Tommy the Teddy

This weekend a friend and I visited the V&A Childhood Museum. It had collections of toys from the 16th century well into present day. I was delighted to see some of my favorite toys and to also learn the history of those toys. I also learned some about the 20th century through the toy collection.

I learned that during World War I toy factories were shut down so that goods for the war could be manufactured. With this halt in toy making, people began to make their own homemade toys. Newspapers even helped this endeavor by printing guides and patterns on how to make dolls, teddy bears, and many other toys. During the war, soldiers, while in the trenches, would also make toys either to sell for food and other goods or for their children back home. The museum held a wooden puppet a soldier had made for his children.

By visiting the museum two things struck me. For one, the endurance of toys. With all the mass production of toys these days, I couldn’t imagine being a little girl and having to make toys for myself. But they seem to be a necessity. Which leads me to the second thing; these toys that were made or maybe even bought had must have gotten children through the rough patches of the war as well as the years afterward when things were getting pieced back together.

There was a small teddy bear in the museum named Tommy. He sat no taller than 5 inches and was dated back to 1908. His owner donated him to the museum but continued to write his bear birthday cards every year until his death in 1997. Of course this story touched my heart. How sweet is it that an old man wrote birthday cards to his teddy bear? But with that in mind, I couldn’t help but wonder the history of this toy. Tommy had gotten his owner through both world wars. He most definitely had sentimental value. He must have been vision of hope and comfort to his owner through those desolate times.