Teddy's history.

Today we can hardly imagine a world without that eager listener, confidante, and loyal friend, the teddy bear. But the teddy bear has not always been with us. In fact, the teddy bear did not make its entrance until late in 1902.

How did the history of teddy bears start?

On November 14, 1902, then-President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt went to Mississippi to settle a border dispute between Mississippi and Louisiana. While there, he went on a hunting trip. The hunting was so poor that someone finally captured a bear and invited Roosevelt to shoot. But Roosevelt refused to harm the defenseless bear. The next day, political cartoonist Clifford Berryman, drew a cartoon showing President Roosevelt refusing to hurt the helpless bear. The cartoon's caption "Drawing the Line in Mississippi" refers to both the border dispute settlement and the hunting incident.
The cartoon appeared in a panel of cartoons in The Washington Post on November 16, 1902. It caused an immediate sensation and was reprinted widely. Apparently this cartoon even inspired Morris and Rose Michtom of Brooklyn, New York, to make a bear in honor of the president's actions. The Michtoms named their bear "Teddy's Bear" and placed it in the window of their candy and stationery store. Instead of looking fierce and standing on all four paws like previous toy bears, the Michtoms' bear looked sweet, innocent, and upright, like the bear in Berryman's cartoon. Perhaps that's why "Teddy's Bear" made a hit with the buying public. In fact, the demand was so strong that the Michtoms, with the help of a wholesale firm called Butler Brothers, founded the first teddy bear manufacturer in the United States, the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company.

Meanwhile, across the ocean in Germany, Richard Steiff was working for his aunt, Margarete Steiff, in her stuffed toy business. Richard, a former art student, often visited the Stuttgart Zoo to sketch animals, particularly the bear cubs. In 1902, the same year the Michtoms made "Teddy's Bear," the Steiff firm made a prototype of a toy bear based on Richard's designs.

Though both the Michtoms and Steiff were working on bears at the same time, certainly neither knew, at a time of poor transatlantic communication, about the other's creation. Besides, the Michtoms' bear resembled the wide-eyed cub in the Berryman cartoon, while the Steiff bear, with its humped back and long snout, looked more like a real bear cub.
A few months later, in March 1903, at the Leipzig Toy Fair, Steiff introduced its first bear-Baer 55PB. The European buyers showed little interest, but an American toy buyer, who was aware of the growing interest in "Teddy's bears" in the States, ordered 3000. In America, people were beginning to get teddy bear fever, and Steiff was in the right place at the right time.

1907 Steiff company produced about 974 000 pcs of teddy bears!

Meanwhile, American manufacturers were turning out bears in all colors and all kinds, from teddy bears on roller skates to teddy bears with electric eyes. "Teddy bear," without the apostrophe and the s, became the accepted term for this plush bruin, first appearing in print in the October 1906 issue of Playthings Magazine. Even Steiff, a German company, adopted the name for its bears.
Steiff and Ideal were no longer the only players in the teddy bear business. In America, dozens of competitors sprang up. Almost all of these very early companies didn't last, with the notable exception of the Gund Manufacturing Corporation. Gund made its first bears in 1906 and is still making bears today.
American teddy bear companies faced stiff competition from all the teddy bears imported from Germany, and many of the U.S. companies didn't last long. In Germany, toymaking was an old and established industry, and many German firms, such as Bing, Schuco, and Hermann, joined with Steiff in making fine teddy bears.

In England, The J.K. Farnell & Co. got its start; in fact, the original Winnie the Pooh was a Farnell bear Christopher Robin Milne received as a first birthday present from his mother in 1921. Five years later, his father, A.A. Milne, would begin to publish the Winnie-the-Pooh books about his son Christopher's adventures with his bear and his other stuffed animals. Today you can see the original toys that inspired the Winnie-the-Pooh books on permanent display in the Central Children's Room of the Donnell Branch of the New York Public Library in New York City, while the Pooh books themselves are as popular as ever.

The second world war has stopped the developing buisness in Europe. There were too little materials, too little inspiration and not much interest.
Years 50' and 60' it is the beginning of massive production of teddy bears. The market started to be strongly influenced by japan production. The quality was not so important any more as the quantity. Teddy bears lost all of their hand-made charakcteristics (e.g. movable parts of body, high quality materials etc.)
In America, the beginning of 60' teddy bears enthusiasts have grounded many fun clubs and magazines, which are full of information about newest materials, trends and organised shows- helpfull thing for teddybear's producers. The same started to happen in Germany in 80'.
The most of the old fun clubs exists till now, but there are also many new estabilished organisations, clubs that are concentrated on developing the idea and legend of hand-made teddy bears. In many countries you can visit a special shows, where all teddy bears producers are presenting their "children".
I hope from the buttom of my heart, that some day the same will be in Poland.