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A suitcase is a form of
luggage
Baggage or luggage consists of bags, cases, and containers which hold a traveler's personal articles while the traveler is in transit. A modern traveler can be expected to have packages containing clothing, toiletries, small possessions, trip ...
. It is a rectangular container with a handle typically used to carry one's clothes and other belongings while traveling. The first suitcases appeared in the late 19th century due to the increased popularity of
mass tourism
Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...
at the time and were meant to hold dress suits. They were originally made using heavier materials such as leather or steel, but, beginning in the 1930s, were generally constructed with more lightweight materials like plastic and cardboard.
Before the 1970s, the idea of rolling luggage was shunned by the travel industry, who viewed it as much less masculine than traditional luggage. Entrepreneur Bernard D. Sadow pitched his version of the wheeled suitcase, for which he was granted a patent in 1972, to various department stores before it was picked up and sold at
Macy's
Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...
stores starting in 1970. It took several years to become the predominant form of suitcase, and Sadow's version was soon superseded by the Rollaboard, a type of wheeled suitcase that was upright rather than flat like Sadow's model and invented in 1987 by pilot Robert Plath. The addition of wheels to the suitcase has since been called one of the most significant innovations in travel.
Smart suitcases with enhanced capabilities such as GPS tracking and device charging were popularized in the 2010s, though explosions of their
lithium ion batteries
A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery which uses the reversible reduction of lithium ions to store energy. It is the predominant battery type used in portable consumer electronics and electric vehicles. It also sees ...
in cargo holds caused them to be banned from being checked by many major airlines in the late 2010s.
History
12th century to late 19th century: Luggage before the suitcase
During the
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...
, the first luggage—wheeled containers used to transport weaponry—was developed in 1153.
The word "
luggage
Baggage or luggage consists of bags, cases, and containers which hold a traveler's personal articles while the traveler is in transit. A modern traveler can be expected to have packages containing clothing, toiletries, small possessions, trip ...
", derived from the verb "
lug", was added to the
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...
in 1596 to mean "denoting inconveniently heavy baggage".
Luggage prior to the invention of the suitcase was mostly wood and leather
trunks with an iron base, which were waterproofed using
canvas
Canvas is an extremely durable plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, shelters, as a support for oil painting and for other items for which sturdiness is required, as well as in such fashion objects as handbags ...
or tree sap. Servants were often made to carry these trunks for their owners, such as for European elites during the
Grand Tour
The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tuto ...
in the 18th century, since travel was mostly exclusive to the wealthy.
Late 19th century to mid-20th century: Beginnings
![Suitcase (AM 2001](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Suitcase_%28AM_2001.25.958-6%29.jpg)
As
mass tourism
Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...
increased in popularity and travel became accessible to non-elites due to railways and cruise ships, the need for more practical luggage increased. In the late 19th century, the first luggage known as "suit cases" or "suit-cases", which were meant to carry dress suits without wrinkling them, came about.
The earliest models of suitcases were invented by British businessmen, who used them to carry goods and clothing.
They were modeled after trunks and made by stretching leather, rubbery cloth, or wicker over a flat, rigid
frame made of wood or steel with leather or brass caps on the corners and a handle on their long side, contrasting them with trunks, which had handles on their two shorter sides.
They typically had a compartment for shirts and a
hat box
A hat box (also commonly hatbox and sometimes hat bucket, hat tin or bandbox) is a container for storing and transporting headgear, protecting it from damage and dust. A more generic term for a box used to carry garments, including headgear, is ...
on the inside.
Suitcases first started being manufactured alongside trunks by luggage companies such as the
Shwayder Trunk Manufacturing Company, which would later be renamed Samsonite.
They were initially considered a lesser alternative to trunks, as evidenced by North American travel catalogs from the turn of the 20th century advertising trunks much more prominently than suitcases.
Lightweight suitcases were mostly marketed at first toward women. In 1938, a weight limit of 40 pounds for checked bags was established in the United States, which led to the heavier leather model of suitcase being supplanted by lighter plastic and cardboard suitcases throughout the 1930s and 1940s.
German luggage company
Rimowa
Rimowa GmbH (), often stylized as RIMOWA, is a high-quality luggage manufacturer. The company was founded in 1898, in Cologne, Germany.
