The history and merit of hope chests

✯ Day 284 of Vintage 365 ✯

 

Over the course of human history many everyday items that were once as run-of-the-mill as bread have come and gone. Just stop and ask yourself when the last time you saw someone wearing a sword, polishing their Concord buggy, or filling up a kerosene lamp was? Even more recently things like the telegraph, rotary phone, dial-knob television set, and 8mm video camera have become, to most, just quaint relics of the past.

While the advent of newer, better technology sometimes warrants doing away with certain items (especially if the new version greatly improves our lives), there are others which I firmly believe should not have been so hastily abandoned in a rush towards tomorrow. One such item is the classic hope chest.

As recently as a few decades ago (and especially prior to the twentieth century) it was exceeding common - virtually de rigueur, actually - for all young, unmarried women to put together a trousseau of household items that would serve her well later on in her married life (or, much less commonly, if a woman set up a house on her own, away from the family home).

In use for centuries, the hope chest (also known as a dowry box, or in the UK and Australia, a glory box) was a means by which women could help contribute to the home they'd one day share with their husband.

Started anywhere from when a woman was a young girl up until she came of "marrying age", a hope chest (often a box made from cedar or other wood, but sometimes also a metal trunk or other suitable storage container) would be filled with items such as linens, kitchenware, crockery, sewing notions, bedding, and often clothing.

In many cases at least some of the items that went in a young woman's hope chest were one she had made herself (or which were made for her by her relatives). Often times hope chests included treasured pieces that had been handed down for generations (such as fine china, silverware, and quilts), though it wasn't uncommon for a gal to start her chest from scratch either.

Carrying on the tradition perhaps more recently than most, my own mother brought a lovely cedar hope chest with her when she was married in 1980. While it no longer holds items for the house, she still uses it to this day as a place in which to store treasured mementos from her life (such as artwork by, and letters from, her children).

{Delightful 1940s vintage Lane Hope Chest ad from paul.malon on Flickr. The Lane Hope Chest company used the endearing sweet slogan "The gift that starts the home" in many of their advertisements over the years. Though no longer in business, Lane continued to produce hope chests up until 2001.}

I was fascinated by the idea of having a hope chest as a little girl (and loved listening to my grandmothers share tales of building up their own bridal trousseaus). Though I never formally acquired a chest in which to store items from my adult/married life (indeed, I moved out and started living on my own quite young, so by the time I go married, I'd already furnished and kitted out a small home, thus eliminating the need for a home chest in the traditional sense of its purpose).

I'm by no means alone in this regard. Long gone, for most in the western world, are the days when a woman was pretty much expected to go from her parents house to her husband's home with nary a five minute pause in between. These days many women go onto post secondary education and/or join the workplace, often living on their own, with friends or a partner before settling down (if they so chose to).

Whether you applaud this advance or long for the old-fashioned way, starting a home chest still makes a tremendous amount of sense (regardless of if a young woman uses it to furnish a home all of own or one shared with her boyfriend or husband).

Setting up a home, even with a bare bones number of everyday items can be very expensive (believe me, I've done it completely from scratch three times in life), and having household goods at the ready would be of great help to most people (women or men!) as they're starting out on their adult lives.

Though the use of hope chests has declined significantly from the start of the 1960s onwards, there is absolutely no reason why we need to let this meaningful, once highly important item go the way of the dinosaur.

For those interested in starting a hope chest for themselves or their child, there are (thankfully) still a handful of companies and woodworking artisans producing and selling these classic wooden piece of functional furniture (such as Harmony Cedar; should you have the good fortune of living around an Amish community, you may also be able to pick up a traditionally crafted cedar chest from one of their skilled furniture makers).

Good quality hope chests are not inexpensive ($400 - $500 is not an uncommon or unreasonable price for a well made solid cedar chest), but they are a very worthwhile investment in one's future (not to mention having added bonus a beautiful piece of home decor).

While I've made peace with the fact that telegraphs are now (for all intents) a thing of the past, that TV's no longer require antennas, and that record players have been overshadowed by iPods, I will forever continue to love and (should I have children of my own one day) carry on the beautiful tradition of hope chests.