Who Invented the Umbrella? 4,000 Years of Staying Dry

No single person invented the umbrella. It is roughly 4,000 years old, and it began not as protection from rain but as a parasol — a sunshade carried over kings and emperors in ancient Egypt and China. The story of who invented the umbrella is how a royal symbol became the cheapest, most ordinary object in the world.

It had to be reinvented several times: waterproofed in China, made to fold in the first century, reintroduced to Europe after a thousand-year absence, and rebuilt in steel so ordinary people could afford one.

Where did the first umbrellas come from?

The earliest umbrellas appear in the art of several ancient civilisations at roughly the same time — Egypt, Assyria, China, and India — which is why historians cannot name one birthplace. Carvings from around 1200 BCE show parasols held over royalty and important figures, usually by an attendant rather than by the person themselves. In Egypt, fair skin was a mark of nobility, and a parasol kept a pharaoh’s skin from tanning. In China, court records describe the emperor’s parasol as a grand affair with four tiers — a canopy of rank as much as a shelter.

These first umbrellas were not carried by their owners at all, but for them, as a sign of status.

What does the word “umbrella” actually mean?

“Umbrella” comes from the Latin umbra, meaning shade or shadow, through the Italian ombrello, a little shade. The older word, “parasol,” is even plainer: from the French para-sol, “against the sun.” Neither word says anything about rain — because rain was not what umbrellas were for. For most of its life, the thing we now associate with rain was a sunshade and a status symbol. The rain umbrella is a latecomer, barely three centuries old in its modern form.

How did China turn the parasol into a rain umbrella?

China made the two advances that mattered most. First, waterproofing: Chinese makers coated paper and silk canopies with wax and lacquer — and later with oil — so rain ran off instead of soaking through. The oiled-paper umbrella, made from bamboo ribs and mulberry-bark paper, spread across Japan and Korea.

Second, the folding umbrella. Archaeological finds from the Eastern Han dynasty — including bronze fittings from a folding frame found in a tomb dating to around AD 21 — show the Chinese had already worked out how to make an umbrella that opened, closed, and collapsed. Its hollowed shaft worked like a telescope, sliding shut for carrying. Europe would not manage the same trick for another seventeen hundred years.

Why did umbrellas disappear from Europe?

The Greeks and Romans knew the parasol — Roman ladies carried them, and the poet Ovid mentions them — but after the fall of Rome the umbrella all but vanished from Europe for a thousand years. Medieval Europe had no use for a canopy carried over one’s head, and the umbrella survived only in the East.

It came back with the trade routes of the Renaissance. The English traveller Thomas Coryat spotted one in Italy around 1607 and recorded it in his 1611 travelogue, Coryat’s Crudities — one of the first English descriptions of the object. By the early 1600s, umbrellas were in common use in France; in Britain they were used by women from around 1700, and a man carrying one was a figure of fun.

Who invented the folding umbrella in Europe?

In 1710, the Parisian merchant Jean Marius invented a folding umbrella mechanism — the first practical folding umbrella in the West, more than sixteen centuries after the Chinese original. It folded into a compact shape that could be carried in a pocket or a bag, and it was advertised in Paris as a novelty for fashionable ladies.

It still was not a rain umbrella in the modern sense. Early European umbrellas were heavy things: wooden or whalebone ribs, a stout central stick an inch thick, and a canopy of heavy oiled canvas. Around 1800, a full-sized umbrella weighed roughly 10 pounds. In 1786, John Beale took out the first English umbrella patent, for a coned canopy on ribs — the basic shape we still recognise.

Who was Jonas Hanway, the man who made umbrellas respectable?

Jonas Hanway (1712–1786) was an English traveller, writer, and philanthropist who had seen umbrellas in constant use as sunshades during his travels in Persia. Around 1750, back in London, he began carrying one through the streets in the rain — and he was, by most accounts, the first man in London to do so regularly. He was mocked for it: street urchins jeered, and hackney coachmen, who saw the umbrella as a threat to their trade, abused him.

Hanway carried on for thirty years, and by his death in 1786 the umbrella was on the rise. His portrait still hangs in the James Smith and Son umbrella shop in London — the oldest in Europe, opened in 1830 — in gratitude for the man who made it acceptable for a gentleman to carry one.

How did Samuel Fox make the modern umbrella?

The last great leap came in 1852, when Samuel Fox, a Sheffield industrialist, invented the steel-ribbed umbrella frame — his “Paragon” frame. Fox replaced the heavy whalebone and cane ribs with fine steel, using up stocks he had bought for making corsets. The result was lighter, stronger, and far cheaper to make in quantity. Where an umbrella had weighed 10 pounds, it now weighed a fraction of that; where it had been a luxury, it could now be mass-produced.

The Fox frame remained the standard for a quality umbrella from 1852 into the 1980s, and it is the direct ancestor of the frame in the umbrella hanging by your door today.

Who invented the pocket umbrella?

The final step was portability. In 1928, the German inventor Hans Haupt — a war veteran from Solingen who had been injured and could no longer carry both a walking stick and an umbrella — designed a telescopic umbrella that collapsed small enough to fit in a pocket or handbag. He patented it that year; the businessman Fritz Bremshey began series production in 1932 under the brand name Knirps, German for “little guy.” The pocket umbrella has barely changed since.

Later innovations were small — the first automatic pocket umbrella appeared in Germany in 1936. Today, some 33 million umbrellas are sold in the United States every year, most of them made in China, where the story began.

So who invented the umbrella? Nobody — and everybody. The Egyptians made it a symbol of power, the Chinese made it waterproof and foldable, a Parisian merchant made it pocket-sized, a stubborn Londoner made it respectable, a Sheffield steelmaker made it light, and a German veteran made it small enough to carry everywhere. Four thousand years of small improvements, each solving the problem the last one left behind — which is how most everyday things are really invented. Like the light bulb, another invention that took many hands to become what we use today, the umbrella belongs to no one person. It belongs to everyone who ever got wet.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who invented the umbrella?

No single person invented the umbrella. The earliest umbrellas appeared roughly 4,000 years ago in ancient Egypt, Assyria, and China as sunshades for royalty. The Chinese later waterproofed them and built the first folding umbrella around AD 21; Europe refined the design from the 1600s onwards.

When was the umbrella invented?

The umbrella is about 4,000 years old. Depictions of parasols date to around 1200 BCE in Egypt, and folding umbrellas with bronze fittings have been found in China from around AD 21. The modern rain umbrella, with a steel frame, dates to Samuel Fox’s 1852 patent.

Why was Jonas Hanway mocked for carrying an umbrella?

In 1750s London, umbrellas were considered a women’s accessory, and a man carrying one was seen as unmanly. Coachmen also resented them as a threat to their trade. Hanway carried one anyway for thirty years, and by his death in 1786 it was becoming respectable for men.

Who invented the pocket umbrella?

German inventor Hans Haupt designed the first telescopic pocket umbrella in 1928, after a war injury made it hard for him to carry both a walking stick and a full-sized umbrella. Series production began in 1932 under the brand name Knirps, German for “little guy.”