Morris Michtom (1870 – July 21, 1938)
was a Russian-born businessman and inventor who, with his wife Rose, also a Russian Jewish immigrant who lived in Brooklyn, came up with the idea for the
teddy bear in 1902
around the same time as
Richard Steiff in Germany. They founded the
Ideal Novelty and Toy Company
Ideal Toy Company was an American toy company founded by Morris Michtom and his wife, Rose. During the post–World War II baby boom era, Ideal became the largest doll-making company in the United States. Their most popular dolls included Bets ...
which, after Michtom's death, became the largest doll-making company in the United States.
Biography
Michtom was born into a
Jewish family
and immigrated to New York in 1887. He sold candy in his shop at 404 Tompkins Avenue in
Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn by day and made stuffed animals with his wife Rose at night.
The teddy bear was inspired by a cartoon by
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
-winning cartoonist
Clifford K. Berryman depicting
American president Theodore Roosevelt—commonly called "Teddy"—having compassion for a bear at the end of an unsuccessful hunting trip in
Mississippi in 1902. Michtom saw the drawing and created a tiny plush bear cub which he sent to Roosevelt. Michtom put a plush bear in the shop window with a sign "Teddy's bear." After the creation of the bear in 1902, the sale of the bears was so brisk that in 1907 Michtom created the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company.
True story of the Teddy Bear by The Theodore Roosevelt Association
Theodoreroosevelt.org. Retrieved on 2011-10-01.
Michtom died on the July 21, 1938 at the age of 68.
See also
* Margarete Steiff
References
1870 births
1938 deaths
20th-century American inventors
Toy inventors
American Jews
{{Toy-stub