Historic Treasure of the Week - December 19,
1982
By Dorothy W. Jerse
Curator, Vigo County Historical Society
One of the treasures in the toy collection of the Vigo County Historical Society is this Teddy Bear. This would be as welcome in this year's stocking as he was when he was received by Ruth M. Erwin in 1906.
The companions and loyal friends of boys and girls since 1903, Teddy Bears were named after Theodore Roosevelt, U.S. President from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt traveled south for duty and pleasure: to settle a boundary dispute between Mississippi and Louisiana and to enjoy a bear hunt. While on the trip he refused to shoot an exhausted bear tied to a tree.
The story appeared in the November 15, 1902 Washington Post and the next day the incident was pictured in a cartoon by Clifford Berryman. Roosevelt's refusal to shoot the bear received national attention.
The cartoon lead Morris Michtom, a Brooklyn shopkeeper who was to become the founder of the Ideal Toy Corporation, to design a bear and secure permission from the president to call it Teddy's Bear.
A Teddy Bear boom resulted and in a short time, all sort of novelties portraying bears appeared on the market. Two are pictured here. The pen wiper is made of a bear-shaped layer of leather and two of flannel fastened together. The words "One of the bears Teddy didn't get" are burnt into the leather cover. This item was given to the society by Mrs. Glenn T. Andrews in 1974.
Teddy B and Teddy G Visit Yellow Springs was the gift of Betty Coddington in 1981. Written in 1907 by Rosa Lee Stoddard, the book is a souvenir of yellow Springs. The text, illustrations and photographs combine to promote the Ohio community.
Visitors my view the Teddy Bear threesome in the country store display in the Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley, 1411 South Sixth Street. Open hours are 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday through Friday.