RIMOWA suitcases are widely known for their parallel aluminium grooves, which have become characteristic of th ...
built the first aluminum suitcase, which it started selling in 1950 with a grooved design inspired by the
Junkers Ju 52
The Junkers Ju 52/3m (nicknamed ''Tante Ju'' ("Aunt Ju") and ''Iron Annie'') is a transport aircraft that was designed and manufactured by German aviation company Junkers.
Development of the Ju 52 commenced during 1930, headed by German Aeros ...
airplane.
In Europe,
porter
Porter may refer to:
Companies
* Porter Airlines, Canadian regional airline based in Toronto
* Porter Chemical Company, a defunct U.S. toy manufacturer of chemistry sets
* Porter Motor Company, defunct U.S. car manufacturer
* H.K. Porter, Inc., ...
s were responsible for carrying train passengers' suitcases until around the middle of the 20th century, when they became less abundant.
1970s to 2000s: Wheeled suitcases
Early patents for a wheeled trunk and a wheeled suitcase came in 1887 and 1945, respectively, and a design for a "portable porter", a wheeled device that could be attached to a suitcase, was advertised in British newspapers in the 1940s. However, none of these designs originally caught on.
During her second world tour in 1928, American artist
Anita Willets-Burnham
Anita Willets-Burnham was an American Impressionist artist, teacher at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, author, and lecturer. She is best known for her 1933 book'' 'Round the World on a Penny'' about her international travels with her ...
made the first recorded wheeled suitcase, which had two baby carriage wheels attached to it and a
telescoping wooden handle.
Until the 1970s, wheeled luggage was seen by the travel industry as a niche invention solely for women.
![Rolling luggage patent 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Rolling_luggage_patent_1.png)
In 1970, Bernard D. Sadow, the then-vice president of Massachusetts luggage company U.S. Luggage, was carrying two heavy 27-inch suitcases at an airport in Puerto Rico on his way back from a family vacation in Aruba when he noticed a worker rolling a heavy machine on a wheeled platform. After remarking to his wife that people needed wheels for their luggage, Sadow returned to his factory in
Fall River, Massachusetts
Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The City of Fall River's population was 94,000 at the 2020 United States Census, making it the tenth-largest city in the state.
Located along the eastern shore of Mount H ...
and attached
caster
A caster (or castor) is an undriven wheel that is designed to be attached to the bottom of a larger object (the "vehicle") to enable that object to be moved.
Casters are used in numerous applications, including shopping carts, office chairs, t ...
s to a suitcase with a strap that allowed him to tow it behind him.
Sadow spent months attempting to sell his wheeled suitcase to various New York City department stores, but was met with resistance.
Most department stores, according to him, refused to sell his invention due to a "macho feeling" that men would consider rolling their luggage "wimpy"
and that women who travelled would have their husbands around to carry their suitcases for them.
After being turned away by Jack Schwartz, a
Macy's
Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...
buyer, a vice president from the company, Jerry Levy, called Sadow back in for a meeting. He instructed Schwartz to buy Sadow's suitcases, and Macy's began selling them in stores in October 1970, advertising them as "The Luggage That Glides" and showcasing them with mannequins; they rose in popularity soon thereafter.
[ That same year, he applied for a patent for "rolling luggage", which had rollers on its bottom wall and a flexible transport strap attached near the top, and was granted it as patent number 3,653,474 in 1972. It stated that, due to airplanes replacing trains as the primary mode of long-distance travel, "Baggage-handling has become perhaps the biggest single difficulty encountered by an air passenger."][ Macy's competitors came together to break the patent about two years after it was granted to Sadow, allowing them to sell their own wheeled luggage, although Sadow's model was often wobbly and difficult to maneuver.] Sadow later died in 2011.
1980s to 2000s: Rollaboards and other innovations
The Rollaboard or roll-aboard (also referred to as a rollerboard, an eggcorn
An eggcorn is the alteration of a phrase through the mishearing or reinterpretation of one or more of its elements,, sense 2 creating a new phrase having a different meaning from the original but which still makes sense and is plausible when used ...
of the term) is an upright wheeled suitcase with two wheels on the bottom and a telescoping handle invented by Robert Plath, a Northwest Airlines
Northwest Airlines Corp. (NWA) was a major American airline founded in 1926 and absorbed into Delta Air Lines, Inc. by a merger. The merger, approved on October 29, 2008, made Delta the largest airline in the world until the American Airlines ...
