Portmanteau?

[m06clarinet]

Does anyone know how often were portmanteau used by civilians in the 1800's?

[Trish Hasenmueller]

Re: Portmanteau?

"Portmanteau" seems to be fairly common in popular literature of the era. I didn't take the time to read many of the 826 citations found on the Making of America site but the ones I looked at in the late 1850's seem to make it a masculine article. Here's a link to the list: http://digital.library.cornell.edu/c...tart=1;size=25

Trish Hasenmueller

[Emmanuel Dabney]

Re: Portmanteau?

I used this search term in Google book limiting my search 1830-1865 and found over 1590 hits. I, like Trish, didn't have the time to click all the pages of links but mostly see in the preview "his portmanteau" though there were a few stories in reference to women and portmanteaus or a "lady's portmanteau."

http://books.google.com/books?as_q=&num=50&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=portmanteau&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_brr=1&as_pt=ALLTYPES&lr=lang_en&as_vt=&as_auth=&as_pub=&as_sub=&as_drrb_is=b&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=1830&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=1865&as_isbn=&as_issn=

[Trish Hasenmueller]

Re: Portmanteau?

Hehehe...I held off looking at Google Books just for you, Emmanuel! ...both are great sources of popular culture!

Trish Hasenmueller

[Gary of CA]

Re: Portmanteau?

I have the impression that for light traveling, they were the suitcases of their era (apart from large trunks that were used for major moves). If you want to make your own, Conner Prairie Museum in Fishers, Indiana has a two and a half day class in October. You have to check with their Arms Making Workshop. It's slightly before (or sometimes concurrent) with their Headless Horseman (Halloween) event.