Do you know where Teddy bears come from?

Most of us have had a Teddy bear that we cuddled with, that comforted us when we were scared, or that was a playmate in some of our wild adventures as children, but how many of us actually know why they are called “teddy bears”?

Who is Teddy?

Why are these cute little stuffed animals named after him? Well here are some answers!

Theodore Roosevelt was President of the United States in the early nineteen hundreds, and he went by the nickname “Teddy”. In 1902 He was hunting for bears in Mississippi, but after a long time and no success his friends decided to track down a bear that the President could shoot so that he wouldn’t come back from the hunt empty handed. They managed to find and corner a Black Bear and tied him to a tree for the President to kill. President Roosevelt refused to kill the animal himself, but told the others to kill it to put it out of its misery. News traveled fast, and soon there was a political cartoon of this event in the newspapers. Morris Michtom was a businessman in New York who’s attention was caught by the story. His wife designed a toy bear and Michtom wrote and asked President Roosevelt if they could name it after him. President Roosevelt agreed and thats how we got “Teddy bears”!

(this information was found in Bear-ology by Sylvia Dolson)