747 pilot, in 1987. He had the idea while at a hotel during a layover in Scandinavia as he watched passengers struggle to get their bags, which were attached by bungee cords, out of luggage trolleys. He designed the prototype for the Rollaboard in his garage, screwing a hard-shell bag to a luggage trolley, and started to get ideas from other crew members while carrying it around. It marked a shift from Sadow's model, which rolled flat on four wheels. At first, Plath only sold the Rollaboard to fellow pilots and flight attendants, manufacturing and selling 100 of the bags to various crew members in December 1989.
In 1991, Plath left Northwest Airlines to start the luggage company Travelpro in Deerfield Beach, Florida
Deerfield Beach is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States, just south of the Palm Beach County line. The city is named for the numerous deer that once roamed the area. As of the 2020 census, the population was 86,859. It is a principal ...
, which initially only sold the product to other flight crews. He hired a team of sales representatives in 1992, and in the mid-1990s, Travelpro started selling Rollaboards commercially in retail stores, making it a competitor of Samsonite, then the largest American luggage manufacturer. Plath sold Travelpro in 1999. The Rollaboard was widely imitated by other luggage companies starting around 1993, causing Sadow's design to quickly be almost entirely replaced. Designer Don Ku from Flushing, Queens
Flushing is a neighborhood in the north-central portion of the New York City borough of Queens. The neighborhood is the fourth-largest central business district in New York City. Downtown Flushing is a major commercial and retail area, and the ...
invented and patented a suitcase with an extendable handle in 1993. In 2004, Samsonite started selling the first "spinner-style" suitcase, which had four wheels and could be moved and spun in any direction. Durability testing for suitcases also became more rigorous around this time as they became lighter.
2010s to present: Smart suitcases
Smart suitcases–suitcases with built-in technological features–became popular in the 2010s. These features include internal tracking, geolocation
Geopositioning, also known as geotracking, geolocalization, geolocating, geolocation, or geoposition fixing, is the process of determining or estimating the geographic position of an object.
Geopositioning yields a set of Geographic coordinate s ...
, fingerprint scanner
Fingerprint scanners are security systems of biometrics. They are used in police stations, security industries, smartphones, and other mobile devices.
Function
Everyone has patterns of friction ridges on their fingers, and it is this pattern t ...
s, device charging, scales, GPS capabilities, touch switch A touch switch is a type of switch that only has to be touched by an object to operate. It is used in many lamps and wall switches that have a metal exterior as well as on public computer terminals. A touchscreen includes an array of touch switches ...
es, remote locking, and computer vision
Computer vision is an interdisciplinary scientific field that deals with how computers can gain high-level understanding from digital images or videos. From the perspective of engineering, it seeks to understand and automate tasks that the hum ...
, among others. Companies such as Away, Arlo Skye, and Ovis mostly sell smart luggage. Most smart suitcases are powered by a lithium-ion battery
A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery which uses the reversible reduction of lithium ions to store energy. It is the predominant battery type used in portable consumer electronics and electric vehicles. It also se ...
.
After a number of Li-ion batteries in smart suitcases exploded and caught fire in the cargo holds of planes, the International Air Transport Association
The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is a trade association of the world's airlines founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tariff ...
classified the batteries as "dangerous goods". It published recommendations to its approximately 275 members, including United
United may refer to:
Places
* United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community
* United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community
Arts and entertainment Films
* ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film
* ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two f ...
, JetBlue
JetBlue Airways Corporation (stylized as jetBlue) is a major American low cost airline, and the seventh largest airline in North America by passengers carried. The airline is headquartered in the Long Island City neighborhood of the New York C ...
, and Virgin Atlantic
Virgin Atlantic, a trading name of Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited and Virgin Atlantic International Limited, is a British airline with its head office in Crawley, England. The airline was established in 1984 as British Atlantic Airways, and w ...
, to put restrictions on smart suitcases with nonremovable batteries in May 2017. United States-based airlines including American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
, Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
, Delta
Delta commonly refers to:
* Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet
* River delta, at a river mouth
* D ( NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta")
* Delta Air Lines, US
* Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19
Delta may also ...
