I was recently thinking about what options for package cushioning were available during the 19th century. When I started this research process, I was searching for terms like “parcel packing,” “package protection,” and “package cushioning.” I was getting a lot of results, most of which were not that useful. If they did describe the shipping process of fragile items, like glass bottles, they did not talk about whether cushioning was used. It simply described them being put in crates that prevented them from moving around and the entire crate wrapped for protection from the elements.
With those dead ends, I decided to come at it from a different angle. For many goods, the packaging they were in was meant to be thrown away. If they got a little banged up in shipment, it’s not attractive, but the product can still be used. My next thought was what products relied on being attractive and couldn’t necessarily be individually packaged at this point. Enter things like eggs and produce. These are not easily individually wrapped and they would cost too much if they were. In order to sell them, they couldn’t be banged up otherwise you risk cracking, bruising, etc. This line of research gave a ton of information on how these products were protected.
Before talking about 19th century cushioning methods for packing fruits, it’s important to note that not all fruits were cushioned. Some sellers cushioned their fruits, some sellers didn’t, and when they did use cushioning, that cushioning varied from seller to seller.
One of the best examples of this is apples. An article in The American Agriculturist, “Exportation of Fruit,” talks about the process of packing apples (1). The author says that the best way to package apples is to put them in barrels by themselves. The article does note that sometimes bran, buckwheat or sand may be included. However, the article did not make it clear on whether these methods of packing the apples were to cushion and prevent movement or to preserve them and prevent rot.
While the example above shows apples as sometimes not being packaged with any cushioning, we have lots of examples of other fruits from the 19th century that were. One of our first examples is from 1878 and involved a small sampling of strawberries being sent from Nevada City, California to San Francisco, California (2). This sender packaged the strawberries in a box which had a base layer of hay. Then, they layered the strawberries with grape leaves in between the fruits. The receiver, a newspaper in San Francisco, stated that the berries arrived in perfect condition.
The above strawberry package is an example of a smaller shipment. However, there is also evidence of cushioning being used when sending larger shipments of fruits. Articles from 1859 and 1860 describe the process of packing fruits such as apricots, peaches, nectarines, and grapes (3). The larger fruits are wrapped with tissue paper, while grapes are placed in paper bags. Wheat bran is then used in between each bag layer. Receivers of fruit packaged this way had said that “they had arrived as safe as if they had been taken from the trees that morning” (4).
Finishing off this section of cushioning used for fruits is Spanish moss. Spanish moss has had a lot of uses across history in construction, upholstery, and for the purpose of this research, packing produce (5). In one specific case, in 1895, a business owner in Connecticut was sent a single orange from Florida that was “as large as a fair-sized turnip” and was shipped with Spanish moss packing (6).
Okay, getting my terrible pun out of the way, an obvious product that people did not want getting broken when shipping were eggs. Throughout the 19th century, people mainly shipped eggs using either oats or straw as cushioning materials. Some said that oats were the best, some said that straw was the best.
An 1870 article in The Bloomfield Times states that using oats to pack eggs is the best option, noting that the oats are then sold as well. It further goes on to say the second best option is wheat chaff, and make no mention of using straw. It does make mention to never use saw dust, oat chaff, or buckwheat chaff (7).
On the flip side, an 1863 article states that rye straw is the best option. It goes on to state that oats should not be used. One of the reasons given is that oats are heavy and add to the shipping bill. They add that “those who ship largely and understand that business best, do not pack in oats” (8). Similar to the 1870 article, it mentions that chaff can be used as an alternative.
The process for packing the eggs is largely the same regardless of what material you used for cushioning. Start with your barrel and add a layer of cushioning on the bottom. Then on top of that put your eggs and put more cushioning between and over the top of them and keep doing so. Once you finish, make sure you mark the barrel with the number of eggs and if you used oats, how many (9).
Eggs were not only packed for consumption. Some people shipped eggs for hatching, and those had to be properly packed as well. An article from 1899 describes this process. They wrapped each egg with paper and cushioned them with excelsior, also known as wood-wool (10). Wood-wool was a common package cushioning material for fragile items like china, and as seen above products like eggs. It wasn’t until foam and plastic came along in the 20th century that wood-wool fell out of favor. A US Forest Service report from 1941 goes into the history of wood-wool and its use as packing material and in upholstery (11).
