ABSTRACT
For as long as humans have been hunting gathering and trading, we have used packages for collecting, storing and shipping. The earliest primitive packages were made from leaves, skins and gourds. Early basket-weaving technology developed to craft packages made from grasses and other natural fibres, especially for dry and harvested food. The technology to make glass and sheet metal was advanced enough at the beginning of the 1800s to be used for housewares and refillable household packages like jars, canisters and bandboxes. But production was slow and manual. The technology to mechanically form cans, bottles and cartons was developed in the US after the Civil War, between 1880 and 1910. This mechanization was the key to the mass production that would be required by the emerging strategy of nationwide distribution and mass-marketing. Manufacturers who chose to invest in consumer packaging ‘found themselves literally making a new kind of product’.
