Teddy Bear Day

What the day is

Teddy Bear Day is observed on September 9. It celebrates the teddy bear, the soft, stuffed companion that has comforted children, and many adults, for more than a century. The day is informal, and the choice of date is not documented.

Teddy bears are a rare toy that outlasts childhood. Plenty of people keep theirs for life, and some collect them seriously.

Origin and background

The bear gets its name from a story about President Theodore Roosevelt. In November 1902, on a hunting trip in Mississippi, his hosts arranged for him to shoot a black bear they had tied to a tree. Roosevelt refused, calling it unsportsmanlike. The cartoonist Clifford Berryman drew the scene for the Washington Post, and the image spread widely. A Brooklyn shopkeeper, Morris Michtom, is said to have made a stuffed bear in response and displayed it with a sign calling it Teddy's bear. He went on to found a toy company, the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company.

At about the same time in Germany, the Steiff company, founded by Margarete Steiff, began producing a jointed mohair bear designed by her nephew Richard Steiff, which became a hit at a toy fair in Leipzig in 1903 and was sold in large numbers in the United States. The two stories developed side by side, and the teddy bear became a worldwide toy.

Its role has gone well beyond play. Police officers, fire crews and hospitals keep teddy bears to give to frightened children, and old bears from famous makers can sell at auction for large sums.

How to take part

• Spend an afternoon with your own bear, or give a new one to a child who needs a friend.
• Hold a teddy bear picnic in a park, with sandwiches and a blanket.
• Donate new or gently used bears to a hospital, shelter or first-responder program that gives them to children.
• Look at antique bears in a museum or a collection, and notice how designs have changed.
• Mend an old bear with a needle and thread, since a repaired bear is a loved one.