Timmie: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

Timmie the teddy bear was purchased during a shopping trip to the Hecht Company in Washington, D.C. in late 1928 or early 1929. A boy named Lewis, who was around two years old at the time, was on a shopping trip with his mother when a sales associate who was working on a display of teddy bears put Timmie into his arms. Timmie found Lewis’s loving arms around him and traveled to his new home with Lewis on the Mount Pleasant streetcar in Washington, D.C. Timmie is wearing blue-gray cotton workman’s trousers which were made especially for him by an employee of a large garment factory in McMinnville, Tennessee. These trousers are an exact miniature duplicate of the men’s workpants made in the factory in the early 1930s. In addition to his custom pants, he has a homemade crocheted brown-and-green pullover with matching collar band, mittens, and booties. And under all of that is a pair of blue silk underpants! His outfit is accessorized with many small items, including a wristwatch, pocket watch, pocket knife, compass, and a hunting knife, which were purchased at a Woolworth’s in Washington, D.C.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1928
• Object Name: Bear, Stuffed
• Other Terms: Bear, Stuffed; Animals; Toys
• Physical Description: cloth (overall material)
• Physical Description: glass (eyes material)
• Physical Description: cotton (trousers material)
• Physical Description: leather (belt material)
• Physical Description: wool (pullover; mittens; booties material)
• Physical Description: silk (underpants material)
• Measurements: overall: 46 cm x 24 cm; 18 1/8 in x 9 7/16 in
• purchased: United States: District of Columbia
• Subject: Toys
• Subject: Teddy Bears
• ID Number: 1979.0938.01
• accession number: 1979.0938
• catalog number: 1979.0938.01
• Credit Line: Mrs. A. L. Harrison in honor of Lewis Harrison
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.