Teddy's Bear and the Sociocultural Transfiguration of Savage Beasts Into Innocent Children, 1890–1920

Golliwogs and Teddy Bears: Embodied Racism in Children's Popular Culture

“…Roosevelt was retrieved from the campsite where he was lunching in order to shoot the bear. He declined, as it was “unsporting” to shoot an animal beaten unconscious by another and claim hunter's rights, and had it killed by knife (Varga “Teddy's Bear” 100). The meat was consumed over the next few meals (“Quiet Day” 1).…”

Babes in the Woods: Wilderness Aesthetics in Children's Stories and Toys, 1830-1915

“…Th e circumstances of the bear's death would have been familiar to readers of the November 15 Washington Post, in which the hunt was described. Th e iconography of the cartoon illustrating the story, as one image in a four-part montage, would have been understood at the time of its publication as a sardonic critique of the president's conservationist proclamations and accusations against others of extravagant hunting practices, while himself engaging in excessive animal slaughter (Varga, 2009).…”

Can the teddy bear speak?

“…But it was not until the mid-1950s that his relationship to adults expanded when the rising popularity of psychoanalysis invested the teddy bear with the power to help a child learn she is separate from her mother (Winnicott, 1953: 89–97). The teddy became an adult fetish invested with the power to help overcome the trials and tribulations of life (Varga, 2009: 98).…”