Why is it called a teddy bear?
The teddy bear is named after President Theodore Roosevelt, who on November 14, 1902 refused to shoot a black bear that a hunting guide had tied to a tree, calling it unsportsmanlike. A cartoon ran, a Brooklyn toymaker made a stuffed bear, and Roosevelt agreed to let it be called “Teddy's bear.” On Talking With Pets, the bear from that day returns to work out how a person choosing not to shoot her became the toy children hold when they are scared.
History remembers the famous. Their pets remember the person. On Talking With Pets, a brown tabby cat named Prince MoRee contacts the pets of history's greatest figures and lets them tell what they really saw. This is the Other One format: history remembers one name, and we found the other one. True, surprising, and great for curious kids and the grown-ups listening with them.
Transcript
[Deep woods. Mississippi Delta, late autumn. Leaves down. A large, quiet presence settling into a chair the way a bear settles into anything, with great care and mild surprise at the chair.]
Setup
Prince MoRee: (arranging props: a color-coded agenda card, three columns and four rows, and a small stuffed bear placed at the center of the table)
Chaco: (opening his color-coded notebook) I have an agenda for this one. The Incident. The Cartoon. The Toy. The Legacy. Four items. I've assigned colors.
Prince MoRee: She's already here.
[The Bear has been here. She is looking at the stuffed bear on the table with an expression that cannot quite be categorized.]
Prince MoRee: We ask you to return, the bear of the Mississippi bottomland, November 1902, who was brought to a hunting camp and tied to a tree and not shot by the President of the United States. We ask you to tell us what that was like.
The Bear: (after a moment, still looking at the stuffed bear) Is that supposed to be me?
Prince MoRee: It's a teddy bear.
The Bear: I understand that. Is it supposed to be me?
Chaco: (checking his notes) That is, yes. Technically. In an origin sense.
The Bear: (a long pause) It's very soft.
The incident
Chaco: Let's start with Item One. The Incident.
The Bear: November 14, 1902.[1] A guide named Holt Collier tied me to a tree.[1] I had been run down by the dogs. I was exhausted. He tied me so that President Roosevelt could shoot me.
Chaco: And?
The Bear: He looked at me and said no.[1]
Chaco: (checking this off) He refused to shoot you.
The Bear: He said it would be unsportsmanlike.[1] To shoot an animal tied to a tree. He was correct. It would have been unsportsmanlike. I had limited means of avoiding it.
Chaco: (a note) So Roosevelt spared you.
The Bear: He declined to shoot me. I'm not sure spared is, he also told Holt Collier to put me out of my misery if I was too badly injured to release.[1] There was a practical dimension. Collier used a knife. I was released. I went back to the woods.
The cartoon
Chaco: (making a careful note) Item One: resolved. Item Two: the Cartoon.
The Bear: Clifford Berryman. Washington Post. November 16, 1902.[2] The cartoon showed Roosevelt refusing to shoot a bear tied to a tree. The bear in the cartoon was drawn small. Somewhat soft.
Chaco: Did you see the cartoon?
The Bear: (a pause) I am a bear. I don't receive newspapers. But I have been shown it since. That is not what I look like. That bear looks like it should be given to a child.
The toy
Chaco: (slowly) Item Three. The Toy.
The Bear: Morris Michtom. Brooklyn, New York. He saw the cartoon. He made a stuffed version of the bear in the cartoon. He wrote to President Roosevelt and asked if he could call it “Teddy's bear.”[3] Roosevelt said he doubted his name would be worth much to a toy bear, but yes.[3]
Chaco: (looking at the stuffed bear on the table) And then.
The Bear: And then a great many bears were made. And they were given to children. And the children held them when they were frightened.
Chaco: (checking Item Three off, more slowly than he checked the others) Item Three: resolved. That's a Category Three outcome.
The Bear: What's Category Three?
Chaco: (looking at his color-coded notebook) “Documented historical consequence.” But this doesn't, it goes somewhere else. It goes somewhere I don't have a column for.
On November 14, 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt refused to shoot a black bear that had been tied to a tree by hunting guide Holt Collier during a Mississippi hunting trip, calling it unsportsmanlike. Clifford Berryman drew a political cartoon of the moment for the Washington Post. Brooklyn toymaker Morris Michtom saw the cartoon, made a stuffed bear, and wrote to Roosevelt asking permission to call it “Teddy's bear.” Roosevelt agreed. Michtom's company, which became the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company, began mass-producing them. Teddy bears have since become one of the most widely produced toys in history. Roosevelt also created the U.S. Forest Service and, during his presidency, established 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reserves, and 5 national parks, a conservation record unmatched at the time.
The legacy
Prince MoRee: Item Four. The Legacy.
Chaco: (grateful that Prince MoRee is running this) Right. What do you know about Roosevelt's conservation work? Beyond that day.
The Bear: He created the Forest Service.[4] He set aside 150 national forests. He established 51 federal bird reserves. Five national parks.[4] More protected land than any president before him.
The Bear: He was a person who understood what it meant to protect something. He didn't shoot me because he understood what it would cost. Not just to me. To the idea of what a hunt should be.
Chaco: (carefully) He was known for being aggressive. Expansive. “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”[5]
The Bear: Yes. And he looked at a bear tied to a tree and said: not like this. Both things are true about the same person.
