







































 

POLAR: 
THE MOST FAMOUS BEAR OF THEM ALL! 

J. JOSEPH EDGETTE 

The story of POLAR, the Titanic bear, is one that has resulted from a 
careful blending of history, folklore, legend, and children's literature with an 
appropriate sprinkling of oral narrative and verifiable testimony and 
documentation. It is a tale that evolved from a "real life" event that was later 
set down in writing by Daisy Spedden, the mother of the child whose 
experience this account recalls. Had it not been for the accidental discovery 
of an old trunk in the barn of L. H. Coleman, Esq. by his grandson in August 
of 1982,1 the life of Polar never would have been told and, subsequently, 
become known. The purpose of this article is to present the background, 
evolution, chronology, and afterward of the story of POLAR, the Titanic 
bear. 

Before relating the details leading up to the event that catapulted the 
five-by-two-and-a-quarter-inch stuffed toy into the realm of Titanic lore, it is 
necessary and appropriate to start many years prior even to Titanic's own 
inception as well as Polar's creation. The year was 1902, the town was 
Giengen an der Brenz, Germany, and the creator of the first Teddy bear was a 
young inventor, innovator, and dreamer named Richard Steiff. He had 
studied art and was intrigued and captivated by the bears he would observe 
while sketching them at the Stuttgart Zoological Gardens.2 He worked in his 
aunt's small toy factory, the Steiff Company. After much effort and pleading, 
he finally convinced Margarete Steiff, a loving but very strong-willed and 
determined woman, to approve plans to produce his bear. The prototypes 
were considered to be too large and heavy, not to mention the fact that the 
mohair used to make them was difficult to obtain. However, later that same 
year, "Friend Petz" was put on display at the Leipzig Toy Fair in 1902 to test 
the interest of toy buyers, but it was deemed a complete failure by most who 
had seen and inspected the newly created stuffed bear toy. Buyers of toys 
were just not interested it. This setback would eventually be reversed thanks 
to the creativity and foresight of the American toy giant, F. A. O. Schwarz. 

Frederick August Otto Schwarz, known today as F. A. O. Schwarz and 
probably the most famous seller of toys in the world, emigrated to the United 
States from Westphalia, Germany, in 1857, settling in Bal- 



 
POLAR: THE MOST FAMOUS BEAR OF THEM ALL EDGETTE 

timore, Maryland, where he operated a small toy shop until 1870. Moving 
on to New York, he began in humble quarters on Broadway, opening the 
Schwarz Toy Bazaar; but by 1880, he had moved to the city's fashionable 
Union Square business district housing such companies as Tiffany.3 Schwarz 
quickly established a reputation as having a "toy store with distinction."4 
With the help of his three brothers, Schwarz kept in constant touch with the 
major toy sources in Europe. While attending the Leipzig Toy Fair in 1902, 
F.A.O. Schwarz, unlike other buyers, found the Steiff bear a fascinating toy 
that had much potential for sales in the United States. According to Jorg 
Junginger, Steiff's manager of development and Steiff family member, 
Schwarz "placed an order for 3,000 bears and changed the name to 'Teddy' 
to help the stuffed animal appeal to American children"5 According to 
folklore, there are two explanations for the origin of the name 'Teddy' as it 
applies to the toy bears. 

In the first it was said that Schwarz had changed the Steiff- given name 
to 'Teddy' because he was inspired by the President and believed that 
children who have a greater affinity to the toy with such a moniker. 

A second origin has been attributed to the U. S. Navy. It was reported 
that President Theodore Roosevelt accompanied by a few friends went to 
Mississippi to hunt wild animals. Having found none a guide came across a 
small bear. Asked to shoot the bear, the President refused and instructed the 
guide to release it. Word of this kindness on Mr. Roosevelt's part spread 
throughout the country. In fact, not long after, political cartoonist Clifford 
Berryman drew a cartoon depicting the event.6 Further, and this is the 
probable connection to Swartz's origin, it was said that a Brooklyn toy store 
owner saw the cartoon and asked permission to name the toy bears in his shop 
"Teddy's Bear." This was to serve as a reminder of Roosevelt's good deed. 
Permission was given by President Roosevelt. 

