| The simple cardboard box plays an important, but | | | | A common cliché says that if a child is given a |
| unsung role in our modern society. It's hard to imagine | | | | large and expensive new toy, he/she will quickly |
| how we ever got along before they were invented | | | | become bored with the toy and play with the box |
| but they have only been in common use for the last | | | | instead. |
| hundred years or so. The story of this simple but | | | | Although this is usually said somewhat jokingly, children |
| important invention follows. | | | | certainly enjoy playing with boxes, using their |
| Cardboard boxes are industrially prefabricated boxes, | | | | imagination to portray the box as an infinite variety of |
| which are primarily used for packaging goods and | | | | objects. |
| materials or for moving. The first commercial | | | | One example of this from popular culture is Calvin of |
| cardboard box was produced in England in 1817 by Sir | | | | the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip. He often used a |
| Malcolm Thornhil and the first cardboard box | | | | cardboard box for imaginative purposes from a |
| manufactured in the United States was made in 1895. | | | | "transmogrifier" to a time machine |
| By 1900, wooden crates and boxes were being | | | | So prevalent is the cardboard box's reputation as a |
| replaced by corrugated paper shipping cartons. The | | | | plaything that in 2005 a cardboard box was added to |
| advent of flaked cereals increased the use of | | | | the National Toy Hall of Fame. It is one of the very |
| cardboard boxes. The first to use cardboard boxes as | | | | few non-brand-specific toys to be honored with |
| cereal cartons were the Kellogg brothers. | | | | inclusion. In addition, a toy cardboard box "house" |
| In France the cardboard box has an even longer | | | | (actually a log cabin) made from a large cardboard |
| history. The Musée du Cartonnage et de | | | | box was also added to the Hall, housed at the Strong - |
| l'Imprimerie (Museum of the Cardboard Box) in | | | | National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York. |
| Valréas, France traces the history of | | | | Another more somber use of the cardboard box is |
| cardboard box making in the region and notes that | | | | the stereotypical image of homeless people living in a |
| cardboard boxes have been used there since 1840 for | | | | cardboard box. In 2005 Melbourne architect Peter |
| transporting the Bombyx mori moth and its eggs from | | | | Ryan actually designed a house composed largely of |
| Japan to Europe by silk manufacturers. In addition, for | | | | cardboard. |
| more than a century the manufacture of cardboard | | | | A vital item of commerce, a toy for children, a home |
| boxes was a major industry in the area. | | | | of last resort, these are just some of the roles played |
| Cardboard boxes and children | | | | by cardboard boxes in the last two hundred years. |