BOYDS BEARS Collection

Student Collector

Aubrey SquiresFollow

Date Collected

Winter 12-5-2017

Place item was collected

Provo, Utah

Informant

Mischelle Pierce

Point of Discovery/Informant Bio

Mischelle Pierce is a 51 year old Caucasian female. She was raised in Moab, Utah and currently lives in Provo. She is the third oldest of 7 kids and everyone in her family is LDS. She works at DHI as a receptionist. Her hobbies include: sowing, quilting, crocheting, and embroidering. She is my aunt.

Context

We stood in my aunts living room, where it was warm and well lit. There wasn’t anyone else in the room, but there were people in other parts of the house. Mischelle began to tell me the story behind her BOYDS BEARS collection. “I got them 25 years ago, long before I bought my house. I think Brigham City is where I bought the first bear. When you buy a bear they each come with a tag on their body. This tag informs you of the bears name. CORI BEARIBURG was one of the first bears I bought. I love Cori, he’s gorgeous. I love the lady bug sweater. May Beari is kind of like a Christmas Bear, and I bought her because I liked her colorful dress and her hat. My favorite bears are Santa Clause and the bear that looks like a school teacher. I think they are cute and I liked the way the manufacturing company dressed them. I enjoy looking at them while I am sewing in the living room. I have 54 BOYDS BEAR items total. I have little bears, medium bears, and large bears in my display case. I have a Halloween section on the middle shelf and I have a few bears on it. I also have duplicates of one bear. One is small and one is large. I have picture frames and other porcelain BOYDS BEAR figures outside of the display case. I would buy them when they were on sale because they were expensive otherwise. They were like 20 or 30 dollars, just for the little ones. The big ones were a lot more, I had to save up for them. The Santa Clause bear might have been the last one I bought, because he was expensive. He probably broke my bank. I don’t even know if they sell BOYDS BEARS anymore, because I haven’t checked for them in such a long time. If they are still sold in stores or on-line and if they are affordable, I might buy some more of them to add to my collection.”

Text

The picture on the left is of CORI BEARIBURG. He was one of the first bears she ever bought. She bought him because she loved the sweater he was wearing. The tag in the second picture shows the bears name. After she bought him, she started collecting more and more bears. The last picture on the right shows the display case of all the BOYDS BEARS she has collected as of now.

Texture

All the BOYDS BEARS are fuzzy, because that’s the type of bear they are. Mischelle was hoping that if they were in her display case they wouldn’t get dusty, but they are and that makes her disappointed. The display case has a light inside, that way you can see the bears when it is dark. The display case with all of the BOYDS BEARS in it and on top of it is stationed in her living room. She doesn’t just have BOYDS BEARS in her display case, she also has bears that were given to her by friends who traveled to England and South Africa. She never gets them out of the display case and she doesn’t share them with everyone, just her family and close friends. She enjoys looking at them whenever she is sowing in the living room. It’s been about 17 years since she bought anymore BOYDS BEARS to add to her collection, but someday she might be able to buy more of them.

Course

Intro to Folklore, English 2210

Instructor

Lynne S. McNIEll

Semester and year

Fall 2017

Theme

G8: Objects with/of Customary Use

EAD Number

3.17

Recommended Citation

Squires, Aubrey, "BOYDS BEARS Collection" (2017). USU Student Folklore Fieldwork. Paper 242.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/student_folklore_all/242