Teddy bear

src: media.boingboing.net

A teddy bear is a soft toy in the form of a bear. Developed simultaneously by Morris Michtom store makers in the US and Richard Steiff in Germany in the early years of the 20th century, and named after President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt, the teddy bear became an iconic children's toy, celebrated in the story, songs, and movies. Since the creation of the first teddy dolls that tried to imitate the form of real bear children, "teddies" have varied greatly in shape, style, color, and material. They have become collectibles, with older and rarer "teddies" appearing in public auctions. Teddy bear is one of the most popular gifts for children and is often given to adults to signify love, congratulations, or sympathy.

Video Teddy bear

History

The name teddy bear comes from former US President Theodore Roosevelt, commonly known as "Teddy" (though he hates being called like that). The name came from an incident on a bear hunting trip in Mississippi in November 1902, where Roosevelt was invited by Mississippi Governor Andrew H. Longino. There are several other hunters competing, and most of them have killed an animal. The Roosevelt waiter suite, led by Holt Collier, cornered, beaten, and tied the American black bear to the willow tree after a long, exhausting pursuit with the dog. They called Roosevelt to the site and suggested that he should shoot him. He refused to shoot the bear himself, deemed this unsportsmanlike, but instructed that the bear was killed to remove him from his misery, and it became a political cartoon topic by Clifford Berryman at The Washington Post on November 16, 1902. While cartoons early adult black bears are knitted by a charmer and Roosevelt who is disgusted with a symbolic tone, then those issues and other Berryman cartoons make the bear smaller and cuter.

Morris Michtom looks at Roosevelt's image and is inspired to make a teddy bear. He created a soft little bear and put it in a shop window with a "Teddy's bear," after sending a bear to Roosevelt and receiving permission to use his name. The toy was an immediate success and Michtom founded Novelty Ideal and Toy Co.

At the same time in Germany, the Steiff company, unaware of Michtom bears, produced a teddy bear from the design of Richard Steiff. Steiff showed off toys 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 brother of Alban Berg composer). He ordered 3000 to be sent to the United States. Although Steiff's records show that the bears were produced, they were not recorded when they arrived in the US, and no instance type, "55 PB", ever seen, leads to the story that the bears were stranded. However, the story is disputed - Gunther Pfieffer notes that it was only recorded in 1953 and says that it is likely that 55 PBs are not durable enough to survive to this day. Although Steiff and Michtom both make a teddy bear around the same time, it will not know of other creations due to poor transatlantic communication.

North American educator Seymour Eaton wrote the Children's Book series The Roosevelt Bears, while composer John Walter Bratton wrote an instrumental "The Teddy Bears' Picnic", a "two-step characteristic", in 1907, which then had the words written for it by lyricist Jimmy Kennedy in 1932.

The early teddy bear is made to look like a real bear, with a long snout and round eyes. Modern teddy bears tend to have larger eyes and forehead and a smaller nose, a babylike feature that enhances the cuteness of motherhood. Teddy bear is also produced to represent different bear species, such as polar bears and grizzly bears, as well as pandas.

While the early teddy dolls were covered in mohair's tawny feathers, modern bear dolls were produced in various commercially available fabrics, most often synthetic fur, but also velor, denim, cotton, satin, and canvas.