In 1902 American president Theodore Roosevelt went on a bear hunting expedition in Mississippi that led to the invention of perhaps the most iconic children's toy in history. Holt Collier, a former slave and prodigious huntsman, was charged with organizing the chase. In order to provide Roosevelt with a clear shot, Collier and his hounds tracked down a bear and drove it to the stand where the president was waiting. However, when Collier arrived with the bear, Roosevelt had left for lunch. In the ensuing confusion the bear attacked one of the hunting dogs. But unwilling to kill the beast he'd promised to the president, Collier simply knocked it out with his rifle and tied it to a tree. When Roosevelt returned a short while later he was impressed by Collier's feat, but refused to kill the defenseless bear.
The episode gained widespread media attention, and in November 1902 the Washington Post ran a series of Clifford Berryman cartoons, initially featuring Roosevelt and an adult bear tied to a tree. In subsequent cartoons the bear was depicted as an endearing little cub, and inspired by the drawings, Morris and Rose Michtom—two shopkeepers from Brooklyn, New York—created a toy bear. Named after "Teddy" Roosevelt, theirs was not a real-life representation, and its sweet and innocent looks became a huge hit with society ladies and children. The Michtoms subsequently founded the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company, which still exists today.
Coinddentally, German seamstress Margarete Steiff also began producing toy bears at around the same time. Initially shunned in Europe, they flew off the shelves in the United States. Steiff bears—with their trademark button in the left ear—were always the most . expensive ones, and hence their antique models still command the highest prices among collectors.
