The History of the Teddy Bear: Who Invented the Teddy Bear and Where Does Its Name Come From?

Stuffed animals have been children's best friends 🧒 for thousands of years. Whether you call them stuffed toys, plush, comforter, teddy, stuffed animal, or whatever name you give them, chances are you've owned one, or more, throughout your life. life.

Soft toys are the holy grail of toys given to young children as gifts, used as safety and comfort devices, and are much more popular than almost any other type of toy.

In fact, it would be hard to find anyone who didn't have a favorite stuffed animal when they were little. Today, we find stuffed animals of all shapes , stuffed animals, monsters, aliens and we even managed to get the moon 🌜 to make a plush moon !

If you're curious like us, you've probably wondered who invented stuffed animals 🤔 or why are teddy bears called "teddy bears"?, who has the largest collection of teddy bears in the world? , how much do vintage teddy bears sell for at auction?...

In fact, the history of stuffed animals is both interesting and remarkable and goes back more than two centuries ⏳. In recent years, some teddy bears have become expensive collectibles. The world's first teddy bear museum was established in 1984 in Petersfield, Hampshire, England.

What is the Origin of Stuffed Animals?

1) The Rag Dolls of Ancient Rome and Egypt

Cultures around the world have created animal replicas since the beginning of recorded history by painting, carving, and even chiseling animal figures and heads. In fact, while modern plush can be traced back to the late 19th century, the ancient world produced the first true plush toys in Roman times, with the creation of rag dolls.

In ancient Rome, privileged children often played with very expensive wooden animal sculptures. Poor families could not afford such luxuries, so they made rag dolls out of straw and scraps of fabric for children to play with. Children in ancient Egypt also created and played with rag dolls filled with straw, beans, cotton, or wool.

Historical records indicate that the ancient Egyptians probably used stuffed animals in their special ceremonies since Egyptians worshiped many animals. Some of these dolls (including those the children played with) have been dated to 300 BC.

2) Who invented stuffed toys?

After that, the stuffed animals sort of disappeared . Over the centuries, people have always and above all made dolls 🎎 out of fabric.

So who invented stuffed animals as we know them today?

In 1880, German seamstress Margarete Steiff began producing stuffed elephants using a pattern she found in a magazine 📚. She sold them as pincushions, but soon started making them as toys when she noticed local children playing with them. She thus developed the first stuffed animals of the modern era. Within six years she sold over 5,000, and by the 1890s her company Steiff was producing a variety of stuffed animals, including dogs, cats and pigs, most of which were designed by herself. .

This family business still operates today. And we can say that she invented stuffed toys ! In 1897 Margarete's nephew, Richard Steiff, joined the company. In 1902-1903 he created the teddy bear 🧸. Almost at the same time, Morris Michtom in the United States also made a teddy bear. (See in the third paragraph.)

You would think Steiff bears were popular in Europe 🌍, but that wasn't the case at first. Ironically, it was thanks to an American buyer who purchased the 100 teddy bears that were first shown at the Lepzig Toy Fair . He also ordered 3,000 more. A year later, the company sold 12,000 bears at the St. Louis World's Fair . In just five years, it has increased its production to 974,000 bears and continues to increase them.

The teddy bears weren't tough enough. Slowly but surely Steiff started making all kinds of stuffed animals 🐼 and other manufacturers joined the market. In the beginning, stuffed animals were mostly made of fabric, faux fur, and plush. The stuffing was made of straw, wood wool and beans. Steiff strived to provide plush toys of the highest possible quality and therefore began to develop new techniques.

Today, stuffed animals are made 🏭 from all kinds of materials . Some even imitate real fur. Plushes also include foam, cotton, plastic pellets, synthetic fibers, etc. Others have wire frames in their bodies, allowing them to stand freely or move their legs, for example.

3) How did the Teddy Bear get its name?

A- President Roosevelt and the black bear

The teddy is named after US President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt.

After Teddy Roosevelt's act of sportsmanship in 1902 was made legendary by a political cartoonist, his name was forever affixed to a childhood classic 👧. This 1902 comic strip published in the Washington Post was the inspiration behind the birth of the "teddy bear" .

Wrapped in boxes, paper and bows, teddy bears 🐻 have been lovingly placed under Christmas trees for generations, to the delight of little ones and toddlers everywhere. But the teddy bear is an American original : Its story begins with a vacation taken by President Theodore Roosevelt.

In the spring of 1902, the United Mine Workers of America ( UMWA ) were on strike , seeking shorter workdays and higher wages in a suffering coal industry. oversupply and low profits. The mine owners had welcomed the strike because they could not legally stop production; it allowed them to save on wages while increasing demand and prices.

Neither side was willing to back down, and fearing a deadly winter coal shortage, Roosevelt decided to intervene , threatening to send troops into the Midwest to retake the anthracite mines if the two sides failed to a deal. Throughout the fall, despite the risk of a major political setback, Roosevelt met with union representatives and coal mine operators. At the end of October, as the temperatures began to drop, the union and the owners reached an agreement.

B- The story of Teddy Bear (Teddy Bear) and Roosevelt

After averting this disaster, Roosevelt decides he needs a vacation 🏞 and accepts Mississippi Governor Andrew Longino's invitation to travel south for a hunting trip . Longino is the first Mississippi governor elected after the Civil War who is not a Confederate veteran, and he will soon face a re-election fight against James Vardaman. Longino was clearly hoping that a visit from the popular president might help him fend off a growing tide of his opponent and his rather extremist ideas.

Undeterred, Roosevelt met Longino in mid-November 1902, and the two men traveled to the town of Onward, 30 miles (50 km) north of Vicksburg. On the plains, they set up camp ⛺ with trappers, horses, tents, provisions, 50 hunting dogs, reporters, and a former slave named Holt Collier as their guide.

