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Ateddy bear, or simply ateddy, is astuffed toy in the form of abear. The teddy bear was named byMorris Michtom after the 26th president of the United States,Theodore Roosevelt; it was developed apparently simultaneously in the first decade of the 20th century by two toymakers:Richard Steiff in Germany and Michtom in the United States. It became a popular children's toy, and it has been celebrated in story, song, and film.[1]
Since the creation of the first teddy bears (which sought to imitate the form of real bearcubs), "teddies" have greatly varied in form, style, color, and material. They have becomecollector's items, with older and rarer teddies appearing at public auctions.[2] Teddy bears are among the most popular gifts for children, and they are often given to adults to signify affection, congratulations, or sympathy.
The nameteddybear comes fromTheodore Roosevelt, the 26thpresident of the United States, who was often referred to as "Teddy" (a nickname he loathed).[3] The name originated from an incident on a bear-hunting trip in theU.S. state ofMississippi in November 1902, to which Roosevelt was invited byAndrew H. Longino, the 35thgovernor of Mississippi. There were several other hunters competing, includingLeRoy Percy[4], and most of them had already killed an animal. A party of Roosevelt's attendants, led by freedmanHolt Collier,[5] cornered, clubbed, and tied anAmerican black bear to a willow tree after a long and exhausting chase withhounds. They called Roosevelt to the site and suggested that he should shoot the bear dead, although Collier told Roosevelt not to shoot the bear while it was tied.[6] Roosevelt refused to shoot the bear himself, deeming this unsportsmanlike, but instructed that the bear be killed toput it out of its misery,[7][8] and it became the topic of apolitical cartoon byClifford Berryman inThe Washington Post on November 16, 1902.[9][10][11] While the initial cartoon depicted an adultblack bear lassoed by a handler and a disgusted Roosevelt, later issues of that and other Berryman cartoons made the bear smaller and cuter.[12]
Morris Michtom saw the Berryman drawing of Roosevelt and was inspired to create a teddy bear. He created a small soft bear cub and put it in his candy-shop window at 404 Tompkins Avenue inNew York City with a sign reading "Teddy's bear." The toys were an immediate success and Michtom founded theIdeal Novelty and Toy Co.[8]
A little earlier in 1902 in Germany, theSteiff firm produced a stuffed bear fromRichard Steiff's designs. Steiff exhibited the toy at the Leipzig Toy Fair in March 1903, where it was seen by Hermann Berg, a buyer for George Borgfeldt & Company in New York (and the brother of the composerAlban Berg).[13] He ordered 3,000 to be sent to the United States.[14] Although Steiff's records show that the bears were produced, they are not recorded as arriving in the U.S., and no example of the type, "55 PB", has ever been seen, leading to the story that the bears wereshipwrecked. However, the shipwreck story is disputed – the author Günther Pfeiffer notes that it was only recorded in 1953 and says it is more likely that the 55 PB was not sufficiently durable to survive until the present day.[15] Although Steiff and Michtom were both making teddy bears at around the same time, neither would have known of the other's creation due to poortransatlantic communication.[9]
The American writerSeymour Eaton wrote the children's book seriesThe Roosevelt Bears,[16] while the American composerJohn W. Bratton wrote an instrumental "The Teddy Bears' Picnic", a "characteristic two-step", in 1907, which later had words written to it by the Irish lyricistJimmy Kennedy in 1932.
Early teddy bears were made to look like real bears, with extended snouts and beady eyes. Modern teddy bears are generally distinguished by larger eyes and foreheads and smaller noses,baby-like features intended to enhance the toy'scuteness. Some teddy bears are also designed to represent different species, such aspolar bears andbrown bears, as well aspandas andkoalas.While early teddy bears were covered in tawnymohair fur, modern teddy bears are manufactured in a wide variety of commercially availablefabrics, most commonlysynthetic fur, but alsovelour,denim,cotton,satin, andcanvas.
Commercially made, mass-produced teddy bears are predominantly made as toys for children. These bears either have safety joints for attaching arms, legs, and heads, or else the joints are sewn and not articulated. They must have securely fastened eyes that do not pose a choking hazard for small children. These "plush" bears must meet a rigid standard of construction in order to be marketed to children in the United States and in the European Union. TheVermont Teddy Bear Company in the U.S. is one of the world's largest specialty marketers of teddy bears.
There are also companies, like Steiff, that sell handmade collectible bears that can be purchased in stores or over the Internet. The majority of teddy bears are manufactured in countries with low production costs, such as China and Indonesia. A few small, single-person producers in the United States make unique, non-mass-produced teddy bears. In theUnited Kingdom one small, traditional teddy bear company remains,Merrythought, which was established in 1930.[17]Mohair, the fur shorn or combed from a breed of long haired goats, is woven into cloth, dyed and trimmed.
Teddy bears are a favourite form of soft toy for amateur toy makers, with many patterns commercially produced or available online. Many "teddies" are home-made as gifts or for charity, while "teddy bear artists" often create "teddies" for retail, decorating them individually with commercial and recycled ornaments such as sequins, beads and ribbons. Sewn teddy bears are made from a wide range of materials includingfelt,cotton andvelour. While many are stitched, others are made fromyarn, eitherknitted orcrocheted.
Retail sales of stuffed plush animals including teddy bears totaled US$1.3 billion in 2006,[18] with manufacturers includingGund andTy Inc.
Teddy bear plush toys have enjoyed ongoing popularity, complete with specialty retailers such asTeddy Atelier Stursberg andVermont Teddy Bear Company, as well asdo-it-yourself chains includingBuild-A-Bear Workshop.[citation needed] Those who are fond of or collect teddy bears are calledarctophiles.[19]
In 1907, Michael G. Esper, a Catholic priest inMichigan, declared teddy bears to be "horrible monstrosities", which by supplanting the "good old dolls" would cause girls to lose the urge to nurture babies, leading to declining birth rates among the white population andrace suicide. The suggestion attracted widespread but short-lived attention.[20]
The world's firstteddy bear museum was set up inPetersfield, Hampshire, England, in 1984. In 1990,a similar foundation was set up inNaples,Florida, United States. These were closed in 2006 and 2005, respectively, and the bears were sold in auctions, but there are many teddy bear museums around the world today.
Because police, fire and medical officials found that giving a teddy bear to a child during a crisis stabilized and calmed them,NAPLC created the Teddy Bear Cops program to distribute teddy bears to police, fire, and medical responders throughout the United States.[21]
OnApril Fools' Day 1972, issue 90 ofThe Veterinary Record published a paper on the diseases ofBrunus edwardii detailing common afflictions of teddy bears.[22][23]
The largest teddy bear measures 19.41 m (63 ft 8 in) in length and was constructed by Municipio de Xonacatlán, Ideas por México and Agrupación de Productores de Peluche (all Mexico), in Estado de México, on 28 April 2019. The bear was displayed at the local stadium in the city of Xonacatlán, and was made with the same materials as a commercially available teddy bear, including details such as a tiara, dress, eyes, and nose. The bear was dubbed Xonita, after the town.[24]
The Billy Possum was a plush toy created afterWilliam Howard Taft won the1908 United States presidential election. The toy was a stuffed possum, made to replace the teddy bear. The possum was chosen because of Taft's love for "possum and taters", and as a symbol of southern pride. Toy companies making them advertised using slogans predicting the end of teddy bear popularity. Those around Taft theorized that he would be remembered in a similar way as Roosevelt with a popular toy. However, the Billy Possum plush toy didn't achieve the same level of popularity or enduring legacy, and the toy's production and impact were minimal in comparison.[25]
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Estimate £50,000–£80,000
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)
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