History Of The Umbrella

When learning about the History Of The Umbrella you'll learn that the umbrella was actually first used back in ancient times thousands and thousands of years ago.

The basic umbrella was invented over four thousand years ago and when looking at ancient carvings, transcripts, ancient art and artifacts of China, Greece, and Egypt you can see evidence of umbrellas in them.

You could find homemade umbrellas used by slaves in different cultures carrying using umbrella-type devices for their masters to shade them from the sun they even used large palm leaves to shade their masters.

If you think abut it we take umbrellas granted but many, many years ago only the wealthy or royalty used them and were seen as items of luxury.

The Chinese are the ones who can be credited with waterproofing their parasols and creating the first rain umbrella.

As we all know England especially London is famous and recognized for its gloomy rainy weather, and is nicknamed as the city of umbrellas, and naturally the famous London fog rain coats.

So naturally it would be a Englishman who brought us the popular versions of the umbrella as we recognize it today. The man we can give our thanks to is Jonas Hanway (1712-1786) a Persian traveler and writer. He also made popular for English gentleman to carry these accessories and they were referred as a "Hanway."

The very first exclusive umbrella shop was called "James Smith and Sons" and is still open to the public. The shop opened in 1830, and is located at 53 New Oxford Street in London, England.

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They were waterproofed by rubbing oil or wax over the materials so that water would repel from them.

The artisans made the curved handles for the umbrellas out of hard woods like ebony, and the curved handles were made to keep them from slipping out of our hands if a wind would whip up.

If you have wondered where the name "umbrella" comes from, it is from the Latin root word "umbra", which means shade or shadow. In the late 16th century the umbrella became popular to the western world, especially in the rainy weather of northern Europe.

In the history of the umbrella you will learn that the umbrella was considered as an accessory used by women to shelter their skin from the sun.

These ancient umbrellas or parasols were first designed to provide shade from the sun not the rain and it was the Chinese who were the first to waterproof their umbrellas for use as rain protection. They would use lacquer and wax to waterproof their popular paper parasols.

Back in the 1800 an umbrella would weigh on the average ten pounds! Even Wellington, the victor of Waterloo, owned an umbrella made of wax canvas which included a dagger hidden in the handle. And again an Englishman, Samuel Fox from Sheffield, a subject of her Majesty Queen Victoria, invented the steel frame in 1852 which eliminated the umbrella’s unwieldy heft. Due in some part to tariff-free raw materials from its colonies, England was able to produce inexpensive umbrellas - with production costs often below a penny.

A Parisian manufacturer in the early 1700's named Marius proclaimed the invention of the pocket umbrella, and in the 19th Century there were many attempts to make the umbrella easier to transport. In 1852 John Gedge announced a self-opening rain umbrella from Paris.

The first practical telescoping pocket umbrella was discovered by a German gentlemen named Hans Hauptin the 1920s a very innovative time in history. He constructed the first telescoping pocket umbrella prior to this the pocket umbrella was collapsible by folding it. He founded the Knirps Company in Berlin. Knirps is German for "little guy" or "squirt". The "Knirps" then began to revolutionize the world of umbrellas. In 1936 another German invention called the Lord & Lady which was a automatic pocket umbrella.

In the 1950s not only did rock and roll take off but the popularity of the pocket umbrella began, and the desire for one to own one of these umbrellas really took off and this whirl wind of a trend kept rolling into the 60's with its vibrant colors and patterns made them even more desirable

If you are ever in Lago Maggiore in Italy make sure you visit the Museo dell’Ombrello, which is the only umbrella museum in the world.

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