The Creation of the Teddy Bear

We know the basic fact that the "Teddy" Bear was created and named after President Roosevelt, but what we might not know is the interesting story behind how it came to be.

On November 14 of the year 1902, Roosevelt was on a hunting trip in search of a bear. Andrew H. Longino, the governor of Mississippi at the time, had invited him to join a hunting trip, where Roosevelt was the only one who hadn't yet found a bear. Later, however, his assistants had found and tied a black bear to a tree. They encouraged Roosevelt to shoot it, but he downright rejected them and wouldn't do it because it was unsportsmanlike.  He ended up never attempting to shoot the bear, and news of this spread through newspaper around the country. 

A cartoonist named Clifford Berryman read about the news and decided to make a joke about it in a cartoon. This cartoon was seen by a candy shop owner named Morris Michtom, who made stuffed animals as part of his job. Michtom decided to make a stuffed bear and dedicate it to Roosevelt. These became very popular, and soon teddy bears were being mass-produced which led to him founding the Ideal Toy Company.

Something very familiar to every one of us was created by Roosevelt's decision to not shoot a bear.