Big Teddy Bear Battle: The Countries With First Bear
Teddy bears seem to be the all-American toy. After all, they received their name from President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt. But history is unclear as to which country started making stuffed bears – America or Germany. Although the name is American, the idea may be German.
According to tradition, the first teddy bear was made in America in 1902 when President Roosevelt was in office. An avid hunter, refused to shoot a baby black bear deliberately caught by his host and deliberately held for the President to shoot. Cartoonist Cliffored Barryman celebrated this occasion by drawing a popular political cartoon of the incident.
Brooklyn, New York shop owner Morris Mitchom and his wife Rose based a stuffed toy on the baby bear in Cliffored’s cartoon. The Mitchoms began selling the bears in 1902 after getting permission from the President to officially call them “Teddy bears.”
But at the same time the American Teddy bear appeared, so did the stuffed soft toy Baer 55PB made by the German toy company Steiff. Records exist of the bear appearing at the Leipzig Toy Fair of March, 1903, stating the toy had been first made in 1902. Richard Steiff had been inspired to design the toy after visiting bear cubs at the Stuttgart Zoo. Steiff still makes highly collectable teddy bears today.