neal1973
Rain Rain Go Away
It was invented in the desert.
No, really, it was. To protect people from the sun. Seriously. There were bas-relief carvings in ancient Nineveh and Persepolis showing royalty toodling about in their chariots with servants standing behind them holding umbrellas to keep them pleasantly in the shade.
The reason we associate the umbrella with the rain is…well, there was this guy. Jonas Hathway, one of those 18th century peripatetic Brits who wandered all over the world buying and selling stuff. In 1743 our boy Jonas set out from London, took a boat to the Turkish city of Iskanderun. From there he catted around all the hotspots of Persia and Mesopotamia. He saw a lot of important people being followed around by servants toting umbrellas. Portable shade. It made sense to Jonas because those places were hot. So he got himself an umbrella and a servant to carry it. Two years later when Jonas finally made his way back to London with a ship full of exotic goods, he still had the umbrella (you could always get another servant, but an umbrella…well.).
There wasn’t so much radiant heat in London. But there was a lot of rain. And Jonas Hathaway’s momma didn’t raise no idiot.
So. There you have it. Umbrellas, rain, and all that.
Blog photograph copyrighted to the photographer and used with permission by utata.org. All photographs used on utata.org are stored on flickr.com and are obtained via the flickr API. Text is copyrighted to the author, greg fallis and is used with permission by utata.org. Please see Show and Share Your Work
