a  homage to teddy roosevelt . . . .

The American tradition of the teddy bear began from one historical cartoon.  The cartoon depicted President Theodore Roosevelt refusing to shoot a baby bear. The story goes that Theodore Roosevelt had traveled to Mississippi to help settle a border dispute between Mississippi and Louisiana.  He was then invited on a bear hunt.   On that day, the hunting was poor.  Someone captured a bear and offered it to Roosevelt to shoot. Theodore Roosevelt's refused to fire at the helpless animal.   Berryman's cartoon spotlights the two ways Roosevelt was drawing a line, through settling a border dispute and refusing to shoot a captive bear. 

The infamous cartoon appeared in the The Washington Post on November 16, 1902. It brought about an immediate sensation.  Morris and Rose Michtom of Brooklyn, New York, created a bear in honor of the president's actions and named it  'Teddy's Bear'.  They displayed it in the window of their candy/stationery store. This design did not look  fierce and standing on all fours like many of the toy bears of that time.  This new "Teddy" sported a sweet, innocent, expression and was upright in posture much like the bear in Berryman's cartoon. The Michtom's success showed a great demand for this new toy.  The Michtom's formed  the first teddy bear manufacturing company in the United States, the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company. 

And the rest is history........

Drawing the Line in Mississippi by Clifford Berryman: This cartoon is believed to have triggered the teddy bear craze in the U.S.