Both of these origins are plausible and are actually connected. As 
American folklorist Horace Beck has a habit of saying, "You pays your 
money, you takes your choice." 

According to Steiff Company records, by 1907 they had produced over 
974,000 bears, most of which were sold in the United States through the F. A. 
O. Schwarz Toy Company of New York. In addition to teddy bears in all 
sizes and kinds, many ancillary items were also made available. These 
included bear games, clothes, cars, carts, boats, and the like designed for 
teddy bears. In terms of popular culture, there are currently collectors' 
organizations and clubs that boast of large memberships. The teddy bear still 
ranks high among those best sellers in the toy industry. 

40 



 EDGETTE POLAR: THE MOST FAMOUS BEAR OF THEM ALL 

Exactly, how did Polar become such a notable toy bear? The story 
continues. Tuxedo Park, New York, was a very upscale community during 
the early 1900s. One of this community's leading citizens and wealthiest of 
the families living there included Frederic Spedden, his wife, Daisy, and their 
son Robert Douglas, who would be known as "Douglas." Mr. Spedden was 
heir to a very sizeable banking fortune. This young couple devoted their lives 
to Douglas, their travels, and their pastimes. During the spring, Frederic 
tended to his business, summers were spent in Bar Harbor, Maine, autumns 
spent at home, and winters used for travel. Such a routine was not 
uncommon among wealthy American families during the Edwardian Age. It 
should be noted that Mrs. Spedden was heiress to the Corning glass fortune 
as well as an equally lucrative shipping fortune.7 

Daisy Spedden's sister, Nan, was very fond of little Douglas. In late 
1911, the family had decided to visit Algiers and had booked passage aboard 
the steamship Caronia. Prior to her seeing the Speddens off at the docks, 
Aunt Nanny had visited the F.A.O. Schwarz Company in Manhattan where 
she purchased a small white Steiff polar bear for Douglas. Before leaving the 
ship as visitors were asked to disembark, she presented her bon voyage gift to 
the child and asked what he might name it. He responded that it would be 
called POLAR. Later, the famous bear would be known as POLAR the 
Titanic Bear.8 

The Spedden's trip to Algiers was a lengthy one that would take them 
through the Panama Canal area. Little Douglas and Polar were inseparable 
throughout the journey. The family stayed a few months on the island of 
Madeira, near Portugal. By mid-March they had arrived on the south coast of 
France and stayed at Monte Carlo. In early April, Mr. Spedden decided it 
was time to return home to America. They had booked first class passage 
aboard another steamship rather than the Adriatic whose scheduled departure 
was cancelled as a result of a coal strike in England. Instead, Mr. Speddin 
was able to secure first class accommodations aboard the Titanic, a new ship 
that was described as being the greatest ship ever to sail the ocean. Mr. and 
Mrs. Spedden and Douglas together with Daisy's maid, Helen Wilson, and 
Douglas' Nanny, Elizabeth Burns,9 arrived in Paris the first week in April. 
Then, by a special train, they made their way to Cherbourg from where they 
would depart for home aboard the Titanic. As first class passengers, the 
Spedden family shared the company of many other very wealthy American 
families aboard the "Millionaires Express." Some of the more notable family 
names were Widener, Astor, Guggenheim, Straus, Brown, Cardeza, Carter, 
Millet, and Butt, the last being personal attaché to President William H. Taft. 

41 



 POLAR: THE MOST FAMOUS BEAR OF THEM ALL EDGETTE 

There is only one photograph in existence of little Douglas and his 
father aboard the Titanic, and that shows the boy on deck playing with a 
spinning top, another toy he had acquired while traveling abroad.10 The 
photo was taken during the first day enroute to New York, the final 
destination that they would eventually—but not aboard the Titanic. Another 
passenger, Father Frank Browne, S.J., had been given a birthday present 
from his uncle—a ticket aboard the Titanic from Southampton to Cherbourg 
to Queenstown. He left the ship in the Irish seaport as the doomed vessel 
continued its journey to New York. During his time on the Titanic, Father 
Browne managed to shoot nearly a hundred photos. These pictures are the 
only ones in existence showing the interior of the great ship and views of life 
aboard her. Little Douglas was captured on film while playing on deck as his 
father watched. 

