Department-stores. Shopping-malls. Shopping centres. Whatever you call them, in the 21st century in the developed world, department-stores are found in almost all major cities around the world. From Melbourne to Shanghai, Singapore to San Francisco. London, New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Barcelona…every big city worth visiting is bound to have at least three or four worth looking at. Some department-stores have become world-famous: Macy’s. Harrods. David Jones. So, where did all these amazing symbols of Western capitalist consumerism come from?

So, as Pierce Brosnan said in “Around the World in 80 Days“:

“We’ll take twenty-thousand pounds… I trust you have some stout shoes? We may do a little walking…!”

Before the Department Store – Markets and Fairs

Department-stores as we know them today are a very recent innovation in the history of shopping. Throughout history, people with the money and time to go shopping rarely went anywhere apart from local traders and institutions. There were markets, stalls, arcades, and individual shop-fronts. Some people bought their household goods from travelling salesmen. In most cities, markets were the closest thing that most people had to a ‘department store’, where hundreds of traders would gather in one place to sell their wares and produce. But being largely open-air, these institutions were susceptible to the ravages of time and weather.

Apart from markets, the only other time where people might be able to visit a large number of traders and sellers all at once would be at a fair. Held since ancient times, fairs have changed little in the ensuing centuries. People gather at a specific place at a specific time on set dates each year, to trade and sell. It’s different from a market in the sense that fairs are held less often than market-days, and can be much, much larger.

One of the most famous fairs in the world is Scarborough Fair! Recorded for posterity by the traditional English ballad of the same name (recorded by Simon & Garfunkel in 1966),  Scarborough Fair was established by charter granted by King Henry III, on the 22nd of January, 1253. His Majesty allowed the Yorkshire town of Scarborough to host a fair once each year, for forty-five days, from the 15th of August until the 29th of September.

Scarborough Fair was a huge chance for people in Yorkshire. And for people all over the British Isles and northern Europe, to make some money! Traders and sellers, craftsmen, farmers and entertainers from all over Europe saw Scarborough Fair as one of the few chances each year, to make a real killing. Their one chance to buy, sell, trade, barter, bargain and weedle as much money out of everyone that they could, while holding onto as much of their own as possible.

The Birth of the Department Store

Department-stores as we know them today are, like so many other elements of life that we know today, a product of that great, world-changing event called the Industrial Revolution!

Starting in the 1700s, the Industrial Revolution meant that products could now be made faster, cheaper and far more plentiful than in previous centuries. The result was that with more cheap goods, more shops were needed to sell them. And better selling-methods were required!

Why have just ONE shop when you can have two? Or four? Or six? Or one BIG shop with different *gasp*…DEPARTMENTS!…which could each sell one product from a range of products produced by your company!? What a fascinating idea. Someone should research the potential of this to make lots of money!

This changing landscape of consumerism and manufacture which forced the creation of new ways of buying and selling was spurred on by such men as the famous Josiah Wedgwood, the famous manufacturer of pottery.

Mr. Wedgwood’s booming business meant that he had all these products on sale. Plates, bowls, jars, platters, vases and other decorative ceramic wares, but no way to find a market for them!

So he created one.

Wedgwood made his products desirable to the rising middle-class with money to burn, by telling them that they could own the same tea-sets, dinner-services, vases and other bits of crockery, that royalty owned! As the actual potter for the Queen of England (as well as other members of the British royal family), Wedgwood proudly put “Potter to the Queen”, and “Potter to the Duke of York” (among others) on his advertising-material. The prestige and mark of quality that this gave his products caused people to sit up and take proper notice about what they were buying. And modern marketing (and by extension, scams) were invented.

The Definition of a ‘Department Store’?

A ‘Department store’ is an enclosed structure which houses multiple retailers, each within their own premises within the larger building. The building is open to the public and features a wide selection of goods, typically homewares, clothing, stationery, food, sporting-equipment, and in more recent times, electronics, games, movies, and music.

Given this definition, how far back can we trace the roots of this fabled institution called the Department Store?

The First Arcades and Stores

The first type of department-store was the arcade. An arcade is simply a structure made up of a number of arches – hence the name – set in a straight line. A ‘shopping arcade‘, was a structure where multiple shops all fronted onto an off-street, open-ended and arch-rooved passage.

Some of the earliest ‘department-stores’ of this kind may be found in London. The most famous is the legendary Burlington Arcade (opened in 1819) in the West End.

