carpet-bag / carpetbag
A traveling-bag; – so called because originally made of carpet. — Webster, 1882
Why does a coat get larger when taken out of a carpet-bag? Because, when you take it out you’ll find it in creases. – South Kansas Tribune (Independence, Kansas), September 27, 1871.
Go to the harness shop for trunks, satchels and traveling bags. A new stock just arrived. Frank Schaub. – The De Smet Leader, July 11, 1885.
Why buy an old fashioned carpet bag when you can go to H.H. Hickok’s and find the largest up-to-date line of trunks, bags, and suit cases, extension cases, etc., in this country, at the lowest prices, at No. 1 West Main St., Malone, New York. – Franklin Gazette (Malone, New York), May 12, 1899.
A carpet bag — although Wilder never writes it as two words — is a piece of luggage small enough to be carried by hand and made out of actual carpeting such as one walks upon or another heavily-woven tapestry or fabric. The carpet bag typically had no internal structural elements to make the sides of the piece sturdy and hold its shape; it relied on the thickness of the woven material itself to keep its shape. Carpet bags were typically made with a flat bottom. The top opening mirrored the size and shape of the bag’s bottom, having either two U-shaped pieces of metal or two round or flat metal pieces that were hinged together with a barrel hinge or flat hinge that allowed the opening to be as large as the circumference of the bag for ease in packing and unpacking. The single piece with two hinges or the two individual pieces were sewn into a pocket at the top of the bag. There were usually two handles that were gripped and held together in one hand. A carpet bag was the original “carry on” luggage, often used to contain essential items when traveling by train, as they were carried into the passenger car and could be placed on the seat or at the feet of the passenger, if not on the luggage rack overhead.
Wilder only mentions carpet bags in two of her books. In Farmer Boy (see Chapter 23, “Cobbler”), the Wilder children take carpet-bags (hyphenated) when going to the Academy in Malone to school. In the typescript, however, it’s written as a singular carpet-bag, and in the handwritten manuscript, there’s no mention of packing or luggage at all. The only mention of the Wilder siblings going to the Academy is: When the butchering was out of the way, Royal and Eliza Jane and Alice went to Malone to stay and attend the Academy there.
In Little House on the Prairie, there’s no mention of how the Ingallses’ clothing were transported to Indian Territory, but when they’re leaving, Ma packed the family’s clothing in two carpetbags (one word) and “Pa hung them to the wagon bows inside the wagon.” (See Chapter 26, “Going Out.”) It’s worded a bit differently in the handwritten manuscript: “All their clothing was packed in two carpet bags and hung up to the wagon bows.” Neither Helen Sewell nor Garth Williams included this image in their drawings.
In later books, Wilder mentions Ma’s two satchels that she packs clothing in; could these have been the same items as the carpet bags from Little House on the Prairie? Typically, a satchel was made of leather while a carpet bag… wasn’t.
Popular in the mid-19th century, carpet bags were considered old-fashioned when the Little House books were first published. Published in 1934 — between Farmer Boy and Little House on the Prairie — many young readers were well-acquainted with carpet bags thanks to another children’s book: Mary Poppins, by P.L. Travers, or the 1964 movie!
carpet-bag / carpetbag (FB 23; LHP 26), see also carpet, satchel