The tragic event that transpired on that fateful night of 14 April 1912 
off the coast of Newfoundland in the icy waters of the north Atlantic is now 
history. The major account is well known and has been told and retold for 
nearly ninety-one years now. It was this foundering of the largest luxury 
ship of its day that would figure dramatically into the escalation of Polar's 
notoriety unbeknownst to anyone save his owner, Mrs. Spedden, and a 
crewman aboard the rescue ship Carpathia. 

Testimony given before the United States Senate, as part of their official 
investigation into the loss of the Titanic,11 produced revealing information 
about the sinking that would eventually impact on the story of Polar and 
Douglas. Once the alarm had been given following the iceberg impact, most 
of the passengers began to leave their cabins and assemble at or near their 
predetermined lifeboat stations. The Speddens and their servants were 
assigned to Lifeboat 3, located on the starboard side of the ship.12 It became 
the responsibility of Nanny, Elizabeth Burns, whom Douglas called "Muddie 
Boons," to care for the young boy during this anxious and fearful experience. 
(The child had difficulty pronouncing his Nanny's name; thus, the variation.) 
It has been said that his Nanny woke the sleeping child and told him they 
were going to take a trip to see the stars and that he would therefore need to 
wear warm clothing. Once all women and children had been placed safely 
into the limited number of lifeboats, the men were permitted to join them. 
Frederic Spedden was one of the fortunate few who was able to join his 
family aboard lifeboat 3 that fateful night. 

Based on witnesses who were passengers in lifeboat 3, it was reported 
that Douglas slept through the night cradled in the arms of his Nanny. When 
he woke at dawn, he saw the icebergs all around them and excitedly, as only 
a child could do, exclaimed, " Oh, Muddie, look 

42 



 EDGETTE POLAR: THE MOST FAMOUS BEAR OF THEM ALL 

at the beautiful North Pole with no Santa Claus on it."13 By 4: 15 A.M. the 
morning of 15 April 1912, the rescue ship Carpathia commanded by Captain 
Frederick Rostron had arrived at the site and began the careful process of 
rescuing the survivors. Lifeboat 3 was supervised by able-bodied seaman 
George Alfred Moore, and it was he who would later place young Douglas 
into a net that would raise the child to the deck level of the rescue ship.14 Nets 
were used to raise the children from the lifeboats for fear they might fall in 
their attempt to climb the ladders. It would not be until later that morning 
Douglas would soon realize that Polar had not made it. He had the stuffed toy 
bear with him in the lifeboat at the time they entered and gotten under way; 
however, now it was missing. 

The grieving child shared his sad realization with his nanny and his 
mother. A couple of the crew from the Carpathia also tried to comfort him, 
but it was to no avail. As was standard procedure aboard any rescue vessel, 
Captain Rostron ordered all of the then empty lifeboats to be brought aboard 
and stowed safely for the long, arduous trip to New York. A hook on the end 
of a line was put through the eye bolt at the front of a lifeboat, and it was then 
hoisted aboard the ship. 

In so doing, each of the miniature boats would stand on end while being 
raised through the air. Many of the articles would fall from the boat into the 
water below; however, when lifeboat 3 had cleared the railing and was being 
lowered into its new position, a small water soaked stuffed toy rolled out onto 
the deck at the feet of a crewman.15 According to Mrs. Spedden's later 
conversation with the man, he leaned down, picked it up, squeezed the excess 
water from it, and stuck it into his pocket. He had intended to take it home to 
his child. Later that day, the crewman came across Douglas who was still 
upset at the loss of Polar. In a conversation with the boy the crewman 
suddenly realized what he had retrieved from the deck beneath lifeboat 3. 
Douglas and Polar had been happily reunited. He too had been saved. 

