15 February: Teddy Bears

On 15 February 1903 the first Teddy Bear was sold in America. It was made by Morris and Rose Michtom, Russian immigrants. They lived in Brooklyn, New York. Here are 10 things you might not know about teddy bears.

1. Most people have heard the story about how the teddy bear got its name; how in 1902, Theodore Roosevelt, often referred to as Teddy, went on a hunting trip and didn't manage to shoot anything, so was presented with a wounded Bear cub tied to a tree so that he could make at least one kill. Roosevelt refused to kill the cub because it wouldn't be very sportsmanlike. A newspaper published a cartoon of him holding a bear cub and "Teddy's bears" became a thing. Sadly, though, just because Roosevelt wouldn't shoot the bear it didn't mean it got to live. Roosevelt told the hunters to put the bear out of its misery and after he'd gone, they killed it with a knife.
2. Teddy bears already existed before this but were called simply "stuffed bears" or "Bruins". They hadn't been around all that long - the first one had been produced in Germany that same year German toy maker Margarete Steiff, who was asked to produce such a toy by her nephew after a visit to the zoo. She thought bears were rather scary for children's toys, so she gave them Button eyes and cute faces.
3. Morris and Rose Michtom got permission from Roosevelt to market their toy bears as Teddy Bears. They caught on fast - in March 1903, the Steiff Company shipped 3,000 more across the Atlantic.
4. The first Teddies in Britain were made by the J.K. Farnell company in 1908. In 1925 they created the "Alpha Bear", which is widely believed to have been the inspiration behind the look of Winnie the Pooh. The name Winnie the Pooh came from a real bear called Winnipeg, which came from Canada and was much loved by Christopher Robin Milne on trips to the zoo.
5. After the Titanic sank in 1912, the Steiff company created 500 teddy bears in honour of the victims. These “mourning bears” were Black with Red-rimmed eyes. They now sell for $20,000 or more in auctions.
6. Teddy bears get around. Aviation pioneers, Alcock and Brown, took teddy bears with them as mascots on their historic flight from St. John's, Newfoundland to Clifden, Ireland in 1919. That was only the beginning. More recently, in the 21st century, a bear called Raymondo belonging to the ISPY company travelled 395,605 miles, visiting six continents and 35 countries with airline crew members and sponsors. He's officially the most travelled toy, but Magellan T. Bear has been to places no bear has been before. He became the first teddy bear in space on Space Shuttle Discovery in 1995. He was a project for a Colorado elementary school. He later flew around the world, and visited the South Pole, as well.
7. Someone who collects or is particularly fond of teddy bears is called an ‘arctophile.’ The word comes from the Greek arctos (bear) and philos (loving).
8. It's definitely the word for Jackie Miley, from Hilly City, South Dakota, who has the world’s biggest teddy bear collection. As of 2012, she owned 8,026 of them.
9. The smallest commercially available stitched teddy bear is 0.29 inches tall, and is made by South African “microbear” maker Cheryl Moss. The largest Teddy bear is C.T.Dreams, which stands for Connect the Dreams. He lives at the Exploration Place in Wichita, Kansas and is 55 feet 4 inches tall.
10. The song, Teddy Bear's Picnic was originally called The Teddy Bear Two Step. It was composed in 1907 by JK Bratton, but the words weren't added until 1932, by Jimmy Kennedy.

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