Teddy Bear Tuesday

 

A teddy bear gifted to me as a child.

We cut up an old shirt of my dad's and bought a guitar from Build-a-Bear so I could pass him on to my nephew.  Grandpa Bear.

Perhaps you've heard that the term "Teddy Bear" was inspired by President Teddy Roosevelt, but here's the whole story.

On this day in 1902, Roosevelt was hunting in Mississippi when he was called to a lassoed bear.  He refused to shoot it, and is quoted as saying, "I couldn't be proud of myself if I shot an old, tired worn-out bear that was tied to a tree."

This made it around to political cartoonist, Clifford Berryman, who used it as a metaphor for Roosevelt's indecision over the Mississippi boundary dispute.

Printed November 16, 1902.

This became well known, and by 1903, candy store owners Morris and Rose Mitchom decided to make the first stuffed bear toy.  They obtained permission from the President to use his name.

They created the Ideal Toy Company and soon became a multi-million dollar business.

In 1908, a Michigan minister was concerned that replacing dolls with toy bears would destroy the maternal instinct in little girls.  LOL.

In 1963, Benjamin Mitchom reached out to Kermit Roosevelt, Teddy's grandson.  He asked for his children to pose with an original Teddy Bear with the understanding that it would then be given to the Smithsonian.  It was turned over in 1964.