The first Teddy Bear went on sale 107 years ago today Who were the stuffed animals named for?

Answer 1

President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt inspired the first Teddy Bear.

Although the Steiff Company in Germany produced a jointed stuffed bear in 1902, the First Teddy Bear was made by Rose and Morris Michtom with the influence of Teddy Roosevelt and Clifford Berryman. Here's why:

On November 14, 1902, then-President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt went to Mississippi to settle a border dispute between Mississippi and Louisiana. While there, he went on a hunting trip. The other members of the hunting party tied a black bear cub to a tree for President Roosevelt to shoot, but Roosevelt refused to harm the defenseless bear. The next day, political cartoonist Clifford Berryman, drew a cartoon showing President Roosevelt refusing to hurt the helpless bear. The cartoon's caption "Drawing the Line in Mississippi" refers to both the border dispute settlement and the hunting incident.

This cartoon sparked the imagination of the country and of a shopkeeper in Brooklyn, New York. The shopkeeper, Morris Michtom, asked his wife, Rose, to make two plush stuffed bears for display in his shop's window. The popularity of the plush bears stuffed with excelsior and adorned with black shoe buttons for eyes quickly captivated the nation.

To combine the stuffed bear phenomenon with Teddy Roosevelt, Morris Michtom asked the president for permission to call these stuffed bears "Teddy's Bear." Roosevelt said yes, and the Teddy Bear was born.

You may ask, "Wouldn't there still be stuffed bears without Roosevelt, Berryman, and the Michtoms?" And the answer is yes. If Roosevelt had not refused to shoot the innocent bear cub, if Berryman had not drawn the cartoon, if the Michtoms had not displayed the stuffed bears, if the Michtoms had not asked permission to call them "Teddy's Bear," or if Roosevelt had not granted permission, there would still be stuffed bears.

However, these stuffed bears would not be Teddy Bears. They may have been stuffed bears, jointed bears, German bears, Giengen bears, or even Leipzid Trade Fair bears, but they would not be known as Teddy Bears -- a name that is as synonymous with our nation's culture as baseball and apple pie.