SHOPPING BAG HISTORY PROJECT
(Lesson adapted from Louise Thurn, NGS teacher consultant program, 1991)

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

MATERIALS

PROCEDURES

Although the purposes of the common shopping bag are much the same as they were long ago, its décor has taken on a whole new meaning.  Today graphics printed on the shopping bags have created beautiful bags and “mini-billboards” in our fashion-oriented society.

Until the sixteenth century, buying and trading were done mainly in bulk.  There was little need for wrapping or packaging.  Customers provided their own containers, such as baskets, jugs, or bowls.  But as towns and cities grew, goods could be purchased in smaller quantities as they were needed, and it was convenient to do shopping more frequently.  Therefore, items such as grain, beans, buttons, and needles required some kind of wrapping or packaging to contain these smaller quantities.

Bookstores often took manuscripts that failed to sell as reading materials and sold them to merchants as scraps for wrapping paper.  The paper was twisted into a cone and folded up at the bottom.  This became the first paper bag.  Soon paper makers also discovered that they could use the course settlings from the bottom of their vats to make a low-quality wrapping paper.

English paper makers then switched from supplying wrapping paper to make paper bags by hand.  Letterpress printing was used so that a shopkeeper could purchase ready-made bags with stock designs.

Industrialization brought the first paper-bag-making machine.  However, paper bag making by hand still remained practical until well into the twentieth century.  Finally, these bags, flat in design, evolved into square and oblong shapes.  The simple construction consisted of two side seams, or one center seam and one bottom seam.  Bags with extended sides followed, with a center seam and a pasted flat bottom, and eventually developed into the popular patent bag, square with a block bottom.  This design allowed for a large quantity of goods to be carried.  These three designs – the flat, gusset, and patent remain the basic form for construction of bags today.

The early bag-making machines simply folded and pasted a continuous flat tube from a reel of paper, then cut the tube into a variety of lengths.  One end of each bag was then pasted by hand.  Later machines combined and made operations more efficient.  The addition of various kinds of handles produced the shopping bag as we now know it today.

As packaging and bags became more widely used, improved methods of printing were in demand.  The fancy designs and artwork on today’s shopping bags is an exact operation.  Attention must be given to the amount of overlap where colors meet, the effect of one color overlapping another, the types of ink used, and the type of paper to be printed upon.  Collaboration among designers, engravers, plate makers, ink suppliers, and printers is necessary to obtain the outstanding results we see as we walk around in our "fashion oriented” society.  Although often taken for grated, these slick bags went through evolution and “landscape changes” in order to become practical objects of portable art and mini-billboards.

• Note how early Iowans purchased store-bought goods such as flour in cloth sacks that could be reused for towels, pillowcases, dresses, etc.  Trace the changes in shopping bags as ecological concerns and recycling have become common.  Share samples that illustrate how the common shopping bag has evolved over time into picnic totes, beach bags, storage containers and some that are expressions of art or sources of advertising.  For example, Hallmark makes beautiful shopping bags that are works of art.  For large retail companies, the shopping bag serves as a billboard advertising their products.

• Brainstorm with students the different kinds of shopping bags they have used or seen.

• Distribute to each student or pair of students a plain shopping bag and explain that students will use their bags to display their research assignment and related materials.  If possible, make a student example ahead of time illustrating how different research information could be displayed on each side of bag and how artifacts, posters, puzzles etc. could be displayed inside of the bag.

• Encourage students to select a topic that is related to Iowa history and is connected to the particular unit of study.  For example, if the class is focusing on Iowa pioneer life, encourage students to explore pioneer transportation, farming, home life, ethnic groups, etc.

• As a class, brainstorm general questions that would guide the research of the topic.  For the topic of “Pioneer Transportation” the following questions might be identified by students:

1. How did pioneer Iowans travel to Iowa?

2. When did railroading develop in Iowa?

3. What were the advantages and disadvantages of steamboat travel?

4. Where did stagecoach lines travel in Iowa?

• Have individuals or pairs of students add to the list of questions specific to their topic of study.

• Using resource materials have individuals or pairs of students research their specific topic answering the identified questions.

• Using large index cards, have students create a short description of the topic.  Attach the card to the shopping bag handle.

• Have students develop illustrations on each side of the shopping bag.

• As students are answering their research questions, encourage them to present their finding using models, drawings, graphs, posters, puzzles, written descriptions, tables, charts and artifacts.

• Have students place the products of their research inside the bag.

EVALUATION

RESOURCES