The history of the teddy bear is a lovely story from President Teddy Roosevelt refusing to shoot a captive bear to Morris Michtom and his wife creating what is now accepted as the first of the modern Teddys’ Bear.
The history of what we know today as the Teddy Bear begins in Germany, in late October 1902, where Richard Steiff, a toy designer working for the family firm in Giengen, in search of ideas for new toys and went to see a touring American circus. Among the performing animals he saw there was a troupe of bears. They sparked off his ideas and he saw the possibility of making a bear toy jointed in a similar way to the dolls that they produced.
He put his thoughts down on paper for his aunt, Margarete Steiff, born in 1847 and who had founded the firm in 1880. She liked the idea and Richard set to work on visiting zoo’s to sketch bears.
The history of what we know today as the Teddy Bear begins in Germany, in late October 1902, where Richard Steiff, a toy designer working for the family firm in Giengen, in search of ideas for new toys and went to see a touring American circus. Among the performing animals he saw there was a troupe of bears. They sparked off his ideas and he saw the possibility of making a bear toy jointed in a similar way to the dolls that they produced.
He put his thoughts down on paper for his aunt, Margarete Steiff, born in 1847 and who had founded the firm in 1880. She liked the idea and Richard set to work on visiting zoo’s to sketch bears.
