Welcome to Our Collection of Steiff Bears

The history of the teddy bear is not really a straight forward one. It has been a widely debated for many years, who actually invented the teddy bear. So perhaps starting out by trying to establish this, will shed some light and give you an insight as to the beginnings of this well-loved toy!

The name teddy bear comes from former United States President Theodore Roosevelt, who was commonly known as "Teddy". The name originated from an incident on a bear hunting trip in Mississippi in November 1902. After having no luck, himself catching a bear, one of his aids caught and tied a black bear to a tree, so that the president could shoot and have his kill. He refused to shoot the bear himself, deeming this unsportsmanlike, but instructed that the bear be killed to put it out of its misery, and it became the topic of a political cartoon by Clifford Berryman in The Washington Post on November 16, 1902.

Morris Michtom a Russian-born businessman and inventor saw the drawing of Roosevelt and came up with a "Teddy" bear to go along with the story and the cartoon. This became an immediate success and Michtom founded the Ideal Novelty and Toy Co and started to produce the teddy bear on a larger scale.

At roughly the same time in Germany, the Steiff firm, unaware of Michtom's teddy bear, produced a stuffed bear from Richard Steiff's designs. While attending the School of Arts and Crafts in Stuttgart, Richard Steiff would regularly visit the nearby Nill'scher Zoo. He spent most of his time sketching inhabitants of the bear enclosure and in the summer of 1902, after one of his visits to the Zoo, a prototype teddy bear called, Steiff Bär 55 PB was produced. The Steiff bear was born.