Teddy bears seem like they’ve been around forever. When people think of childhood, they think of little children cuddling teddy bears to sleep. It may sound strange but teddy bears are not as old as you may think. They have only been around for a little over a hundred years.

The teddy bear got its name from US President Theodore Roosevelt, whose own nickname was Teddy. In 1902, he took a bear-hunting trip with some other men. Roosevelt was one of the only ones to not have killed a bear. Roosevelt’s attendants caught, clubbed, and tied an American Black Bear cub to a tree so that Roosevelt could shoot it. Feeling it was unsportsmanlike, Roosevelt refused.

Instead, he ordered the bear to be put out of its misery because it was suffering from heavy injuries. This incident became the subject of a political cartoon by Clifford Berryman. When shopkeeper Morris Michtom saw the cartoon, he took two stuffed bear cubs which his wife had made, and placed them in the window of his toy shop with the sign, “Teddy’s bears.” The toys became instantly successful. By 1906, teddy bears were being massed produced and there was also a children’s book series called The Roosevelt Bears written by Seymour Eaton. In fact, Roosevelt even used one in his bid for reelection.

Some of the most famous figures of popular culture are bears. Rupert Bear was the name of a comic strip created in 1920 where the main character was a bear. In 1958, Paddington Bear first started appearing in children’s stories and some are still published today. In the 1980s, Teddy Puxpin, an animatronics bear that could recite stories to children, became popular. At the same time, the Care Bears were also making waves. First used on greeting cards, they became real stuffed bears, toys, and even got their own cartoon. Today’s most popular place to get teddy bears is the Build-A-Bear Workshop, which is a place where children can pick a teddy bear, have it stuffed, name it, and then dress it.

Perhaps, the most famous teddy bear to ever exist is Winnie-the-Pooh. Known also as Pooh bear or simply Pooh, he was created by A.A. Milne and published in the 1926 book Winnie-the-Pooh. When Disney adapted the Pooh stories into featurettes, his fame really took off. Since then, every generation has encountered Winnie the Pooh and his friends, whether it’s in cartoons, books, or stuffed teddy bears.