Discover How President Theodore Roosevelt Inspired the World’s First Teddy Bear, Which Went on Sale on This Day in 1903
The unlikely origin story of the beloved children’s toy involves a hunting expedition in Onward, Mississippi, and a president who wanted to be a good sportsman
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Teddy bears are now an internationally beloved children’s toy. But few remember the presidential hunting trip and state boundary dispute that led to the sale of the first such bear on this date in 1903.
President Theodore Roosevelt, often known as Teddy, went on a bear hunting trip near Onward, Mississippi, in November 1902 with a group of notables. Though others on the excursion bagged bears, as the hunt wound down the president, a noted outdoorsman, was unsuccessful. So his assistants took matters into their own hands, cornering a 235-pound black bear and tying it to a willow tree. They summoned the president and encouraged him to shoot it.
Roosevelt, however, declined. “I’ve hunted game all over America and I’m proud to be a hunter,” he reportedly said. “But I couldn’t be proud of myself if I shot an old, tired, worn-out bear that was tied to a tree.”
The news spread, and Washington Post cartoonist Clifford Berryman further popularized the tale. In “Drawing the Line in Mississippi,” Berryman depicted the president with his back turned to a small, toy-like bear tied up like the one on the hunt. The cartoon’s significance went beyond the hunting expedition. Berryman was also commenting on the reason for Roosevelt’s presence in the state to begin with: a boundary dispute between Mississippi and Louisiana that Roosevelt helped resolve before heading out on the bear hunt.
The story of the teddy bear then turns to Rose and Morris Mitchtom who owned a candy store in New York City. Taking inspiration from the depiction of the black bear in Berryman’s cartoon, the Michtoms created a stuffed bear. she put it in the window of the family candy shop. “Teddy’s Bear” was an instant success.
The Michtoms, inspired by this early sales success, received permission from Roosevelt to use his name, and the widely known “teddy bear” was born. They began to mass-produce the stuffed animals and founded the business that would later be known as the Ideal Toy Company.
Though Roosevelt reportedly disliked the nickname “Teddy,” he had a soft spot for his namesake toy, bringing it to official White House functions and displaying it as part of his campaign.
In the years that followed, the Michtoms sought out ways to keep the Roosevelt family involved in their business. In 1963, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the teddy bear, the Michtoms gifted Kermit Roosevelt Jr., the grandson of the late former president, one of the original bears for his children. After treasuring it for a year, the family donated the bear to the Smithsonian in 1964.
Although the Ideal Toy Company was the first to make and commercialize teddy bears, it was far from the only company to do so. The same year as the debut of the Michtoms’ teddy bear, a German company modeled its bear toy at a fair. Distinguishing it were jointed limbs and more lifelike features.
For the Michtoms, the teddy bear was a permanent business pivot. The company went on to produce several popular doll brands including Thumbelina and Patti Playpal, and it also popularized the Rubik’s Cube. It was ultimately acquired by Mattel in 1997 and lives on as a brand within the toy-making giant. and lives on as a brand within the toy-making giant.