Mr. Spedden sent a Marconigram (the newest type of wireless telegram  
of its day) from the Carpathia to relatives in Connecticut on the 18th of April 
that informed them the family was safe and would be arriving in New York 
the following night.16 Once having arrived at the White Star Line wharf in 
New York, the family was taken to the Waldorf Astoria, along with many 
others from first class, to spend the night before departing for Tuxedo Park 
the next day. It is interesting to note that the Astor family arranged 
transportation from the ship's terminal to their hotel for many of the first class 
passengers that were rescued by the Carpathia. Later, Mr. Spedden would 
participate in the awarding of a silver trophy to Captain Rostron and silver 
medals to mem- 

43 



 POLAR: THE MOST FAMOUS BEAR OF THEM ALL EDGETTE 

bers of his crew in appreciation for the kindness and professionalism they 
showed during the terrible tragedy that had befallen them on the Titanic. 

Once the family had returned to their home, life returned to the normalcy 
they had had prior to their most recent catastrophic trip. Daisy took a 
photograph of Douglas at Christmas in 1912 showing him standing next to a 
table on which can be seen Polar. They planned to travel again after the 
holidays that year and then return to Maine that following summer. The next 
year as a Christmas surprise for Douglas, his mother decided to write a small 
book that would feature Polar (the Titanic Bear) recounting his own creation, 
purchase, and life with Douglas including his fate by nearly becoming a 
Titanic victim. She entitled it MY STORY, Christmas 1913. In addition to 
the text she did the illustrations herself. This short manuscript would be pub-
lished as a children's book in 1994, eighty-one years later.17 

Daisy and Frederic would experience one more great tragedy, perhaps  
the worst imaginable, the death of Douglas in the late summer of 1915 at 
Grindstone Neck Winter Harbor, Maine. According to the Death Certificate, 
the cause of Douglas' death was "concussion of the brain-struck by 
automobile."18 As a matter of fact, Douglas was the first recorded fatality 
resulting from an automobile accident in the state of Maine. According to the 
accident report, the youngster attempted to retrieve a tennis ball, emerging 
suddenly from some thick shrubbery close to the side of the road. When he 
did, he collided with the car. Unconscious, he was taken to his home where 
he succumbed to head injuries sustained from the accident. The boy died on 
the 8th of August, 1915, at the age of nine years, eight months, and nineteen 
days. He is buried in the Corning family plot at Greenwood Cemetery, 
Brooklyn, New York. 

It has been said that Daisy never again had the same zest for life 
following the tragic loss of her son, Douglas. In 1947 her husband Frederic 
died of a heart attack while diving into a pool in Palm Beach, Florida. His 
body was cremated.19 Following his death, Daisy discontinued keeping her 
diaries, but she did continue her interests in photography and travel. Three 
years later Daisy died at her home in Tuxedo Park on February 11, 1950, at 
age 78, following a brief illness.20  She was interred in the Corning family 
plot at Greenwood Cemetery along side her son Robert Douglas. 

Following the death of Daisy, a trunk containing her diaries, ephemera, 
and 24 photograph albums was left to her cousin, Jane Foster Coleman. The 
trunk was stored in the barn on the family farm and actually forgotten21 (Jane 
was the grandmother of L. H. Coleman, III.) 

44 



 EDGETTE POLAR: THE MOST FAMOUS BEAR OF THEM ALL 

L. H. Coleman, Esq. asked his grandson L.H., III to clean out the old barn. 
The trunk was given to the younger Coleman on his 21st birthday in 1985. 
Earlier, in 1963, the Titanic Historical Society was founded in part to 
preserve the history of the Titanic and ocean liner travel in general. Aware of 
this mission, young Coleman donated copies of Daisy's STORY along with 
some photographs of family members to the Society in August of 198522 By 
1992 it was suggested to young Coleman that the STORY would make a 
great book for children. The title was changed to POLAR THE TITANIC 
BEAR, and it was published in 1994. Since then it has sold more than 
250,000 copies.23 

To help launch the release of the book, the Strieff Company produced 
1912 replicas of the Polar bear, together with a certificate of authenticity that 
the original was once owned by Douglas Spedden. The book will ensure that 
the memory of this child will live on just as the memory of the Titanic never 
fades. 

