The Origin of Teddy Bears 🧸

Morning Teddy!

I'm willing to bet you probably had (or still have) one of these:

Ye, a teddy bear.

Over 100 million stuffed animals are sold in the U.S. each year, most of which are these things.

But… Why are they called “Teddy” Bears?

And why are they bears? Why not another animal like a goose or something?

So, it was 1902.

The President of the United States at the time, Theodore Roosevelt, went out on a hunting trip with his buddies.

Now, everyone else was doing pretty well.

With lots of successful hunts.

Everyone except Theodore…

So, one of Theodore's assistants, Holt Collier, a former slave, cavalryman and total badass wanted to help Theodore out.

And you know what he did?

He went and found a black bear, chillin’ in the woods,

snuck up behind it,

clubbed it in the head,

and then tied it to a willow tree.

For Theodore to shoot, of course.

But, the president didn't like the help.

He was like:

And somehow word got out that president Roosevelt didn’t shoot the tied up bear.

Which prompted political cartoonist Clifford Berryman to create this:

An amusing picture with a weird-looking bear cub that had some underlying political meaning at the time.

And this thing, it went the early 1900s equivalent of viral, and this random New York shopkeeper and his wife saw this cartoon and were really inspired by it.

So, they made a stuffed fabric bear in honor of the president.

They wrote a letter to him and asked if it was cool if they named the bear after him.

And he was like:

And so, it was called “Teddy’s Bear”

After president Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt.

And the rest is history…

Stay Cute,
Reece, Henry & Dylan 🌈

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