"Inside a big cardboard box, a child is transported to a world of his or her own."
National Toy Hall of Fame
The cardboard box is one of the most widely used methods of packaging and storing goods. Although in the last few decades its use has been threatened by new materials, the current environmental climate has seen a move back toward card as a sustainable material that can be recycled.
Before the invention of the cardboard box, the most common packing material for goods was wood, which was heavy and expensive, and unsuitable for small or light goods. In 1817 Sir Malcolm Thornhill produced the first commercial cardboard box. His invention gained in popularity, but it was not until the Kellogg brothers used it to package their cereals after the turn of the century, that the product truly took off.
As card can be printed on, manufacturers recognized the possibilities of making attractive packaging at low cost, and also being able to advertise on the boxes. The corrugated cardboard box was later developed in Sweden. A reinforced version of the original box, this was much stronger and useful for a wider range of applications, including both house-removals and shelters for thousands of homeless people.
A measure of the cardboard box's influence in Victorian society can be seen in the Sherlock Holmes story, "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box." It credits the box in the title, when its contents of a severed ear probably deserved more attention.
