Umbrella
In the 1750s, a London man took to the streets holding an umbrella—and braved jeers, rock-throwing haters, and even a cab that tried to run him over. We explore why rainy England was once so anti-umbrella, and whether that fight was really ever settled.
EPISODE NOTES
• Atlas Obscura: The Public Shaming Of England’s First Umbrella User
• Vladimir Jankovich’s Confronting the Climate: British Airs and the Making of Environmental Medicine
• Irene Fizer’s essay, “The Fur Parasol: Masculine Dress, Prosthetic Skins, and the Making of the English Umbrella in Robinson Crusoe”, found in Eighteenth-Century Thing Theory in a Global Context: From Consumerism to Celebrity Culture
• Recollection of the courageous citizen who first carried an umbrella, The Gentleman’s Magazine 1883
• BBC Presenter Zoe Kleinman: @zsk
• Notes & Queries, 1896
• Jonas Hanway’s anti-tea rant
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