Blood shed history of Teddy Bears

Teddy Bears are cute dolls attracting the people of all age groups. Especially girls will forget their age when they come across Teddy Bears and love to buy such soft toys encouraging the multi – floor malls not to give any discount on soft toys particularly Teddy Bears. In the last two decades Teddy Bears saw much changes in its dress, shape, color etc., Even Teddy bears have occupied special status on all World Celebration days such as Valentine’s day, Children’s day and New year Celebration, Birthday Celebration to name a few. The origin of Teddy Bears is interesting and it has a blood shed history too.

Hunting animals was an activity of fun and prestige in earlier days, hunters used to get together on a particular day celebrating killing animals. On one of such events in 1902 Governor of Mississippi invited the then president of USA, Theodore Roosevelt for hunting day and asked to kill a black bear tied to the near by tree. If Roosevelt had killed the bear on that day it would have lost in the pages of history but Roosevelt didn’t kill the bear and ordered to free it. The situation was presented in the form of cartoon in the Washington Post by cartoonist Clifford Berryman. Roosevelt was not happy by the cartoon and openly commented on it. Utilizing the situation another cartoonist by name Morris Michtom made minor changes to the cartoon of Berryman’s bear and sent it to Roosevelt with a request to name the bear as ‘Teddy’s bear’, Teddy was Roosevelt’s nickname. Roosevelt was happy and permitted to give the name to bears, understanding the popularity of such toys Morris Michtom himself founded Ideal Novelty and Toy Co. to commercially manufacture Teddy Bears.

Without any information on such happenings another firm by name Steiff firm of Germany inspired by the drawings of Richard Steiff produced toys similar to Teddy Bears. This situation is much comparable with the development of Calculus independently by Newton and Leibnitz. Steiff’s firm exported three thousand toys to USA in 1903. Slowly the toys gained popularity and cute bears took position in show cases, gifts and toys etc., making it very popular. Over the time commercial production of Teddy Bears gained importance and now a popular toy used for many purposes including boy friends pampering their girl friends giving Teddy Bears.

If Roosevelt had killed that bear in 1902 like the other hunters. Teddy Bears would not have evolved and the death of bear would have added to the list of killed animals. But a kind act of Roosevelt made a remarkable moment in the history. Some companies earlier used real Bear’s cub for stuffing to manufacture Teddy Bears but now the Teddy Bears are manufactured using artificial materials and a few companies are using recyclable materials inside the Teddy Bears to make it extra soft.