Umbrella

An umbrella is a portable hand canopy that is used by people as protection against rain. When used to make shade and protect a person from sunlight it usually is called a parasol or sunshade.

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HISTORY

The umbrella was invented more than 4,000 years ago. Named after the Latin umbra, meaning shade, the umbrella started life in Mesopotamia as a sunshade.

Rain-proof umbrellas made of treated paper popped up in China about 1,700 years ago.

In ancient times, umbrellas were used to denote wealth and rank, with the King of Siam carrying one with multiple tiers each decorated with tassels.

The audience chamber of the king of Siam was furnished with three umbrellas - and nothing else.

Few people could afford an umbrella in ancient times. The kings prided themselves to own one or, luckier still, several, such as the ruler of the Upper Burma-based kingdom Ava. who signed himself as "The King of the White Elephants and Lord of 24 Umbrellas."

Umbrellas were held by bearers in ancient times to protect important persons. They were not only costly, but heavy, and special servants, mostly slaves, carried them. For some of these umbrella-carriers, their only duty was to shelter their master from the sun.

There is evidence of umbrellas in the ancient art and artifacts of Assyria, China and Egypt. Ancient pictorial representation shows dignitaries, kings and priests, being accompanied by their umbrella-carriers.

The oldest reference to a collapsible umbrella in written records dates to the year 21 AD, when Wang Mang had one designed for a ceremonial four-wheeled carriage.

A Terracotta Army carriage with an umbrella from Qin Shihuang's tomb, c. 210 BC

In ancient Greece and Rome, the umbrella was regarded as effeminate. Men rarely used one.

Europe eventually adopted the umbrella in late medieval times, though for a considerable period it remained a guard against the sun only, and was reserved for the rich and noble. That is how Papal Rome came to use it, and even horsemen in the Italy of the Renaissance. By the late 16th century, the use of umbrellas were a mark of distinction for pope and clergy in Italy.

It appears that people in medieval and renaissance depended on cloaks, not umbrellas, for protection against storms.

A French merchant debuted Europe's first lightweight folding umbrella in 1710. Jean Marius, whose shop was located near the barrier of Saint-Honoré in Paris, received from King Louis XIV the exclusive right to produce folding umbrellas for five years on January 1, 1710. A model was purchased by the Princess Palatine in 1712, and she enthused about it to her aristocratic friends, making it an essential fashion item for Parisiennes.

Parisians in the rain with umbrellas, by Louis-Léopold Boilly (1803)

By the mid-18th century, Technical advance and the invention of cheaper material in the 17th century made the umbrella available to everybody. The traditional leather was replaced by lighter cloths, of which silk became most popular. Whalebone was used for the ribs and the umbrella became so light that the owner could carry it himself.

The use of the umbrella or parasol (though not unknown) was uncommon in England during the first part of the eighteenth century, It was reasoned that only those who could not afford a carriage needed umbrellas. Thus, to carry one immediately stamped its owner as a man of little means.

It was philanthropist Jonas Hanway ( August 12, 1712 – September 5, 1786)), the founder of the Magdalen Hospital, who became the first Englishman to display an umbrella as part of a city "uniform" in around 1750. He had to suffer ridicule by carrying one habitually in London, suitably fortified against the inclement English climate. Worse still, he angered sedan-chair men and hackney coachmen, who deemed it their monopoly to protect people from rain. They saw a threat to their livelihood in the new contraption. But in spite of all their abuse, Hanway continued to carry his "guard from chilly showers." A memorial to the merchant can be found in Westminster Abbey.

Portrait of Jonas Hanway by James Northcote, circa 1785.

Only when Hanway's example was followed by one of Britain's famous dandies, Beau Macdonald, did the umbrella at last catch on in England. Though he, too, at first was subjected to ignominy. He relates that in 1770, he used to be addressed as, "Frenchman, Frenchman! why don't you call a coach?" whenever he went out with his umbrella. Macdonald's own sister refused to be seen with him in public.

Improvements reduced the umbrella's weight and added to the efficiency of its mechanism. Metal replaced the whalebone and in 1851 British industrialist Samuel Fox and his company Fox Umbrella Frames Ltd developed the "Paragon" umbrella frame, a U section of string steel, The new design gave the umbrella even less weight and more strength and Samuel Fox large profits. By the mid-19th people in the 19th century were commonly carrying umbrellas for personal use.

People used the umbrella as a sunshade as well. To protect the skin from sunburn was then presumed to be essential for health, and a pale face was looked upon as dignified and attractive.

A parasol depicted in Morning Walk, by John Singer Sargent (1888)

The word umbrella was first seen in English in 1611. The abbreviation “brolly” arrived in 1873.

By the 1920s as a protection against rain, the umbrella had resumed its initial role of a status symbol in England. To carry it over one's arm, neatly rolled, came to symbolize the English gentleman.

The story is told that when Adolf Hitler saw Britain's Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain alight from his airplane fortified in Munich with an umbrella in September 1938, he sneered loudly. A nation whose leader was so much concerned with protecting himself from rain, at a time when the existence of whole countries was in the balance, must lack power of resistance, he reasoned.

During the 1944 Battle Of Arnhem Bridge, Major Digby Tatham-Warter, a British major who brought an umbrella into battle, used it to stop an armored vehicle by poking the driver's eye and saving a chaplain. When a fellow soldier complained about it, he answered "oh my goodness, but what if it rains?"

Up until November 2019,  male Marines in the U.S. were prohibited from using umbrellas while in uniform. It was a long-standing tradition  that often left them getting soaked in the rain. This policy sparked some amusement as female Marines were always allowed to carry umbrellas with them. In November 2019, that finally changed. Commandant General David Berger announced a series of uniform regulation updates, including allowing male Marines to carry small black umbrellas with their service or dress uniforms during bad weather.

FUN UMBRELLA FACTS

National Umbrella Day is held on February 10th each year around the world. While the origins of the utilitarian holiday remain a mystery, it’s been celebrated since at least 2004.

The average life span of an umbrella is one-and-a-half years.

80,000 umbrellas are lost each year on the London Underground.

The Umbrella Cover Museum at Peaks Island, Maine, USA has over 2,000 umbrella covers from 66 countries. And there is an Umbrella and Parasol Museum with more than 1,000 exhibits in Gignese, Italy.

The ‘beerbrella’, comprising a small umbrella designed to shield a glass of beer from the sun, was patented in the US in 2003.

The slang term “gamp” for umbrella came from Mrs Sarah Gamp in Charles Dickens’ Martin Chuzzlewit.

Sources Daily Express, The Independent, Europress Encyclopedia