Teddy Bear Origins

      Many people have often wondered and even debated over how the teddy bear got its name. Who wouldn't want to take credit for a creation that has helped bring warmth and friendship into households around the world? Words like mohair, jointed, boyds, gund, muffy, paddington, hermann, spielwaren, and many other are used in reference to this warm furry creature. The first teddy bear - everyone wants to claim credit for him. We can thank the 26th president of the United States, Theodore, or Teddy Roosevelt, for giving the teddy bear his name.

      In November 1902, this popular family man took a four-day break from politics to attend a bear hunt in Mississippi. The President was unlucky, and his only chance of a kill was a bear cub cornered and tied to a tree. He of course, refused to shoot it. The incident was illustrated in the Washington Post by the political cartoonist Clifford K. Berryman. Through Berryman, the little bear came to symbolize the President and was featured in many of the artist's subsequent cartoons. Within a year, the cartooon bear had been transformed into a toy for children - the teddy bear.

      The public response was overwhelming. Berryman received floods of letters requesting "repeats" of the bear. As a result of this inspirational drawing, the bear became his "dingbat" or cartoonist symbol. Soon, novelty makers saw the opportunity to reproduce it as a toy. The teddy bear "vogue" swept the nation.