The Library of Congress' photographic reproduction of Clifford Kennedy Berryman's political cartoon in the Washington Post satirizing President Theodore Roosevelt's purported refusal to shoot a chained bear while on a 1902 hunting trip in the Missississippi delta. The cartoon inspired a candymaker in Brooklyn to create the toy Teddy Bear.
The legend of the Teddy Bear's being named for President Theodore Roosevelt is true, though it didn't originate on Louisiana's side of the Mississippi River delta.
That pretty much answers at least one part of Courtney Myers' question about the nation's 26th president's bear hunting adventures in Louisiana.
"Did President Roosevelt hunt black bears in Louisiana?" the Central resident asked. "And was the Teddy Bear named after him because of this hunting trip?"
Roosevelt did, indeed, hunt black bears in Louisiana, and though the Teddy Bear legend originated in Mississippi, the Louisiana hunting trip came about because of it.
n 1902 and again in 1907 President Theodore Roosevelt hunted Louisiana black bear in the South. The 1902 hunt took place in west-central Mississippi near what is now Theodore Roosevelt National Wildlife Refuge. The 1907 hunt took place in northeastern Louisiana near what is now Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge.
So, let's start from the beginning. The year was 1902, and the president was both a game hunter and naturalist, a combination the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History calls "complicated."
"Roosevelt was an enthusiastic naturalist, and when he assumed the presidency in 1901 following the death of William McKinley, his service was soon marked by his commitment to preserving natural places and wildlife," Judith Evans writes in "Theodore Roosevelt: Hunter-Naturalist" on the museum's website, americanhistory.si.edu.
"With a legacy like that, it may come as a surprise to some that another of Roosevelt's great passions was hunting for sport. Despite being famously opposed to cruelty and needless violence against animals, Roosevelt, from a young age, reveled in the thrill and adventure of the hunt. He considered hunting far more than a simple hobby. It was a scientific endeavor; a way to learn about and better understand an animal, but also — when guided by strict rules of fair play — a way to honor and respect an animal," Evans continues.
This hunter's horn was used on President Teddy Roosevelt's 1907 bear hunt in the Tensas Swamp in northeast Louisiana. It is on display in the Tensas Parish Library and Museum.
With this in mind, the Teddy Bear story makes sense.
Roosevelt's hunting trips had taken him to British East Africa and Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. He also conducted an expedition along Brazil’s uncharted River of Doubt.
Along the way, he and his colleagues chronicled the wildlife in their habitats and regions and collected specimens that formed the basis of the Natural History Museum's collection. But there was one trophy Roosevelt didn't have: a black bear. And he wouldn't have to travel overseas to find one.
Theodore Roosevelt on May 29, 1915.
The president arranged a November trip to the Sunflower River near the Onward community in Sharkey County, Mississippi, with Louisianans John M. Parker and John McIlhenny at his side.
Parker would later serve as Louisiana's 37th governor from 1920 to 1924. He was nominated by the Progressive Party to run as Roosevelt's vice president in 1916, but Roosevelt declined his own nomination and did not run.
Drive through LSU's campus on Highland Road, and you'll see Parker's name forever immortalized on the John M. Parker Agricultural Coliseum, locally known as the "Cow Palace."
John McIlhenny, meanwhile, was the oldest son of Tabasco sauce inventor Edmund McIlhenny. He served in Roosevelt's Rough Riders Cavalry, the Louisiana legislature and oversaw the U.S. Civil Service Commission.
Roosevelt and his party of friends were guided on their hunt by former slave Holt Collier, whose life is recounted in Minor Ferris Buchanan's biography, "Holt Collier: His Life, His Roosevelt Hunts and the Origin of the Teddy Bear."
Clifford Berryman is credited with introducing the lasting symbol of the Teddy Bear into the American conscious in 1902. President Theodore Roosevelt refused to shoot an old bear during a hunting trip. In his drawings, Berryman transformed the old bear into a cute, cuddly 'teddy bear' named for he president. The bear gave rise to the popular stuffed teddy bear, and Berryman used it to represent his own point of view. The cartoon was featured in the 2022 exhibit, 'Running for Office: Candidates, Campaigns, and the Cartoons of Clifford Berryman,' at Louisiana's Old State Capitol.
Buchanan retraces the party's steps on this hunt, documenting the unsuccessful hunt and concluding, "The impatience of the hunters cost the president his trophy but gave the world a children's toy that would become an international icon loved by generations."
Collier knew a spot where he was guaranteed to find a bear. He roused the bear in early morning hours and attempted to keep the bear cornered between the hunting camp and river for Roosevelt.
But Roosevelt was late to the scene, and the bear put up a fight, eventually falling into the river.
"I put my foot right between the bear's legs, and when he raised his head out o' the water I dropped the lariat over his neck and went out o' the water and tied the other end to the willow tree," Collier is quoted in Buchanan's book.
A Louisiana black bear, like the one shown near Morganza three years ago, has grown from fewer than 100 bears 20 years ago to an estimated population of as many 750 in the state. This subspecies of black bear is behind the origin of the legend of the famed child's stuffed animal, the Teddy Bear from President Theodore Roosevelt's 1902 hunt in Mississippi. Roosevelt returned south in 1907 to hunt in Louisiana.
Collier's efforts were in vain. Roosevelt refused to shoot an animal under restraint, raising his hand and declaring, "Gentlemen, no magazine bears for me."
Meanwhile, reporters who had been prohibited from covering the story were looking for some soundbites. They cornered Collier, who told them that Roosevelt wasn't where he was supposed to be when the bear was cornered. The media had a field day.
"Although factual, the headlines, reports and editorial cartoons depicted the usually confident president as having lost his opportunity for a successful hunt by satisfying his appetite for an early lunch," Buchanan writes.
In the midst of the news frenzy, noted political cartoonist Clifford Berryman satirized the president's refusal to shoot the bear. His cartoon appeared in the Washington Post on November 16, 1902, where it was spotted by Brooklyn candy shop owner Morris Michtom, who, with wife Rose, created and dedicated a stuffed toy bear to "the president who refused to shoot a bear."
A reproduction of a photograph showing Theodore Roosevelt (top) and John M. Parker leaving Breton Island.
Michtom called it 'Teddy's Bear.' This endearment wasn't Roosevelt's intended prize, so Parker and McIlhenny arranged another hunt in October 1907.
This time, the location was the northeast Louisiana side of the delta, specifically East Carroll, Madison and Tensas parishes.
"He was down here for a week-and-a-half to two-week period," said John Black, director of the Tensas Parish Library and Museum in St. Joseph. "He hunted in Madison Parish, then came down to northern Tensas Parish. He did better on this hunt."
Buchanan pinpoints Stamboul in East Carroll Parish as the starting point for the hunt. Roosevelt finally shot his bear in the canebrakes of Bear Lake in Madison Parish.
Once again, Holt Collier was his guide.
Theodore Roosevelt explores Battledore Island on Louisiana's coast during a 1915 visit.
Tourists regularly inquire about Roosevelt's Louisiana bear hunt when visiting the Tensas museum. They, like Myers, want to know which side of the Mississippi River produced the Teddy Bear story.
"I tell them that it was in Mississippi, but he actually shot his bear here," Black said. "We have the Buchanan book in our library, and we use that as one of our main resources."
In the end, Roosevelt created the National Wildlife Refuge System, which includes some 568,000 acres in the very Louisiana area where he hunted black bear. That area is now known as the Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge.
He also established 51 national bird reserves in 17 states, including the 7,512-acre Breton Wildlife Refuge in St. Bernard Parish.
And the Teddy Bear? He'll forever live through kids' cuddles throughout the world.