 Bear beginnings
It all began with Margarete Steiff’s famous stuffed toy company in Germany. The very first commercially-produced stuffed bear was designed by the founder’s nephew, Richard Steiff in 1902. He based his design on real bears, which he observed and sketched at Stuttgart Zoo. The first batch of bears was offered for sale at the Leipzig Toy Fair in March 1903.
Soon the bears were on sale in America. Around that time, the American President, Theodore ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt, refused to shoot a bear that had been captured for him to kill. The Washington Post newspaper made a cartoon out of the story in November 1902. The cartoonist was called Clifford Berryman.
A New York shopkeeper called Morris Mitchom is thought to have made a soft toy called ‘Teddy’s Bear’ as a tribute to the President. By 1906 the name teddy bear was popular throughout the USA and Europe.
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