Century-old photographs of Winnipeg, the real life inspiration for Winnie-the-Pooh, have surfaced.

The adorable black-furred bear, was purchased by Canadian lieutenant Harry Colebourn when it was just a cub in 1914.

Named for Colebourn’s hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba, the officer smuggled the young bear into England when he was sent to the Western Front of World War I.

Originally stationed with the rest of his regiment on Salisbury Plain in central England, Colebourn and was eventually transferred to France, but before leaving, the lieutenant gifted his pet to the London Zoo.

It was there that A.A. Milne’s son Christopher Robin would become captivated by “Winnie,” so much so that he would name his teddy bear after the bear.

That stuffed bear — the “Pooh” part of the name comes from a swan, the young boy saw on a family holiday — would become the basis for Milne’s beloved series of “Winnie-the-Pooh” stories.

Robin’s original stuffed bear can be seen at Main Branch of the New York Public Library.