Burlington Arcade, London.
Photographed by yours truly, during a trip to London in 2010

However, while shopping-arcades were among the first TYPES of department stores, they were not THE first department-stores. The earliest establishment still trading as a department store today is Bennett’s in Derby, England. Established in 1734, it is the oldest department-store (or establishment which eventually became a department-store) still surviving today!

As the Industrial Revolution brought about more and more ready-made goods, people could increasingly get to see them displayed in these grand new ‘department stores’. The idea of the ‘window display’ to frame and showcase these new desirable objects was born, along with the idea of ‘window-shopping’. As a rising middle class, brought about by the Industrial Revolution, began to have more money to spend, they filled their hours of leisure by strolling along the main thoroughfares of town, looking at all the magnificent goods for sale in the windows of rising department-stores.

The Growth of the Department Store

From a vague concept in the Georgian era, by the 1800s, the ‘department store’ was beginning to grow. Around the world during the first half of the 1800s, many cities and countries established department stores. In Manchester, England, ‘Kendals’ opened in 1832. In 1835 in Australia, ‘David Jones‘ was established. David Jones claims to be the oldest department store IN THE WORLD still trading under its original name (Kendals’ original name was ‘Watts’!).

In 1834, Charles Henry Harrod (1799-1885), established a department store in London’s West End. It’s still there today. I wonder what it’s called…?

Harrods Department Store, London

But the Brits can’t take all the credit! In 1858, one of the most famous department stores in the world opened! Macy’s in New York City! Owned by the Macy family until 1895, it was then famously purchased by brothers, Isidor and Nathan Straus. Nathan died in 1931 at the ripe old age of 82. His brother Isidor was not so lucky. He and his wife Ida Straus fatefully purchased a pair of first-class steamship tickets in 1912.

Macy’s Herald Square location in New York City, 1907

They died on the 15th of April, when the famous ocean-liner, the R.M.S. Titanic, sank after striking an iceberg during its maiden voyage. After her husband was refused entry into a lifeboat, Mrs. Straus famously declared that “Where you go, I go!“, and gave up her seat in the boat to another passenger, to remain with her husband on the sinking ship.

By the early 20th century, department-stores had become a fixture in large cities. and every major city worth its salt had at least one. Department-stores started growing larger, and larger, expanding from the old, one-or-two level stores of the 1800s, to four, five or six storey monstrosities in the 20th century. It was impractical for shoppers to walk up and down flight after flight of stairs, carrying their shopping in their arms the whole way. But as buildings got taller, so people devised means for making them easier to move through.

Escalators and Elevators

Name one major department-store which does not have at least one of these.

Without escalators and elevators, the modern department store as we know it today, probably wouldn’t exist. Because nobody could be bothered walking around, and walking up and down all those stairs, carrying their bags, all the time.

The elevator and escalator were developed as answers to the growing sizes of office-buildings in the late 1800s. The innovation of cheap, mass-produced steel meant that tall, steel-framed buildings with thin curtain-walls were now possible. As a result, everything got bigger. Apartment-blocks, office-blocks, and department-stores. But people were unwilling to walk up more than about four flights of stairs. So elevators and escalators were developed as an answer. Improved on throughout the second half of the 1800s, these two forms of people-moving were more-or-less perfected by the turn of the 20th century.

Early elevators were manually operated. Gates to the elevator-car and the shaft were opened and closed by hand. And the elevator-cars themselves were manually operated. A lever and switch was pulled to send the car up or down, and at varying speeds. It was entirely up to the skill of the person riding it, to park the elevator level with the opening in the shaft. As this was not a skill everyone had, buildings with elevators hired elevator-operators to guide elevators and their passengers, up and down in safety.

Going up? Traditional elevator-operators at work in this building’s vintage, manually-operated elevators

In department-stores with elevators, elevator-operators often acted as guides, explaining what products could be found on each floor, which shopping-departments could be found where, and what special offers or sales were on in various departments. It used to be commonplace to hear elevator-girls call out the departments as the elevator-car rose or fell. While elevators did have dials telling which floor the elevator was on, as early ones were operated manually, the elevator-operator often called out the direction of travel as well, as a courtesy to passengers.

“…Ground floor! Lobby, restaurant, hairdressers, barber’s and bookshop! Going up! First Floor! Men’s suits, hats, shirts, socks, ties and accessories! Going up! Second Floor! Ladies’ wear, handbags, shoes, hats, gloves, scarves, make-up and perfume! …”

 Escalators were dreamt up as far back as the mid-1800s. However, it was the early 20th Century before they were ever considered to be a practical and safe method of transporting people between floors. Early commercial escalators were manufactured by the Otis Company, which also one of the world leaders in early electric manual elevators.

