Maria Puente

USA TODAY

He's a "bear of very little brain" but now he's a spiffier-looking bear, especially for his age.

Winnie-the-Pooh, one of kiddie-lit's most charming and reassuring characters, has returned to the New York Public Library, where he has resided with some of his famous pals since 1987, after a much-needed break for conservation.

Pooh, nervous little Piglet, gloomy Eeyore, maternal Kanga and bouncy Tigger went back on display in the library's Children's Room on Wednesday, following more than a year of refreshing repairs on the stuffed toys by a textile conservator.

They were "GON OUT BACKSON BISY BACKSON as they got meticulously preserved for the next generation," according to Arielle Landau on the library's blog. "But now they’re back on display against a map of the Hundred Acre Wood, that fuzzy space between make-believe and Sussex, England, where author A. A. Milne lived with his family."

As anyone who has been a 5-year-old in the last century knows, Pooh and the gang are the unforgettable characters of Milne's books of children's stories and poems (Winnie-the-Pooh, The House at Pooh Corner, When We Were Very Young, Now We are Six) published in the 1920s and based on the toys Milne gave his son, Christopher Robin.

Milne bought the stuffed bear at Harrods for his son's first birthday. Christopher Robin named him Edward Bear (or Teddy), then renamed him, combining two names: Winnie for a real black bear at the London Zoo that had once served as a military mascot in Winnipeg, Canada, and Pooh for a pet swan.

Pooh is no spring chicken: He'll be 95 on Aug. 21, so a touch-up was in order. The library says kids (and adults) have been busy making him birthday cards online and in the Children’s Room to celebrate the occasion.

Library curator Michael Inman said in a statement that the time was right for conservation given recent advances in textile restoration. “We take conservatorship of the dolls very, very seriously,” Inman said. “We work to ensure these things survive indefinitely."

The repairs included neck alignment, clavicle repair, snout adjustments, protective mesh, and butt steaming and fluffing, all of which helped restore the dolls to "their original selves,” according to Evelyn Frangakis, assistant director of preservation for the library.

Eeyore needed the most work. "OH, BOTHER," as the dejected donkey was wont to exclaim. He is the biggest doll and also one of the oldest. More than 50 of his patches were removed, cleaned, treated and sewn back on, or replaced.

All of the dolls were vacuumed and put on new mounts so they can sit up for the hundreds of thousands of visitors who peer at them every year. Inman said they've been returned to a state close to how they appeared when they were still in the possession of the Milne family.

The toys were donated to the library by Milne's publisher, E.P. Dutton & Co., after touring America in 1947.

The Milnes are long gone; Christopher Robin died in April 1996, age 75. Still, they live on, as the concluding words of The House at Pooh Corner attest.

"But wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the Forest a little boy and his Bear will always be playing."

Contributing: The Associated Press