The Teddy Bear’s Origins
It was November 14th 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt was settling a border dispute between Mississippi and Louisiana. The work was tough but not tough enough to keep this iconic president from going on a classic Mississippi bear hunt in his spare time. While he was out on the hunt, he came across a young injured bear cub and felt it was the most merciful thing to put it out of its misery, so he ordered for it to be killed. Later, The Washington Post heard of this and ran an editorial political cartoon (by C. K. Berryman) called “Drawing the Line in Mississippi”. This illustration became exceedingly popular within the year and Theodore Roosevelt was now “Teddy Bear” in the media’s eye as Teddy the Toy Bear was selling out across the country becoming a nursery staple for generations.
Design
In Berrymans original design of the Teddy Bear he made the bear seem ferocious by standing over the mauled hunting dog it had attacked. Berryman made the wise decision of changing his design completely to be something approachable, soft and innocent – a gentle, cuddly Teddy Bear as we know them today.
Early Teddy Bears were a bit more rigid, being able to sit on their own with more realistic features, most noticeably a longer snout. In modern days, designers of recent Teddy Bears have taken Berrymans soft drawing to the extreme so that the Teddy Bears of more recent generations are smiley with short snouts, velvet fur and hundreds of variations of colour and pattern. If Berryman were to have stuck with his original drawing, we can assume that the cartoon would have had almost no impact. The fierce bear is expected and thus forgettable, and though the dead dog is striking – everyone remembers a bit of humour, especially when its with a president! The revamped design was so well done that it inspired people to give their president a lasting nickname, to make and buy teddy bears and to have the Teddy Bear still be a large part of our culture today.
Culture
Oh man what a segue into our next group! Culture! Teddy the Bear is an iconic object in history. In its early days it was a sensation but even in modern days Teddy is still kicking. Stuffed bears can be found in all shapes, sizes and colours in almost any shop you go to. They’re in dollar stores, Shoppers, Hospitals, Tourist shops, HECK! There’s even a full store devoted to them! Build-a-bear workshop would have been heaven to a child living in the early 1900’s.
But bears are now more than stuffed toys, they are so recognizable and familiar within our lives that the very drawing of a bear can become symbols for babies and children.
The Teddy Bear runs deep through the world’s culture as a staple childhood friend and can be assumed to stay that way, all because Theodore Roosevelt shot a bear.
Object
From the birth of the Teddy Bear in a humble candy shop in Brooklyn, NY, it has travelled worldwide. Almost no place is unfamiliar with the signature glint in its eye, its plushy limbs and rounded nose. The Teddy Bear is a domestic name and was so good in its original design that it has stayed mostly true to its original identity over the years.
When the design has changed it has made new bears with any sort of differing features you can imagine creating personalized bears for people or moments in time but no fully new objects.
Bellis, Mary. “History of the Teddy Bear.” ThoughtCo, Aug. 26, 2020, thoughtco.com/history-of-the-teddy-bear-1992528.
Leave a Reply