The Teddy Bear

It was in November of 1902 that then President Theodore Rossevelt took a presidential trip to the state of Mississippi in order to negotiate a on going border dispute between Mississippi and Louisiania. Roosevelt was an avid outdoorsman so while on his trip he took a break from his official duties to go on a Black Bear hunting trip.

Several press photographers went along on the hunt and were soon presented with the perfect photographic opportunity when Roosevelt was offered the opportunity to shoot a Black Bear Cub. Roosevelt however would have none of it. While it was true that he loved hunting he refused to shoot the small bear cub or allow anyone else to. He said that there was no way he was going to shoot such a poor helpless creature and he would shoot the first man that took a shot at the bear cub.

Illustrator Clifford Berryman captured the sweet moment forever in a cartton he did of the event in a Washington Star Cartoon. The cartoon was picked up and run in newspapers all over the USA and then the world making the little bear almost as famous as the President.

But in Brooklyn New York it gave toy store owners Morris Michton and his wife a brilliant ideal. They made a little brown bear with button eyes and put it in their shop window along with a copy of the cartoon and a sign that said plainly Teddy's Bear. The Bear sold quickly and they kept making more of the bears and put them in the window.

The Teddy Bear was a huge success and soon toy stores all over the USA and Europe were making Teddy Bears and selling them. And now you know the history of where the Teddy Bear came from. Did you know the story. Why not post a comment below now about the Teddy Bear.