You’d think umbrellas would have existed for ages—or at least as long as people living in rainy climates have been wearing fancy clothes. Parasols have been around forever, but not so much umbrellas.
Historians are pretty sure the ancient Romans used them, but they didn’t make an appearance in Europe until the seventeenth century. Even then they didn’t catch on, which is pretty shocking when you consider that almost no fine fabrics were colorfast. Silks and satins could be ruined with just a few spots of water.
By the eighteenth century you could find umbrellas in Italy, France, England, Germany, and Holland, but people were still suspicious of them—if you were a fancy person, you took a carriage, so carrying an umbrella was a sign you couldn’t afford to ride.
According to the book I’m reading, Accessories of Dress, the first Englishman credited with carrying an umbrella was Jonas Hanway, a well-known traveler and philanthropist, who in 1780 stepped out carrying a large umbrella he’d brought back from China. People stopped and stared. Cab drivers shouted disparaging comments at him, but within his lifetime, umbrellas became a common accessory in rainy England.
Early umbrellas were cumbersome things, with ribs made of bamboo, rattan, or oak, and the covering of oiled and waxed silk or linen. In 1806 the average umbrella weighed ten pounds. 