teddy bear
teddy bear
Previous
Next
Usage conditions apply
- Description (Brief)
- Matthew Shepard was a college student, targeted for being gay, robbed, and brutally murdered in Laramie, Wyoming, in 1998.
- Shepard's murder affected people around the world in a range of ways. Two men from Denver organized a Teddy Bear Project, in which people created bears in memory of victims of hate or violence. The Bear Foundation (Bringing Equality and Respect) was in Littleton, Colorado. The men hiked from Fort Collins to the fence where Shepard was tortured and left to die and left 150 Teddy Bears. Later, this bear along with the others toured as an educational project.
- This bear, named "Jerry Bear," came from Kristie Bonner in Lincoln Park, Michigan. Jerry Bear is named for the son of a woman she met outside a grocery store from the group "Parents of Murdered Children, Inc."
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- teddy bear
- date made
- 1999
- Physical Description
- fabric; plastic; wood (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 5 in x 4 1/4 in x 2 in; 12.7 cm x 10.795 cm x 5.08 cm
- ID Number
- 2019.0004.24
- catalog number
- 2019.0004.24
- accession number
- 2019.0004
- collector/donor number
- 55
- Credit Line
- Gift of Dennis and Judy Shepard
- subject
- LGBTQ Rights
- LGBTQ
- Gay Rights
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Medicine
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
Nominate this object for photography.
Our collection database is a work in progress. We may update this record based on further research and review. Learn more about our approach to sharing our collection online.
If you would like to know how you can use content on this page, see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use. If you need to request an image for publication or other use, please visit Rights and Reproductions.
Note: Comment submission is temporarily unavailable while we make improvements to the site. We apologize for the interruption. If you have a question relating to the museum's collections, please first check our Collections FAQ. If you require a personal response, please use our Contact page.
