How the Teddy Bear Got its Name

Identification

• President Theodore Roosevelt was an active hunter who loved being outdoors. In fact, he is responsible for setting aside the land that makes up our system of National Parks. Even after he was out of office, he continued to hunt and you can see the animals he shot on safari in Africa if you go to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington.

History

• President Roosevelt took three days to go bear hunting in Mississippi during 1902. He was disappointed because, by the end of the trip, they still had not found any bears to shoot. Finally some of the guides and their hunting dogs trapped an old black bear. The dogs bit and scratched the bear and the guides decided to save the honor of shooting the bear for the president, so they tied the bear to a tree. When the president arrived, he saw the bear tied to the tree but he refused to shoot it or to have people think that he had actually succeeded in hunting it. Instead he ordered the guides to kill the bear because it had been so badly injured by the dogs.

Significance

• When Clifford Berryman heard about this, he retold the story as a political cartoon. It showed President Roosevelt leaning on his gun like a walking stick with his back to the bear. The president was drawn holding his hand back like a policeman who is stopping traffic. Another man is trying to pull a confused, innocent looking little bear on a leash. The bear is sitting on the ground and the man strains, unsuccessfully, to move the bear. The caption for the cartoon was, "Drawing the Line in Mississippi."

Benefits

• Since Clifford Berryman was a well-known political cartoonist whose work was published in the Washington Post, at that time, and then later in the Evening Star. The cartoon quickly spread around the country, like a good joke. When Morris Michtom saw it, he decided to ask President Roosevelt if he could take the name, "Teddy's Bears," as a way to market the stuffed bears that his wife had made. The president said yes. This sales strategy was so successful that Michtom's New York store grew to become a larger company, the Ideal Novelty &Toy Co. Other stuffed bears were also dubbed "teddy bears," including the ones made and sold in Germany by Margaret Steif. Now almost every stuffed bear is called a "teddy bear."

Expert Insight

• Clifford Berrymore continued to draw political cartoons about President Roosevelt after the unfortunate hunting incident. He continued to use a picture of a bear cub as a symbol for the president in the cartoons. After the Roosevelt presidency was over, the cartoonist changed the meaning of the bear cub symbol to represent his own opinion in a cartoon.