Gladstone bag
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Gladstone Bag
In the late nineteenth century, the hinged luggage we now take for granted was first developed. As it came to be known, the Gladstone bag was a small portmanteau built over a rigid frame which could separate into two equal sections. It was made of stiff leather and often belted with lanyards. It was given its name after W.E. Gladstone (1809-1898), the four-time Prime Minister of England who was noted for the amount of travelling he did. Although thought of as a British invention it is actually based on earlier French models
Though the Gladstone bag developed into the typical flat-sided suitcase of today, modern leather versions are marketed which in fact are not Gladstone bags. Often these modern bags are made with soft, rounded sides, only opening at the top. This incorrectly-named Gladstone Bag is actually a Kit Bag or a Square-Mouthed Bag.
In reading J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye", students often wonder what kind of bags Holden Caulfield packs when he leaves Pensey Prep. He calls them Gladstones. It seems somewhat an outmoded word, much like the word "chiffonier" that Salinger also uses in this book. In fact, the word may derive from Salinger's recent war-time experiences with Kit Bags. It might be conjectured that Holden packs, not a real Gladstone Bag, but a Soft-Sided, Square-Mouthed Kit Bag.
Oscar Wilde referred (and it seems the perfect word for Wilde) to the Gladstone bag in "The Picture of Dorian Gray". "What a way for a fashionable painter to travel," says Dorian, "A Gladstone bag and an ulster," combining two typically British names for everyday objects.
In 1992 Charlotte Macleod published "The Gladstone Bag: A Sarah Keller Mystery"
