Brolly or Not?

The Umbrella: A Short History

Throughout history people have stepped from their dwellings first thing in the morning, looked to the skies and pondered, 'Will it rain today?'. And for a long time the umbrella has been at hand if needs be.

The Umbrella, and its sun protecting counterpart the Parasol, have appeared throughout recorded history. Sculptures from Ninevah often show parasols being used, although here they appear to be reserved only for the King. Similar carvings have also been found from ancient Persia, Egypt, Greece and Rome. In Egypt, even the gods are shown with umbrellas or parasols to protect them. Conversely in ancient Greek carvings certain women are shown carrying parasols over their heads as a mark of inferiority.

To get the oldest records of collapsible umbrellas in written records, we need to head East to 21 A.D., where Wang Mang had one designed for his ceremonial carriage. Interestingly, the Chinese character for umbrella is 傘 (sǎn) and is a pictograph that closely resembles our modern umbrellas.

While the ancient Eastern and Classical worlds had umbrellas, it seems that our European forebears were not so lucky. The distinct lack of any allusion to umbrellas throughout the Middle Ages demonstrates that they can’t have been in common use. Here, it seems people depended on a cloak to shield them from stormy weather.

It’s not until the 17th century that we start to find records of umbrellas in Europe in paintings and written records. It seems the umbrella finally made it’s way to Britain and France some time in the early 1700’s possibly with the growing trade activity with China. Suddenly records and representations of umbrellas become very frequent. Kersey's Dictionary in 1708 describes an umbrella as a "screen commonly used by women to keep off rain."

It was one Jonas Hanway, founder of the Magdalen Hospital, who has taken the credit as the first man to carry an umbrella out of habit around London. John Macdonald relates that in 1770, Jonas used to be greeted with the shout, "Frenchman, Frenchman! why don't you call a coach?" whenever he went out with his umbrella in inclement weather.

Since this date, the umbrella has come into general use and has become ubiquitous in our everyday lives.

Will it rain today on ?