but she let Richard show the bear at the Leipzig Toy Fair. At first it attracted little attention. Then an American dealer saw what the plush bear could become, and ordered 3,000 bears in one go.
SourceWhere Steiff began
Margarete Steiff and the felt elephant
Margarete Steiff was born in 1847 in Giengen an der Brenz, in Germany. When she was 18 months old, she had polio, and all her life she fought for her place in the world. In 1877 she opened a shop selling felt clothes she made herself. Then she saw a pattern for an elephant in a fashion magazine and sewed a little felt elephant. It was meant to be a pincushion, but it soon became a popular children's toy. Steiff counts 1880 as the year its toy company began. In 1904 her nephew Franz came up with a trademark to protect the toys from copies: a button in the ear.
SourceThe pictures on this page are AI-generated illustrations, not photographs. The facts are checked against the sources linked.