As a cavalryman for Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest during the Civil War, Collier knew the terrain well. He had also killed over 1,000 bears in his lifetime. Longino called on his expertise because bear hunting in the swamps was dangerous (which Roosevelt appreciated). "He was safer with me than with all the police officers in Washington," Collier later said.

The hunt had been scheduled as a 10-day excursion, but Roosevelt was impatient 😃 . "I have to see a live bear on the first day," he told Collier. He did not do it. But the next morning, Collier's dogs picked up the scent of a bear, and the president spent the next few hours chasing it, through mud and thicket. After a break for lunch, Collier's dogs had chased an old black bear, large and weighing 110 kg, to a waterhole.

Pinned down by barking dogs, the bear mowed down several with its paws, then crushed one to death. Collier proceeded to ring the bell for Roosevelt to join the hunt, then approached the bear. Eager to save the President's kill but seeing that his dogs were in danger, Collier swung his rifle and crushed the bear in the skull. He then tied it to a nearby tree and waited for Roosevelt.

When the President caught up with Collier, he came across a gruesome scene: a bloody, panting bear tied to a tree, dead and injured dogs, a crowd of hunters shouting, “President put the bear down!” As Roosevelt an avid outdoorsman and hunter entered the water, he refused saying it would be unsportsmanlike to kill a helpless animal in this way Collier then approached the bear with another hunter and, after a terrible struggle in the water, killed it with his knife, the animal was hung from a horse and brought back to camp.

C- Drawing the line in Mississippi by Berryman

News of Roosevelt's gesture of compassion soon spread across the country, and as early as Monday morning, November 17, cartoonist Clifford K. Berryman's cartoon appeared in the pages of the Washington Post 📰 . In this drawing, Roosevelt is dressed in full horseman's uniform, with his back to a corrected, frightened and very docile bear cub, refusing to shoot. The cartoon is titled "Drawing the Line in Mississippi," which some sources say refers not only to Roosevelt's refusal to shoot the bear, but also to his handling of a border dispute between Mississippi and Louisiana.

The cartoon became so popular that Berryman drew even smaller, cuter "teddy bears" in political caricatures and cartoons for the rest of Roosevelt's time as president.

D- The Trader Michtom and the Teddy Bear

Storekeeper Morris Michtom, who runs a grocery store 🍬 in Brooklyn, New York, made a small teddy bear from the cartoon image and placed it in his store window to decorate it. Surprisingly, the bear was purchased quickly. With the permission of President Roosevelt, the bear was officially named after the President's nickname, Teddy.

A story gave birth to a cartoon, a cartoon inspired a couple. No one can think of these three seemingly ordinary little things, which led to Teddy Bear's fame . Later, many new fashionable bear designs are inspired by teddy bears. The teddy bears are red 🔴 and come from Europe. And from Asia Pacific, the favorite bear of the Japanese is the teddy bear.

E- The Success of the Teddy Bear

On the day of this success, more than a dozen people asked if they could buy the bear. Thinking they might need permission from the White House to produce the stuffed animals, the Michtoms sent the original to the President as a gift 🎁 for his children and asked if he would mind if they used his name on the bear. Roosevelt, doubting it would make a difference, consented. With Roosevelt's permission, Michtom therefore named the bear "Teddy bears" .

The Teddy bear became so popular that the Michtoms quit their business to focus on making teddy bears. President Roosevelt even used the teddy bear as his mascot 🏴 when he ran for re-election in 1904.

Michtom's company grew into one of the largest toy manufacturers in the United States under the name Ideal Toy Company. In 1963, they donated 🙂 one of the first teddy bears to the Smithsonian Institution . It is currently on display in the US Presidency Gallery at the National Museum of American History.

4) Largest collection of stuffed animals

Until 2006, the largest collection of teddy bears in the world was at the Teddy Bear Museum in England. The museum had a collection of over 2,000 bears. But, the museum was put up for auction in 2006. Today, one family claims to own more than 5,000 teddy bears, although they haven't officially counted them all. The Volpps' collection includes a teddy bear they bought at auction for $88,000 💵.

Why would anyone pay so much for a teddy bear? All in the name of love : Mr. Volpps gave it to his wife on their 42nd wedding anniversary 👰.

5) Today, Stuffed Animals are Everywhere

Plush toys started small, and were often a toy for the very privileged and the poorest could make their own from rags and scraps of fabric. However, by the early 1900s, mass production allowed teddy bears to find their way into almost every home, becoming a staple of childhood, alongside a variety of others. plush toys.

But, after World War II, during the post-war baby boom, the toy market took off , giving way to new brands.

Slowly but surely companies started making all kinds of stuffed animals for kids and babies. Plush teddy bears, unicorn 🦄, sheep , polar bear, elephant, panda, popular fictional characters, and even giant stuffed animals. A quick tour of Plush Kingdom ® will show you the huge variety of stuffed animals available! Then, in the 1990s, electronic stuffed animals became popular. They can sing, dance, talk and react to certain actions.

Today, plush toys are produced everywhere, they are a staple in zoos, a must for children, and a fun and enjoyable experience for people of all ages. It's also one of the best-selling toys, and it's popular with everyone from babies to adults. All for good reason : plush toys promote creativity and positive thinking by encouraging kids to think about the adventurous dreams 🤠 they want to have before falling asleep.

Even if by chance you've never owned a stuffed animal, it's hard not to love them 🥰 stuffed animals have simply become one of the most popular and common toys a child has. .

There are countless stuffed animals around the world waiting to play. If you're looking for 👀 a comforting plush to add to your child's collection, consider the Peluche Kingdom ® teddy bears .