From its origin in Germany to its home in America and subsequent 
adventures, a little stuffed toy polar bear became the impetus for the story of 
Polar the Titanic Bear. It is a piece of non-fiction that has successfully and 
creatively blended history, legend, folklore, and children's literature while 
simultaneously presenting a human interest story of top quality. 

NOTES 

 1 "Stories From the Titanic: Douglas Spedden." Geocities. 04 January 
2003. www.geocities.com/athens/ agora/6683/spedden. 
 2 "The First Teddy." Tripod. 04 January 2003. www.members.tripod.com/ 
-sunbear 2/history. 
 3 "History of F.A.O. Schwarz Company." F.A.O. Schwarz. 04 January 
2003. www.fao.com/aboutfao/history.cfm. 
 4 "About FAO Schwarz." Macromedia. 04 January 2003 www.macro 
 media.com/macromedia/prom/pr/2 00 l/fao schwab». 
 5 "The First Teddy." 
 6 "Origin of The Teddy Bear." Factmonster. C. 2002 Family Education 
Network. 04 January 2003. www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0872806. 
 7 "The Boy With the Bear: The Story of Douglas Spedden." Stories from 
the Titanic. 04 January 2003 www.geocities.com/athens/agora/6683/spedden. 
 8 Daisy Corning Stone Spedden. Polar The Titanic Bear. New York:Little, 
Brown and Company, 1994. 
 9 "Robert Douglas Spedden." Encyclopedia Titanica. 04 January 2003. 
http://www.encvclopedia-Titanica.org/bio/p/ 1 stlspedden rd.html. 
 10 E.E. O'Donnell, Sj. The Last Days Of The Titanic. Dublin: Roberts 
Rinehart Publishers, 1997, p.66. 
 11 Tom Kuntz. The Titanic Disaster Hearings: The Official Transcripts 

45 



 POLAR: THE MOST FAMOUS BEAR OF THEM ALL EDGETTE 

Of The 1912 Senate Investigation. Los Angeles:New Star Publishing, 1998. 
 12 Judith B. Geller. Titanic: Women And Children First. New York:W.W. 
Norton, 1998, p.73. 
 13 "Douglas Spedden "A Life Cut Short For a Boy With a Bear." The Real 
Titanic. 04 January 2003. http://www.expage.com/douglasspedden.html. 
 14 "George Alfred Moore." Encyclopedia Titanica. 04 January 2003. http:/ 
/www.encyc1opedia-titanica.orglbio/c/a/moore ga. html. 

15 Daisy Corning Stone Spedden, p. 46. 
16 Marconi Corporation pic Archives. 

 17 "Polar the Titanic Bear Genealogy and Chronology." Spedden Family 
Genealogy. 04 January 2003. http://www.polarthetitanicbear.comgenepage. html. 
 18 "State of Maine Record of Death." Titanica Document Archive. 04 J anu 
ary 2003. www.encyclopediatitanica.org/documents/spedden rd cert.html 
 19 "Mrs. Frederic Spedden." Titanica Document Archive. 04 January 
2003. www.encvclopedia-titanica.org/documents/suedden fo 048247. 
 20 "Mrs. Frederic Spedden." Titanica Document Archive. 04 January 2003. 
www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/documents/spedden fo2 1025. 

21 "Spedden Family Chronology." P.3. 
22 "Spedden Family Chronology." P.3. 
23 Douglas Spedden "A Life Cut Short For a Boy With a Bear." 

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	CFR_2002-2003_Part13
	CFR_2002-2003_Part14
	Pages from CFR_2002-2003_Part15



