Most Americans carry fond memories of a childhood teddy bear. Although contemporary stuffed animals are manufactured in the form of every creature from aardvarks to zebras, the bear remains the most popular choice. Today, the making, selling, and collecting of teddy bears represent significant human and economic activities.

The teddy bear has origins both in the United States and in Europe, each dating back to 1902. When U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) took a hunting trip to Mississippi that year, one of his companions captured a black bear cub and brought it to Roosevelt to shoot. The president saw no sport in such an act and refused to shoot it. A Washington Post reporter traveling with the hunting party wrote a story about the incident, which was printed with an illustration showing Roosevelt declining to shoot the helpless cub. A Brooklyn variety store owner, Morris Michtom, saw...