The examples above were not the only materials that were used as packing materials. They are a select few that I chose. Frankly, what was used and even if anything was used depended on a variety of factors. The apples above were said to be best not packed with anything, yet the 1860 article that gave instructions for packing fruits, said to use bran and a shallow box for apples (12). Spanish moss is a great example of what was used as cushioning being dependent on other factors. Spanish moss is prevalent in Florida, the orange that was shipped in the article above was from Florida. Location may have played a factor. What material people have on hand at the time could have as well. A farm shipping fruits might also be growing rye. That might lead to them using rye straw over oats or wheat chaff. What does link them together is that the packing materials used were likely things that the senders were also producing.
1. B. G. Boswell, “Exportation of Fruit,” The American Agriculturist, April, 1844, 106-7, https://archive.org/details/americanagricult31844spri
2. “Some New Strawberries,” The Florida Agriculturist, July 24, 1878, https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-florida-agriculturist-some-new-stra/191642591/.
3. “Packing Fruit,” Aurora of the Valley (Newbury, Vermont), September 22, 1860, https://www.newspapers.com/article/aurora-of-the-valley-packing-fruit/191643101/.; “Packing Fruits for Long Distances,” The Valley Star (Newville, Pennsylvania), September 15, 1859, https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-star-and-enterprise-packing-fruits/191642979/.
4. “Packing Fruits for Long Distance.”
5. “Spanish Moss,” narrated by John Lienhard, The Engines of Our Ingenuity, Houston Public Media, February 25, 2023, https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/shows/engines-of-our-ingenuity/engines-podcast/2023/02/25/443690/engines-of-our-ingenuity-2506-spanish-moss/.; Anne Gometz Foshee, “Vegetable Hair: The Spanish Moss Industry in Florida,” Florida Historical Quarterly, 66, no. 3, 265 (1987), https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol66/iss3/4.
6. “Brooklyn Briefs,” Waterbury Evening Democrat, January 15, 1895, https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-waterbury-democrat-brooklyn-briefs/189581027/.
7. “Egg Packing,” The Bloomfield Times (New Bloomfield, Pennsylvania), April 5, 1870, https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-bloomfield-pa-times-egg-packin/191638742/.
8. “How to Pack Eggs,” Louisville Weekly Journal, December 15, 1863, https://www.newspapers.com/article/weekly-courier-journal-how-to-pack-eggs/191636708/.
9. “Egg Packing”; “How to Pack Eggs”; “Shipping Eggs and Butter,” Bristol News, June 25, 1869, https://www.newspapers.com/article/bristol-news-shipping-eggs-and-butter/191637196/.
10. Nellie Hawks, “Eggs for Hatching,” The Poultry West, January, 1899, https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-poultry-west-eggs-for-hatching/191636413/.
11. United States Forest Service, Aspen for Excelsior (Lake States Aspen Report No. 16, U.S. Department of Agriculture, June 1949, https://research.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/50291.
12. “Packing Fruit.”
Bibliography
Boswell, B. G. “Exportation of Fruit.” The American Agriculturist, April, 1844, http://archive.org/details/americanagricult31844spri.
“Egg Packing.” The Bloomfield Times (New Bloomfield, Pennsylvania), April 5, 1870, https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-bloomfield-pa-times-egg-packin/191638742/.
Foshee, Anne Gometz. “Vegetable Hair: The Spanish Moss Industry in Florida.” Florida Historical Quarterly, 66, no. 3 (1987), https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol66/iss3/4.
Hawks, Nellie. “Eggs for Hatching.” The Poultry West, January 1899, https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-poultry-west-eggs-for-hatching/191636413/.
“How to Pack Eggs.” Louisville Weekly Journal, December 15, 1863, https://www.newspapers.com/article/weekly-courier-journal-how-to-pack-eggs/191636708/.
“Packing Fruit.” Aurora of the Valley (Newbury, Vermont), September 22, 1860, https://www.newspapers.com/article/aurora-of-the-valley-packing-fruit/191643101/.
“Packing Fruits for Long Distances.” The Valley Star (Newville, Pennsylvania), September 15, 1859, https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-star-and-enterprise-packing-fruits/191642979/.
“Shipping Eggs and Butter.” Bristol News, June 25, 1869, https://www.newspapers.com/article/bristol-news-shipping-eggs-and-butter/191637196/.
“Spanish Moss.” Narrated by John Lienhard. Engines of Our Ingenuity. Houston Public Media, February 23, 2023, https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/shows/engines-of-our-ingenuity/engines-podcast/2023/02/25/443690/engines-of-our-ingenuity-2506-spanish-moss/.
“Some New Strawberries.” The Florida Agriculturist, July 24, 1878, https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-florida-agriculturist-some-new-stra/191642591/.
United States Forest Service. Aspen for Excelsior. Lake States Aspen Report No. 16. U.S. Department of Agriculture, July 1949. https://research.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/50291.