This mystery real photo postcard was picked up last weekend, when Ashar and I toured some Dover-area yard sales, mostly in search of cassette tapes for his boombox. To be clear, you don't see many postcards this old at yard sales any more, so of course I bought a few (for just 50 cents apiece!).1 I'll share them over the coming days and weeks.
There's no writing on this card and it was never mailed. The AZO stamp box configuration indicates that it dates to the period of 1904 to 1918.
The idea of a teddy bear stems from a 1902 incident involving President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt. It's a sad story that, while containing a smidgen of compassion, still involves the death of a bear, so I don't want to glorify or sanitize it too much.
The first stuffed bears were made around 1903, by Morris Michtom in the United States and the Steiff company in Germany (which had been creating stuffed toys since 1880). Michtom's were the actual "teddy bears." Given that this postcard could be as old as 1904, the little girl could be holding one of the very earliest stuffed bears, teedy or otherwise.
Want more mystery RPPCs? Start here.
Footnote
1. There were 8 items total from the May 11 Dover Township yard sale. Mostly postcards, plus one photo. This is #1.
She's adorable. I think that my sister has some relative or another's Steiff bear.
ReplyDeleteI thought of Ashar when I was at Uncle Funky's in Ephrata last week. They had bagillions of great cassettes.