 Consumer Booms

By the late 1800s and early 1900s, mass production and the Industrial Revolution meant that people could now buy more and more things, and department stores sprang up to facilitate this. While most middle-class people still made at least some of their own clothes using the family sewing machine, clothing stores sprang up around the world. Jewellery shops opened their doors, and toy-shops started selling things like model trains, model cars and soft, cuddly toys to children. Men purchased fountain pens, women purchased shoes and hats. In the early 20th century, fashion-magazines showcased the latest styles and modern consumer-culture began to grow.

Stores began to evolve and change to meet this need. In the 1870s and 1880s, the first cash-registers (originally called ‘Incorruptible Cashiers’) appeared. Prices were punched in, sums added, and then the handle on the side was cranked over to ring up the total amount. The bell sounded and the register-drawer or til would shoot open like a bullet!

Odd pricing appeared for the first time. Although its origins are obscure, it existed since at least the late 1800s. No longer were things $1.00, 50c. A nickel. A dime. A shilling. A penny.

Suddenly, that razor-set you wanted to buy your husband or father or brother, cost $1.99. That new fountain pen was $6.99. The pocketwatch was 99c!

Why?

Part of it was psychological, to make the customer think he was getting a bargain. The other was to ensure that all sales were logged correctly. Instead of just giving the cashier the money and then walking off, back when a penny was worth something, the cashier would have to open the cash-register to give back the penny change, thus, logging the sale in the cash-register, and letting the shopkeeper know that a transaction had been made, when the register-bell went off.

The Modern Department Store

By the 20th century, all elements of the modern department store had arrived, and shopping for pleasure and relaxation, ‘retail therapy‘ as we might call it today, was an established pastime. People went to see what was on sale, what was new, what was old, and what was discounted stock going cheap.

Advertisements for new products flooded the markets. Suddenly, people could buy typewriters, sewing machines, record-players, factory-made clothes, fountain pens, spectacles, fans, umbrellas, luggage, toys and all other sorts of things simply by going to their nearest department-store and seeing what they had in stock. Having so much merchandise available to them meant that customers were spoilt for choice. Companies worked hard to convince a customer to buy their product over that of their nearest competitors. Deals and discounts were now becoming common.

Department-stores like all businesses suffered during wartime. Governments fixed prices on goods available for public consumption…when there was anything for the public to consume, that is. And if there was anything to consume, it mostly went to the armed forces. Customers often had to do without. Rationing made once common items extremely hard to get. Items that were made out of extremely important wartime materials such as wood and metal were nigh non-existent. Even in the postwar-world, some items remained hard to get for a long time.

Parker ’51’ fountain pens, drilled into the public mind as being the best fountain pen available anywhere in the world, was almost impossible to buy during the Second World War. Sewing-machines and typewriters also became extremely rare. An old joke was a lady going into a Singer sewing-machine shop and seeking out the head salesman.

“Sir! I want to buy a new Singer!”
“Wouldn’t we all, madam? Wouldn’t we all…” 

The ‘Long Boom’ of the 1950s, 60s and 70s saw many new department-stores being built around the world. New products of all kinds flooded the market, and department-stores were seen as a way to flog these new gadgets and gizmoes to the shopping public, as well as a way of providing work for thousands of people who had returned home from the War, or who had been displaced and immigrated to other countries as a result of it.

The relative peace and prosperity of the second half of the 20th century and the start of the 21st century has caused department stores all over the world to grow in size and complexity, from humble places selling ordinary everyday nick-nacks, to sprawling mega-malls and specialist boutiques and arcades selling niche or high-end products of all kinds. Today, every major city in the world is likely to have at least one or two major department stores. They’re essentials for locals and attractions for tourists, magnets for business-owners and boost pedestrian traffic where-ever they are, encouraging other businesses like restaurants, cafes and cinemas to open up shop nearby. The department store is such a staple of modern life, it would be almost impossible to think of where we would buy our essential everyday supplies if they suddenly disappeared.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!! BRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIINNNNGGGG!!

“…and the time now is 7:00am, on your local breakfast-radio program. Coming up next, the traffic heading into the city from the east is backed up for ten blocks because of an overturned truck transporting strawberry yogurt. Police say they’re in the midst of a very sticky situation…” 

Every morning around the world, people are jolted, jostled, jerked and jumped out of bed by sounds that vary from air-raid sirens to simulated roosters, electronic beeping to breakfast radio, to the sound of Grieg’s ‘Morning Mood’ from the Peer Gynt Suite:

In the 21st Century, we have all sorts of ways to wake us up in the morning, from jangling bells to novelty sirens to our favourite musical tracks. If you search hard enough, you’ll even find an alarm-clock voiced by Stephen Fry in his famous portrayal of Reginald Jeeves. 

