Height: 51 cm, length: 92 cm, width: 48 cm; CMC 72-683
This trunk is decorated in the Mennonite German tradition with birds and
flowers. Around the handles is a geometric design with traditional motifs.
The trunk also has a painted inscription, gemacht im jahre 1865,
"made in the year 1865". When the trunk was acquired by the Canadian Museum of
Civilization, curators learned that it had travelled with a Mennonite family
from Germany to Saskatchewan, then to Mexico and back to Saskatchewan.
It was only very recently that closets became a standard element of
residential architecture. Small houses all over the world had barely
enough room for their occupants which often included domestic animals.
There was certainly no "wasted" space for hanging clothes. You can see
why the trunk, in a stunning variety of shapes and sizes, became the
accepted storage facility.
Trunks were useful for another reason as well. Moths eat wool clothing
with devastating effect, leaving great holes in places impossible to
repair. A trunk, unlike a closet, could be sealed. If you added cedar
or camphor (insect repellents discovered relatively early), you could
store clothes for a long time without damage.
In times of immigration the trunk really came into its own. Not only
could a family pack its worldly goods in one or two trunks, but the
trunk could then serve as a piece of furniture in their new home. And
finally, since trunks had flat surfaces, they were often painted or
decorated in motifs that reminded the family of a life gone by or a
new life to come.
Text: Phil Tilney
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