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100 Objects #8: Billy Possum
Brief
The episode follows a lineage of American animal-symbol stories, opening with Theodore Roosevelt’s November 1902 bear hunt that produced the famous cartoon of Roosevelt sparing a dazed bear and launched the teddy-bear phenomenon. Roman Mars and journalist John Muellen trace how that cartoon and ensuing toy manufacturing (Steiff allegedly exporting roughly a million bears a year within a few years) tapped a broader cultural shift: as large predators were being shot, trapped, and pushed from the landscape by federal programs such as the Bureau of Biological Survey, Americans began oscillating between demonizing and romanticizing wild animals. That emotional complexity made the bear a potent mascot — a powerful creature rendered helpless by human actions — and helped turn it into an enduring symbol and toy.
They then pivot to William Howard Taft’s short-lived mascot, the Billy Possum. At a January 1909 Atlanta banquet Taft was served an 18-pound roasted opossum (“possum and taters”) and was presented a realistic stuffed opossum; the Georgia Billy Possum Company was already organized and began brokering nationwide deals within 24 hours. But unlike the teddy, the possum lacked cultural resonance and widespread affection: sales collapsed within months and the Billy Possum never reached the holiday market. From that historical contrast the episode moves to the 2000s, where conservation lawyers deliberately sought a charismatic species to force government acknowledgment of climate threats. They picked the polar bear — aided by Andrew Derocher’s 2004 paper linking sea-ice loss to polar-bear declines — and a petition produced roughly 500,000 public comments. Yet administrative maneuvers (the Bush administration’s “threatened” listing and use of a 4(d) rule, with Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne arguing the law shouldn’t be used to make global-warming policy) plus years of litigation blunted the tactic’s legal impact. Mars and Muellen agree that charismatic animals can catalyze public engagement but also have limits: symbols can be co-opted or outmaneuvered legally, and complex problems like climate change require structural policy solutions beyond symbolic mascots.
Why it matters
Roman Mars and journalist John Muellen recount that the teddy bear originated from President Theodore Roosevelt's November 1902 Mississippi bear hunt and the subsequent Washington cartoon captioned “Drawing the line in Mississippi,” which toy manufacturers turned into an explosive consumer craze (German firm Steiff reportedly exporting ~1,000,000 bears/year within a few years).
Key details
- John Muellen says William Howard Taft was honored at an Atlanta banquet in January 1909 with a Southern dish called “possum and taters” (an 18-pound roasted opossum on the president’s table), and supporters ceremonially presented Taft a stuffed opossum—launching the Georgia Billy Possum Company, which began brokering national distribution within 24 hours.
- Roman Mars and John Muellen note the Billy Possum fad collapsed within months: sales tanked so fast that the toy didn’t even make it to Christmas 1909, despite early advertising, postcards, pins, and merchandising efforts.
- John Muellen explains the cultural reason for the teddy bear’s success: early-20th-century America shifted from demonizing megafauna (the Bureau of Biological Survey actively shot and trapped predators) to feeling nostalgic/guilty as species like the grizzly were extirpated from ~95% of their continental range, creating a potent emotional narrative that the possum lacked.
- John Muellen traces the modern parallel: conservation lawyers (Center for Biological Diversity) deliberately petitioned in the 2000s to list the polar bear under the U.S. Endangered Species Act as a way to force recognition of climate-change impacts (Andrew Derocher’s 2004 paper linked sea-ice loss to polar bear declines).
- Roman Mars reports the polar-bear petition generated a record public response—about 500,000 comments, many from children—but the Bush administration listed the polar bear as “threatened” (not “endangered”) and used a 4(d) rule to avoid regulating greenhouse gases; Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne said he wouldn’t allow the Act to be “abused to make global warming policies.”