The first commercially made soft toy bears appeared around the late 1890's, with companies like Gebrüder Sussenguth and Steiff featuring bear toys in their catalogues.
Then in 1902, president Theodore Roosevelt had a rather unsuccessful hunting trip during which he refused to shoot a bear the rest of his hunting party had caught and tied to a tree, as he thought it'd be unsportsmanlike. The event was drawn into a cartoon and published in the Washington Post the very next day. The cartoon sparked the imagination of Morris Michtom and his wife Rose, who designed a stuffed bear toy in honour of Rooselvet's actions and with the president's permission the toy bear was named "Teddy". About five years later, there were over 20 companies in America alone making teddy bears.
The rest is, as they say, history!

Bear in mind that this selection of ursine art is just a pawful of all the great teddies that can be found in the Plushie gallery here on DA.



If you come across a plushie you'd like to see featured in the next installment of Plushology or if you are/know of a plushie artist in need of some attention, let me know!