, and others banned smart luggage with nonremovable batteries from being checked in late 2017 and early 2018, while the United Kingdom's Civil Aviation Authority
A civil aviation authority (CAA) is a national or supranational statutory authority that oversees the regulation of civil aviation, including the maintenance of an aircraft register.
Role
Due to the inherent dangers in the use of flight vehicles, ...
recommended a similar ban in 2018. Smart suitcase companies such as Bluesmart shut down as a result of these bans.
Other materials
The first suitcases made of polycarbonate
Polycarbonates (PC) are a group of thermoplastic polymers containing carbonate groups in their chemical structures. Polycarbonates used in engineering are strong, tough materials, and some grades are optically transparent. They are easily work ...
were made in 2000 by the German luggage maker Rimowa
Rimowa GmbH (), often stylized as RIMOWA, is a high-quality luggage manufacturer. The company was founded in 1898, in Cologne, Germany.
RIMOWA suitcases are widely known for their parallel aluminium grooves, which have become characteristic of th ...
. Samsonite made a push toward using materials such as vulcanized fibre
Vulcanized fibre or red fibre is a laminated plastic composed of only cellulose. The material is a tough, resilient, hornlike material that is lighter than aluminium, tougher than leather, and stiffer than most thermoplastics. The newer wood-lamin ...
and polypropylene
Polypropylene (PP), also known as polypropene, is a thermoplastic polymer used in a wide variety of applications. It is produced via chain-growth polymerization from the monomer propylene.
Polypropylene
belongs to the group of polyolefins and ...
in suitcases.
As a symbol and in popular culture
Suitcases became culturally significant around the 1920s, when they made appearances in books like the ''Hardy Boys
The Hardy Boys, brothers Frank and Joe Hardy, are fictional characters who appear in several mystery series for children and teens. The series revolves around teenagers who are amateur sleuths, solving cases that stumped their adult counterpa ...
'' series and in films like the silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...
''The Woman in the Suitcase
''The Woman in the Suitcase'' is a 1920 American silent drama film directed by Fred Niblo. A print of the film is held by the Library of Congress.
Plot
Mary's (Bennett) father James Moreland (Conklin) returns from a business trip to Philadelp ...
''. Daniel A. Gross of '' Smithsonian'' described suitcases at the time as "a literary symbol for both mobility and mystery—perhaps filled with gold, photographs, or simply a stranger's possessions". In the mid-20th century, Mexican laborers who worked in the United States would often return home with suitcases as a status symbol to prove that they had become "cosmpolitan men". From the 1900s to the 1960s, hotels placed luggage labels on customers' suitcases to advertise themselves, with illustrations inspired by travel posters of the time.
The supposedly feminine nature of the wheeled suitcase was mocked in the 1984 film ''Romancing the Stone
''Romancing the Stone'' is a 1984 action-adventure romantic comedy film directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Diane Thomas and produced by Michael Douglas, who also starred in the film. The film co-stars Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito. The f ...
'', where Kathleen Turner
Mary Kathleen Turner (born June 19, 1954) is an American actress. She has received various accolades, including two Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, and two Tony Awards.
Turner became widely k ...
's character, Joan Wilder, brings her wheeled suitcase to the jungle, which bothers Michael Douglas
Michael Kirk Douglas (born September 25, 1944) is an American actor and film producer. He has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and the AF ...
's character, Jack T. Colton, who is attempting to fend off evil. Soo Youn of ''National Geographic
''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...
'' included the suitcase, specifically the addition of wheels to it, on his list of inventions that changed travel forever, while ''SmarterTravel''s Caroline Costello listed the wheeled suitcase as one of the best travel inventions of all time. Of the wheeled suitcase, Ian Jack
Ian Grant Jack (7 February 1945 – 28 October 2022) was a British reporter, writer and editor. He edited the ''Independent on Sunday'', the literary magazine ''Granta'' and wrote regularly for ''The Guardian''.
Early life
Jack was born in Fa ...
wrote for ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' that "outside the cheap flight, no other modern development has made travel easier".
See also
* Baggage
* Shoulder strap
A shoulder strap is a strap over a shoulder. They are often affixed to women's dresses to support its weight or as part of its style. The term is also applied to carrying bags.
Dress shoulder strap
Image:Camisole.png, Camisole
Image:Preprom.jpg, ...
s
* Trunk
* Bag tag
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Luggage
Travel gear