Who wouldn’t want to be woken up in the morning by their own personal English valet?

The alarm-clock, in all its various permutations, has been around for about three hundred years. When, where, why and how did the alarm-clock come from, and how did it develop over the centuries? Let’s find out…

Before the Alarm-Clock

As much as we don’t like it, sometimes it is necessary to wake up earlier than we’d want to. But how to do this in the days before alarm-clocks were invented?

If early man wanted to wake up…early…then one simple method was just to drink. Drinking lots of water before bed will certainly get you up early so that you can go take a leak! Or, simply sleep where natural sunlight will wake you up with its own brightness. Some people relied on roosters, which would crow every morning at sun-up. These were among the methods used by ancient and medieval peoples, in order to wake up as early as possible, to make the most use of daylight with which to get tasks done. Candles and oil for lamps was expensive, and so were used as sparingly as possible.

For most people, knowing the actual ‘time’ was never necessary. Few people needed to know what the time was – they just needed the light to do their work. But as the world became more developed and more advanced, and clocks became better, more people started having clocks in their homes.

Early clocks were notoriously inaccurate. Even the best ones would be out by minutes a day, and hours a week, requiring frequent resetting. People relied on church-bells and large public clocks to wake them up, or tell them what the time was, since household clocks were rarely accurate, and were often expensive! Even pendulum clocks were not especially accurate – changing summer and winter temperatures affects the length of the pendulum (due to expanding and contracting metal), and therefore, also affects its accuracy.

For people living in town, who had to wake up early (for factory-jobs, for example), there was one main of doing this, if you didn’t have an alarm-clock (or if one had not yet been invented), and that was to employ a knocker-up.

A knocker-up/knocker-upper, was a man employed by a factory or company, to go around the streets before sunrise, and knock on people’s front doors or their bedroom windows, to wake them up each morning for work. Since some knocker-ups might do double-duty as lamplighters, they would beat their lamplighting-staffs against the windows to wake people up, as they did their rounds, extinguishing streetlamps as they went along.

In Tony Robinson’s TV series “The Worst Jobs in History“, he declared that being a knocker-up was a lousy job because there was nobody around to wake him up, to make sure that he woke everyone else up!

The First Alarm-Clocks

The first ‘alarm-clocks’ of a sort, have existed since ancient times. These were often large, public clocks, with mechanisms built in, to sound bells at specific times (for example, for monks, when they needed to pray). Most people still relied on the bells attached to large public clock-towers, or church bell-towers. Few people had need for anything more specific or accurate than that. The first real attempts at making an alarm-clock as we might know it today, did not show up until the 1700s.

The Industrial Revolution of the Georgian Era meant that people now had new work-patterns. You weren’t regulated by the sun, to work in the field. You were regulated by the clock, to work in a factory or workshop. And it now became necessary to wake up at a specific time each day.

The first alarm-clock produced during the early Industrial Revolution was built by Levi Hutchins, a man living in the newly-independent United States, in 1787. Hutchins built the clock to wake him up at 4:00am for his job, but the design was never patented, or mass-produced. It would be nearly another 100 years, before the first really modern alarm-clock was produced.

The Modern Alarm Clock

The first modern alarm-clock, one which an individual could own, which would both tell time, and set off an alarm which could be adjusted to any time at all, was not invented until the 1870s.

The pioneer was the Seth E. Thomas Clock Company, founded by Seth Thomas in 1813. Although Thomas himself died in 1859, the company bearing his name produced the first practical, mass-produced alarm-clock in 1876. This mechanical, hand-wound clock had an alarm-mechanism that could be set to any time. The first truly modern alarm-clock had arrived!

The classic, double-bell alarm-clock

Exactly when this specific style of clock came out is anyone’s guess, but it’s been around for at least 100 years, sometime probably between the 1880s-1900s. It has been manufactured by Westclox since at least the 1920s. For most people, when they imagine an alarm-clock, they picture the classic twin-bell timepiece with two keys, and two knobs, two bells, two feet, and two hands.

The classic double-bell alarm-clock has a mainspring for the time-mechanism, and a bell-spring, for the alarm. They also featured a dial at the top for the user to set the alarm to ring at whatever time they chose. These clocks ran on 36-hour springs, and had to be wound each morning (or evening). The bell-springs generally had to be wound up every two or three days, depending on how deep the sleeper happened to be!

