Hundredwood

14 October 1926  ·  14 October 2026

100 years of Winnie-the-Pooh

“Once upon a time, a very long time ago now, about last Friday, Winnie-the-Pooh lived in a forest all by himself under the name of Sanders.”

A. A. Milne’s book first went on sale in London on 14 October 1926.

Send a Poohism Open the animated book
E. H. Shepard's drawing of Pooh hanging from a balloon string, surrounded by bees.

“I think the bees suspect something!”

Join the party

Two ways to wish him happy birthday

Send a Poohism

Pick a line from the Pooh books and one of Shepard’s drawings, add a note, and send it as a card. It arrives in an envelope.

Make a card

Put a message in a bottle

Like Piglet in the flood, write a Very Important Missage and throw it in the river. It washes ashore on Pooh’s 101st birthday, or any day you choose up to his 200th.

Write a Missage

Or play Poohsticks Drop your stick off the bridge and race Pooh, Piglet and Eeyore. “Eeyore, who had never played it before, won more times than anybody else.”

Chapter the First, in which we explain

A bear called Edward, who came downstairs

A hundred years ago today, Methuen published a small book of ten stories that A. A. Milne had written for his son, Christopher Robin. The stories were about the boy’s toys: a teddy bear bought at Harrods for his first birthday, a donkey with a loose tail, a very small pig, and a kangaroo with a baby in her pocket. Ernest H. Shepard drew them in pen and ink, walking the paths of Ashdown Forest in Sussex, where the Milnes had a country house, to get the trees right.

The bear had been Edward Bear. He became Winnie-the-Pooh after two real animals. Winnie was a black bear at London Zoo, brought from Canada by a soldier named Harry Colebourn and named after his home town of Winnipeg. Pooh was a swan that Christopher Robin used to feed. Milne explains both in his introduction, and then gives up on explaining: “So perhaps the best thing to do is to stop writing Introductions and get on with the book.”

“I do remember,” he said, “only Pooh doesn’t very well, so that’s why he likes having it told to him again. Because then it’s a real story and not just a remembering.”Christopher Robin, Chapter I

The book has never been out of print. Since 1 January 2022 the original 1926 text and Shepard’s 1926 drawings have been in the public domain in the United States, which is why everything on this page can be shown in full. The pictures here are scans of the first Canadian printing, transcribed by volunteers at Project Gutenberg.

  1. 1914

    Lieutenant Harry Colebourn buys a bear cub in Ontario and names her Winnipeg. She spends the rest of her life at London Zoo.

  2. 1921

    Christopher Robin Milne is given a teddy bear for his first birthday. It is called Edward.

  3. 1924

    When We Were Very Young, Milne’s first book of verse, includes a poem about a teddy bear.

  4. 1925

    On Christmas Eve the London Evening News prints the first Pooh story, about the wrong sort of bees.

  5. 1926

    Winnie-the-Pooh is published on 14 October, with decorations by E. H. Shepard.

  6. 1928

    The House at Pooh Corner follows, and Tigger bounces in.

  7. 1987

    The real toys, including Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet, Kanga and Tigger, go on display at the New York Public Library. Roo was lost in an orchard in the 1930s.

  8. 2022

    Winnie-the-Pooh enters the US public domain on 1 January.

  9. 2026

    The bear turns one hundred.

A centenary edition

The wrong sort of bees, an animated book

The very first chapter, the one that started it all, bound as a book you can turn page by page. Milne’s words are his own, lightly abridged. Shepard’s drawings come alive as you read.

  • Real page turns, with a spread on wide screens and single pages on a phone
  • Bees that buzz, a balloon that floats, and rain when someone says “Tut-tut”
  • A Read to me button that narrates and turns the pages for you

Open the book

Contents

Ten chapters, in which…

Every chapter title in the book begins “In which”. Here is each one with Shepard’s first drawing for it and Milne’s opening line.

From the 1926 text

In his own words

Many lines credited to Pooh online come from films or from nowhere at all. Every one of these is in the 1926 book.

You never can tell with bees.

Winnie-the-Pooh, Chapter I

For I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and long words Bother me.

Winnie-the-Pooh, Chapter IV

It is hard to be brave … when you’re only a Very Small Animal.

Piglet, Chapter VII

A little Consideration, a little Thought for Others, makes all the difference.

Eeyore, Chapter VIII

“What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?” “I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting to-day?” said Piglet. Pooh nodded thoughtfully. “It’s the same thing,” he said.

Pooh and Piglet, Chapter X

Of course it is. The best bear in all the world.

Christopher Robin, Chapter X

About these pictures

Why we can show them

US copyright on works published in 1926 lasted 95 years. On 1 January 2022 Milne’s text and Shepard’s drawings for Winnie-the-Pooh became free for anyone in the United States to read, copy, adapt and share.

That freedom covers this book only. Later works keep their own dates, and copyright in other countries is counted from the author’s death. If you live outside the US, check your own country’s rules before reusing the drawings.

The yellow bear in the red shirt belongs to a different story. The Disney films and their designs are not public domain, and nothing on this page comes from them. This is an independent fan tribute with no connection to Disney or to the Milne and Shepard estates.

Status as of October 2026
WorkUnited StatesUK and life + 70 countries
Milne’s text, Winnie-the-Pooh (1926)Public domain since 2022From 1 Jan 2027
Milne died in 1956
Shepard’s 1926 drawingsPublic domain since 2022Protected until 2047
Shepard died in 1976
The House at Pooh Corner (1928), with TiggerPublic domain since 2024Follows the same dates as above
Disney films and character designsProtectedProtected