15-03-2023, 10:08 AM
In Nov 1902, newly inagaurated president, Theodore Roosevelt decided to indulge in one of his favourite pastimes. He arranged a Mississippi hunting expedition with a premier black bear hunter, Holt Collier. They went to the wilderness of what is now the Delta National Forest, but the trip failed to live up to expectations and Roosevelt failed to find a bear. The press said that if he failed to find a bear what is he going to fail at politically? But just when it seemed all is lost his guide picked up the trail of a bear and finally got close enough to throw a rope around the exhausted creature and presented it to the president. What happened next changed the course of Roosevelt’s presidency not to mention children everywhere. The guide tethered the beast to a tree and offered it up to the president for an easy kill. What happened next cemented Roosevelt’s legacy and inspired a surprising creation. He said, “I can’t shoot the bear.” Roosevelt thought that to trap and kill the bear could hardly be considered fair sport.
After he returned from the hunt the press got to hear of the president’s act of mercy and the story appeared in several newspapers. And for those who may have questioned how the youngest president would fare in office, the event seemed to confirm him as an honourable and decisive leader.
A cartoon by Clifford Berryman depicted the president refusing to kill the bear. The image of the president and the bear became an instant sensation causing Berryman to reprise the bear in future works. Whenever there was a cartoon about the president, no matter what it was, it included one of Berryman’s little bears.
Soon the little bear took on a life of it’s own and before long, in Brooklyn, New York, a Russian shop owner, named Maurice Hickman, along with his wife, Rose, taking inspiration from Berryman’s cartoons, concieved a new type of children’s toy, one that was named after Roosevelt’s familiar nickname, the teddy bear. They started making small stuffed animals in the image of the Clifford Berryman cartoon and they proved to be very successful. Factories started turning them out and by the time he became president it was one of the most popular children’s toys.
I just thought that you would find that interesting.
After he returned from the hunt the press got to hear of the president’s act of mercy and the story appeared in several newspapers. And for those who may have questioned how the youngest president would fare in office, the event seemed to confirm him as an honourable and decisive leader.
A cartoon by Clifford Berryman depicted the president refusing to kill the bear. The image of the president and the bear became an instant sensation causing Berryman to reprise the bear in future works. Whenever there was a cartoon about the president, no matter what it was, it included one of Berryman’s little bears.
Soon the little bear took on a life of it’s own and before long, in Brooklyn, New York, a Russian shop owner, named Maurice Hickman, along with his wife, Rose, taking inspiration from Berryman’s cartoons, concieved a new type of children’s toy, one that was named after Roosevelt’s familiar nickname, the teddy bear. They started making small stuffed animals in the image of the Clifford Berryman cartoon and they proved to be very successful. Factories started turning them out and by the time he became president it was one of the most popular children’s toys.
I just thought that you would find that interesting.
