How a Teddy Bear was born

How I was Born

There are at least two popular stories about how I was born. One story is a legend. It took place when American President Theodore Roosevelt went on a hunting trip in Colorado. After a day of unsuccessful hunting, some maids at the hotel where he was staying created me out of scraps of cloth and gave me to Roosevelt to cheer him up. Later, after he killed a real bear, his daughter Alice admired me saying, “I will call you Teddy.”

The other story is true. While President Roosevelt was on a hunting trip in Mississippi he took pity on a terribly injured bear. The bear had been beaten with clubs and tied to a tree. Roosevelt’s party wanted him to make sport of the bear by shooting it, but he refused. Instead, he ordered that the bear be killed quickly and humanely, to relieve it of its misery.

Washington Post political cartoonist Clifford Berryman illustrated the event and later redrew the bear as me, a cuddly cub. The cartoon and story became very popular, and a Brooklyn storeowner saw the drawing of Roosevelt and me. His wife then created the real me and placed me in their shop window with a sign reading “Teddy’s Bear.” The storeowner later founded the Ideal Novelty and Toy Co., which still exists today.

At about the same time in Germany the Steiff firm created my brother, whom they exhibited at the Leipzig Toy Fair in March 1903. They soon created 3000 more of us for export to the United States. Many other manufacturers joined in, and soon we were so popular that ladies carried us everywhere and children loved being photographed with us. Roosevelt even used me as his mascot in his bid for re-election.

I now spend a good bit of time at the American Museum of Natural History, in Washington, DC. If you happen to visit, please stop by to say hello to me.

Yours truly,

Teddy