HEY, THERE!

With the holiday and a food coma lingering, we’re pausing our Simple Bear Necessities series in favor of some teddy bear history.

Enter The Library. 

My all time favorite one: The Library of Congress.  

For someone who loves stories as much as bears, the LOC is overflowing with stories in words AND pictures. 

Thanks to their online archives, you can nerd out on history from wherever you live your laptop life.

I spent every day immersed in the words and pictures of the past during my 10 years at a museum.

But I never searched the LOC for bears. 

Until now. 

There’s an entire research guide dedicated to the teddy bear in the Chronicling America digital collection of historic newspapers.

So this begins an occasional series on the early life of the teddy bear and its rise to fame.  

And like most paths of icons, it cuts a jagged swath through ‘polite’ society. 

Next up in this issue:

• Teddy bears block 1906 suitors

• Paris pets get the cold shoulder  

• The German bear maker crosses the million mark 

First time reading? Sign up here. 

Speks are Must-Have Desk Toys for Anytime, Anywhere Focus

• Incredibly satisfying magnetic fidget toys with ASMR qualities

• Like magnetic putty, stress balls and blocks combined

• Helps you stay calm, focused, productive & creative

Get 25% Off Speks Now

DEEP DIVE
‘SPREADING TO BEAT MUMPS’

One hundred and eighteen years ago this month, the teddy bear was considered a fad. 

A foible of obsessed girls and women.  

But few could deny the bear’s reach and magnetism. 

Not when it turned the heads of society girls away from gentleman callers and forced finishing school faculty to find “the best method of suppressing: the Teddy-Bear at school.”  

So said “Flour City Buds Adopt Teddy Bear.”

Published on December 4, 1906, in The Minneapolis Journal, the article’s neighboring ads and briefs offer a glimpse of what was considered newsworthy in the Flour Mill Capital of the World.

Let’s set the scene with a roundup of the randomness.

• High heels were first worn by a Court belle who wanted to be tall.

• SHEEP ARE BAD FREIGHT 

• Foot Schulze rubbers cost no more than substitutes. Get the genuine. 

• London has 1,028 post offices and 2,435 public telephone stations.

• GOPHER CALVES WIN

His eyes never wink as they look into hers;

She hugs him, and lugs him, and yet he ne'er stirs. 

His luck he can't know, for he's lacking in sense, 

Yet "Teddy" is cuddled at some man's expense. 

His heart is but sawdust, his brain is stuffed hair,

But all the girls worship the dear "Teddy-Bear." 

The "Teddy-Bear" fad has struck Minneapolis! 

It has not as yet reached the ridiculous extremes attained in the east, yet it is progressing in a very healthy manner. 

The Teddy-Bear, as a child's plaything, arrived some time ago. 

For several months he has been increasing in numbers and bringing proportionately greater joy to baby hearts, and more numerous smiles to chubby, infant faces.

But the Teddy-Bear as a fad, is a new arrival. 

The fad seems to be spreading to beat mumps in a country school. The susceptible ones are young women of the "in society" class.

A "dear girl's" first symptom of contagion is a half-interested, half-ridiculing admiration of the actions of some chum who is far gone, and constantly hugging, loving, and lugging, a Teddy-Bear. 

Gradually the infected one's feeling of ridicule dies out; the interest changes to first a desire, then a longing for a soft, sweet Teddy-Bear, all her own. Then comes the last stage, when bon-bon money has been saved sufficiently to permit of the purchase of a fine Teddy-Bear. Teddy at once becomes the whole thing.

When Charlie, or John, calls in the evening, he has to be satisfied with sitting alone in a chair, instead of on the divan with company; and must endure watching the young woman heap affectionate attentions on the unappreciative head of sawdust-filled Teddy. 

This is exaggeration! Perhaps, in many cases. Possibly, however, there are some to which the description does not do justice. 

The manager of the toy department of a big down-town department store, said to a Journal reporter today: 

Bear Sale Enormous. 

“The sale on Teddy-Bears is something enormous; easily ahead of everything else. We have lately sold as many as nine dozen in two days. Many girls come to purchase them. Sometimes a half dozen of them make purchases at the same time, and not infrequently are accompanied by friends carrying Teddy-Bears. 

"When east last summer buying stock, I was actually astounded at the extent to which the Teddy-Bear fad had developed. I visited Atlantic City, and in a stroll along the famous boardwalk, saw scores of Teddy-Bears tucked under the arms of stylishly attired ladies. The Teddy-Bears were of all sizes, and decorated with fancy ribbons and silver bells.

“The demand on the manufacturers for Teddy-Bears is so great, that I find it hard to duplicate original orders. The original Teddy-Bear factory is located in Germany and run by a woman. It still makes the best article, but cannot supply the demands upon it."

It has become a matter of considerable gossip, that in a fashionable young woman's finishing school in Minneapolis the Teddy-Bear fad has grown to alarming proportions. 

The faculty has held several meetings to discuss what is the best method of suppressing: the Teddy-Bear at school. The students insist on lugging their Teddy-Bears about the institution, and many of them make it a point always to take Teddy-Bear out for an airing whenever they go downtown.

NEW FACE OUT FOR A PROMENADE

The teddy bear wave hit New York and Europe, too, pushing pets to the side.  

Excerpt from The San Francisco Sunday Call.
November 8, 1906

THE TEDDY BEAR CRAZE IN NEW YORK  
ASTONISHING GROWTH OF THE LATEST FASHIONABLE SILLY FAD. 

Summer visitors in a certain Paris hotel were accustomed to seeing one or two particularly beautiful French women come down to the restaurant with Teddy bear companions, who were placed by the sides of the ladies while the erstwhile favorite bat-eared French dog was nursing his feelings all alone upstairs. 

His poor little nose — what there is of it — is quite out of joint, and he is wondering how long his ridiculous rival will reign. There are no more pleasant walks in the park with his beautiful mistress. When she goes now she takes along Teddy, whether she is joined by the children or not.

“The next thing, I suppose, we will be hearing of Teddy bear bench shows and every woman will be trying to buy blue ribbon bears, with pedigrees as long as your arm," said a man who had seen no less than half a score of pretty girls either driving or walking with their bear pets. "Well, I wonder what next!"

TEDDY BEAR BOOM 

A year later, in 1907, that “original Teddy-Bear factory” located in Germany and “run by a woman,” passed a major milestone. 

According to Steiff.com, the company and its namesake, Margarete Steiff, produced 1.7 million toys and 

973,999 TEDDY BEARS

How? 

With 400 employees and 1,800 home workers.