The story behind the name of the teddy bear is both quaint and emblematic of the larger-than-life personality of Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States. This beloved children's toy owes its name to an incident involving Roosevelt during a hunting trip in Mississippi in November 1902. The President, an avid hunter and outdoorsman, was invited by Mississippi Governor Andrew H. Longino to partake in a bear-hunting expedition. After several unsuccessful days, the hunting party captured a black bear and tied it to a tree, offering Roosevelt the opportunity to shoot it.
Roosevelt, however, deemed this unsportsmanlike and refused to kill the bear. The event caught the attention of the media, and Clifford Berryman, a political cartoonist for The Washington Post, captured the moment in a cartoon he titled "Drawing the Line in Mississippi," depicting Roosevelt with the tethered bear. The cartoon sparked public interest and caught the eye of Morris Michtom, a Brooklyn candy shop owner who also sold stuffed toys. Inspired by the story and Berryman's cartoon, Michtom created a soft, plush bear cub and, with permission from Roosevelt, called it "Teddy's bear."
The small toy was an instant hit, leading Michtom to mass-produce the bears. The success was so profound that it eventually prompted Michtom to found the Ideal Toy Company. Similarly, across the ocean in Germany, Richard Steiff, a toy designer for the Steiff Firm, unaware of Michtom's creation, produced a stuffed bear around the same time. These bears, exhibited at the Leipzig Toy Fair in 1903, were noticed by an American buyer who placed a large order, and thus the popularity of the teddy bear spread rapidly on both sides of the Atlantic.
The teddy bear phenomenon also reflects Roosevelt's public persona as both a rugged outdoorsman and a progressive reformer who cared deeply about fairness and the natural world. This incident famously solidified Roosevelt's image as a man of integrity and compassion, qualities that helped define his presidency. Today, teddy bears are universally beloved, embodying not only comfort and security for children but also serving as an enduring reminder of Theodore Roosevelt's impactful legacy.
