On this day in 1902, a beloved childhood icon—the teddy bear—was named after U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. The story begins with a bear-hunting trip in Mississippi that November. Unlike other hunters, Roosevelt hadn’t managed to bag a single bear. His companions finally captured a black bear and tied it to a tree for the president to shoot—but Roosevelt refused, calling the act unsportsmanlike.
The incident caught the public eye when The Washington Post published a political cartoon on November 16, 1902, depicting Roosevelt and the tied-up bear. A New York City candy store owner named Morris Michtom saw the cartoon and had a creative idea. He asked his wife, Rose, to hand-sew a small stuffed bear. Placing it in their shop window with a sign that read “Teddy’s Bear,” the toy sold almost immediately. Michtom even sent one to President Roosevelt, asking permission to use his name—Roosevelt agreed, though he reportedly thought the toy would amount to nothing.
The president quickly “adopted” the bear, featuring it in his campaign and displaying it at White House events, which helped boost its popularity. By 1906, one Manhattan store had sold over 60,000 teddy bears. The demand was so high that Michtom founded the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company in 1907. Around the same time, the German toy company Steiff also began shipping stuffed bears to U.S. stores. Interestingly, the two companies likely had no knowledge of each other due to slow transatlantic communication.
After Roosevelt’s presidency ended in 1909, his successor, William Howard Taft, became the next subject of toy inspiration—but with less success. Taft was known for enjoying a Southern dish called “possum-n’-taters,” and the public often gifted him live opossums. Toymakers tried to capitalize on this by creating a plush opossum called Billy Possum, which appeared on postcards, buttons, figurines, and even china. Unfortunately, Billy Possum failed to capture the public’s imagination, and the fad quickly faded.
Meanwhile, the teddy bear continued to thrive and remains one of the most enduring toys in history. The teddy bear industry was valued at $6.4 billion in 2022, and the toy has earned several accolades, including being named the state toy of Mississippi. A Michtom-made teddy bear owned by Roosevelt’s descendants now resides in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, while vintage teddy bears have become prized collectors’ items. The most expensive teddy bear ever sold was a Steiff ‘Louis Vuitton’ bear, which fetched $182,550 at Christie’s in Monaco.
Teddy bears have also inspired extremes in size and collection. The world’s largest teddy bear, measuring an astonishing 63 feet 8 inches, was created in Mexico in April 2019. The largest teddy bear collection belongs to a Hungarian woman and includes over 20,000 bears.
From a hand-sewn novelty inspired by a hunting trip to a global phenomenon, the teddy bear has captured hearts for over a century—and shows no signs of slowing down.