The word ‘umbrella’ derives from the Latin word umbra (‘shade’), and initially umbrellas were used as protection from the sun. The first waterproofed umbrellas reportedly originated in China in about the 11th century BC, when luxury leather umbrellas became available to royalty and members of the nobility. In ancient times umbrellas were mainly used in Egypt, India and other civilisations of the Middle East and Asia; this also extended to the Greek and Roman Empires.

Umbrellas disappeared from Europe during the Middle Ages but as new trade routes opened during the Renaissance, fabric umbrellas began to be adopted on the continent. Fashionable Frenchwomen allegedly popularised umbrellas during the 1600s and English traveller Thomas Coryat spotted his first umbrella when visiting Italy c1607, as recorded in his 1611 travelogue, Coryat’s Crudities. Jonathan Swift mentions an umbrella carried by a sempstress in City Shower (1710), revealing that ‘umbrellows’ (as they were sometimes called, after the French ombrelle) had reached Georgian Britain. Initially umbrellas were considered effeminate and reputedly when philanthropist Jonas Hanway became the first man to carry one during the 1750s he was ridiculed; yet gradually umbrellas for keeping pedestrians dry in the rain (as distinct from sunshades) gained favour and for some years were called Hanways.

The use of umbrellas as rain protection became more common during the early 1800s, functional umbrellas of this era comprising a whalebone frame and canopy of water-resistant oilcloth. In 1852 Samuel Fox invented fine steel spokes, enabling the collapsing of umbrellas into a long slender line; this appealed to men as the tightly-furled umbrella resembled the slender cane already fashionable (see DYAP June 2014). Superior Victorian umbrellas were made of silk but Gloria was a common fabric – a silk/wool or silk/cotton mix. By the late-1800s umbrellas were widely popular throughout society and after WW1 a furled umbrella superseded the stick or cane as a male accessory. Soon umbrella materials included man-made rayon and acetate and in the 1930s prototype folding or telescopic umbrellas were developed in America.

In the print edition
Read Jayne Shrimpton’s guide to unusual Victorian photos in Issue 4 of Discover Your Ancestors, out in newsagents now or available online at discoveryourancestors.co.uk