Chaco: (a long pause) I need a new column for that.
The turn
Chaco: Can I ask you something outside the agenda? Have you, I mean, do you know what a child does with that? (gestures at the stuffed bear) At night. When they're frightened.
The Bear: (a pause, the first long one) I've thought about this. He didn't shoot me. That was the thing. He looked at a tied-up bear and decided the rules of the thing he was doing didn't allow for it. One decision. And then someone drew a picture of it. And someone else made a soft version of the picture. And the soft version became the thing that children hold when they are scared.
Chaco: (very quietly) That's Category Four.
The Bear: What's Category Four?
Chaco: I don't know yet. I need to figure out what to call it.
The Bear: A person chose not to do something. The thing he didn't do became the thing he was remembered for. There's something in that. About what restraint looks like. About why it matters. The children who hold those bears, they don't know about Mississippi. They don't know about Holt Collier or the dogs or the tree. They just know the bear is soft and it helps. That seems like enough.
[Prince MoRee gives a very slow blink.]
The close
Prince MoRee: He's remembered for not shooting you.
The Bear: He's remembered for knowing the difference between a hunt and an execution.
Chaco: (quietly) That's Category Four.
The Bear: (looking at the stuffed bear one more time) Write it down.
[The woods settle. A large, unhurried presence moving back into the trees.]
What's true, what we filled in, what we imagined
Every episode of Talking With Pets is built in three honest layers. Here is how this one breaks down.
Documented in the historical record
On November 14, 1902, near Smedes, Mississippi, guide Holt Collier tied an exhausted black bear to a tree; Roosevelt refused to shoot it, calling it unsportsmanlike, and the bear was then put down with a knife. Clifford Berryman drew the moment for the Washington Post on November 16, 1902. Morris Michtom made a stuffed bear and got Roosevelt's permission to call it Teddy's bear. Roosevelt's conservation record includes the U.S. Forest Service, 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reserves, and 5 national parks. Speak softly and carry a big stick is a documented Roosevelt maxim.
Grounded inference from the record
That Roosevelt understood what it meant to protect something is a grounded inference drawn directly from his conservation record. That teddy bears became comfort objects children hold when frightened is documented broadly as a cultural fact.
Story, voice, and feeling
The bear's voice, her calm and her thinking about restraint, the séance framing, Chaco's color-coded categories, and the conversation itself are imagined. The events she describes are real; the bear reflecting on them is the storytelling. Roosevelt is portrayed accurately and admiringly; the comedy is in the strangeness of the consequence, not in any failure of his character.
Sources and further reading
- The 1902 Mississippi hunt: Holt Collier tied the bear to a tree, Roosevelt refused to shoot it as unsportsmanlike, and the bear was put down at his direction. National Park Service, “Theodore Roosevelt and the Teddy Bear.” nps.gov
- Clifford Berryman's cartoon “Drawing the Line in Mississippi,” Washington Post, November 16, 1902. Library of Congress. loc.gov
- Morris Michtom, the stuffed bear, and Roosevelt's permission to use the name “Teddy's bear.” Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History. americanhistory.si.edu
- Roosevelt's conservation record: U.S. Forest Service, 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reserves, 5 national parks. National Park Service, “Theodore Roosevelt and Conservation.” nps.gov
- “Speak softly and carry a big stick,” documented Roosevelt maxim. Theodore Roosevelt Center, Dickinson State University. theodorerooseveltcenter.org
All historical claims above were verified in the Talking With Pets two-checker accuracy review (June 2026). This episode passed with no material accuracy issues.
Why is it called a teddy bear?
The teddy bear is named after President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt. In November 1902 he refused to shoot a bear that had been tied to a tree, a cartoon ran about it, and a toymaker made a stuffed bear and got Roosevelt's permission to call it "Teddy's bear." Source: Smithsonian Institution.
Did Theodore Roosevelt really refuse to shoot a bear?
Yes. On November 14, 1902, during a Mississippi hunt, a guide tied an exhausted bear to a tree so the president could shoot it. Roosevelt refused, calling it unsportsmanlike. The bear was then put down humanely at his direction. Source: National Park Service.
Who made the first teddy bear?
Brooklyn toymaker Morris Michtom and his wife made an early stuffed teddy bear inspired by the Berryman cartoon. His company later became the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company. A German company, Steiff, also made early stuffed bears around the same time. Source: Smithsonian Institution.
What did Theodore Roosevelt do for conservation?
Roosevelt created the U.S. Forest Service and, during his presidency, established 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reserves, and 5 national parks, a conservation record unmatched at the time. Source: National Park Service.
Is there a history podcast for kids that teaches real facts?
Yes. Talking With Pets is an educational history podcast for curious kids ages 6 to 10 where a brown tabby cat named Prince MoRee contacts the pets of history's greatest figures, who tell the true story. Every episode is sourced and divided into what is documented, what was filled in, and what was imagined, which teaches kids to weigh sources while they laugh. It is a Talking With Pets production.
Talking With Pets · the true stories only the animals saw.
Chaco, Roxie, Moose, Prince MoRee, and Armando are getting the pilot ready. Join the founding list and we will write to you when the first episodes go live. Listen with someone you like.