The Teddy Bear Essay, Research Paper
History of the Teddy Bear
There are many fluctuations of the narrative explicating the beginning of the teddy bear. Some believe it was
wholly a German creative activity. Others believe it was American. Some say it was a combination of the two.
Still, others think it started in England.
The first narrative is that of Margarete Steiff, a adult female born in Giengen, Germany in 1847. When she was
merely two, she contracted infantile paralysis and spent the remainder of her life in a wheelchair ( Margarete ) . That didn & # 8217 ; t halt her
from being productive. She loved kids and they visited her frequently ( The ) .
One twenty-four hours, she noticed a form in a magazine for a plaything elephant. She started doing a few elephants and
gave them as gifts to friends and neighbours. Childrem loved it! Then, she started doing other animate beings like a
poodle, a bear, and a donkey ( Margarete ) .
Her nephew, Richard had been fascinated with bears. He had been watching a household of brown bears at
Nills Animal show and chalk outing their jokes for his aunt ( Origin ) . He besides helped her with planing her stuffed
bears. In 1903, he brought some of her bears to the celebrated Leipzig carnival ( Margarete ) .
This is where the narrative would stop for one who believed the bear & # 8217 ; s beginnings were merely in Germany. But, on
the last twenty-four hours of the carnival, a adult male named Hermann Berg, a purchaser from a New York house called Geo Borgfeldt & A ; Co. ,
went to the Steiff base. He & # 8217 ; d been kicking that there was nil new at the carnival. Then, he saw the bear
and cognize there & # 8217 ; vitamin D be a market for it
in the U.S. He placed an order for 3,000 bears ( Margarete ) .
That really twelvemonth, Theodore Roosevelt, ( known as & # 8220 ; Teddy & # 8221 ; to shut friends ) , had gone to the back countries of
Mississippi runing for bears. Several yearss passed and he and the remainder of the expedition hadn & # 8217 ; t caught a bear.
The usher so found a small bear greenhorn in the coppice and presented it to the President. He refused to kill it and sent
it back off to its female parent ( Origin ) .
Clifford Berryman, a political cartoonist for the Washington Post, heard the narrative of the small bear. It
touched him and he published a sketch picturing Roosevelt & # 8217 ; s refusal to kill the greenhorn. The caption said & # 8220 ; pulling
the line in Mississippi & # 8221 ; ( History ) . In ulterior sketchs, Berryman ever included the small bear with Roosevelt. He
called it & # 8220 ; Teddy & # 8217 ; s Bear & # 8221 ; ( Origin ) .
Two store proprietors, Morris and Rose Michton, saw the sketch. They had a plaything and freshness shop in
Brooklyn, New York. They had some toy bears at that place and Morris wrote to the President inquiring him if he could
call them Teddy, after him ( History ) .
There is another narrative refering the beginning of the teddy bear, but it is non every bit good known or accepted.
The British claim the teddy bear was their creative activity because of King Edward VII. His moniker was & # 8220 ; Teddy & # 8221 ;
( History ) .
No affair which narrative you believe, you can likely hold that the teddy bear will stay a precious
portion of childhood. Children the universe over have been snuggling these plush plaything for about 100 old ages. They are
surely a traditional and dateless hoarded wealth.