Clocks like this came with one, or two bells on top. Or sometimes, with no bells at all!

A Westclox “Big Ben” advert from 1931

The Westclox “Big Ben” is one of the longest-lasting alarm-clock designs in the world. It came out in the early 1900s, and didn’t cease production until well into the 1960s and 70s. Its claim to fame was its neat appearance – It was easy to read, easy to operate, and without any external bells for dust to gather underneath.

Westclox Big Bens were among the first to use the patented “Bell-Back”-style of clock-case. Here, the bell-gong was actually built into the back of the clock-case, and a hammer simply struck the inside of the clock-case to sound the alarm.

Depending on the model, Big Bens came with a simple “on-off” alarm-switch, or with an additional repeater-switch, where the alarm would ring for a few seconds…stop…then ring for a few seconds…and stop…and ring for a few seconds…and stop again. Until the spring had run down. Probably the earliest ‘snooze’ function in the world!

Clocks During the War

The Second World War is almost over! Slowly, we can take things ‘off-ration’ and enjoy them as we did before the outbreak in 1939! What’s the first thing to be enjoyed en-masse once more? Chocolate? Condoms? French champagne?

Alarm-clocks.

In Britain and America during WWII, clock-companies ceased production from 1942-1945. They produced airplane parts and other important components for the war-effort. But by the end of the War, there was a surprisingly high demand for alarm-clocks! Especially in England where many homes had been bombed out, reliable, functional alarm-clocks had become rare, due to them breaking down and not being easily replaced, or being damaged in bombing-raids and not being able to be recovered or repaired.

In the United States, clockmakers couldn’t repair customers’ clocks, due to the lack of steel and brass for replacement parts (which were used for weapons and bullets in the war). The result was that more and more people missed their work-shifts, which were vital for keeping the Allies going during the War.

This appalling lack of alarm-clocks and the production-time for war-materials lost as a result, meant that alarm-clocks were one of the first things to come ‘off-ration’ in the closing months of the war. In America, the Office of Price-Administration (the OPA), a body set up to regulate prices of civilian products during the war (to prevent outrageous price-hikes by war-profiteers), allowed clock-companies to resume manufacture of civilian alarm-clocks as early as late 1944. However, Westclox produced cheap ‘Waralarm’ clocks from 1943-1944, to replace all those which had worn out during the War. Due to the severe materials-rationing, the brass and steel used to make these clocks was almost non-existent. As a result…

“…In this model the [War Production Board] specifies the use of but 7 pounds of brass for every 1000 clocks, whereas in normal production we use 300 pounds for every 1000 clocks. We have found suitable substitutes for the restricted metals.

Despite the difficulties, we believe the clock is pleasing in appearance, and will be readily acceptable by the buying public.

It has a case of moulded wood fibre, which will be lacquered. It stands 5 5/8 inches high, and is 5 1/4 inches wide, with a large, easy to read dial. It has a bell alarm, but plans call for the eventual use of a buzzer…”

– Westclox ‘Tick-Talk’ magazine, 1943. 

Alarm-Clock-Radio

The clock-radio has been a popular item on peoples’ bedside tables for decades. A way to wake up to something other than the harsh buzzing, beeping or jangling that accompanies ordinary alarms. A civilised way to wake up, to your favourite radio station, with music, or news, or early-morning talk-back.

Exactly who invented the combination of the clock-radio, and even when it was invented, appears to have been lost to history. There are conflicting reports about exactly when, and by whom, this wonderful and fascinating device was created. Its date of creation varies, from the late 1920s, up to the late 1940s. The company or person that came up with the idea is equally obscure. All indications are that first rudimentary alarm-clock radios came out in the 1930s, and slowly developed from there.

The Digital Alarm-Clock

The postwar era, the ‘Long Boom’ of the 1950s, saw design embracing new technologies and materials. No more metal, no more spring-wound mechanical clocks – Now people wanted stuff made of plastic!

Plastic before the War had been in its infancy. It was used for certain products like telephones, fountain pens, and various desk-accessories, but was in general, still a wonder-material held in-awe by most manufacturers. Metal-shortages during the War forced companies to experiment and try new materials. And in the mid-1950s, the first electronic digital clock appeared.

I say the first ELECTRONIC digital clock.

Digital clocks have been around for ages.

We must understand this. Digital clocks are not new. They have been around for well over a hundred years. The word ‘digital’ has nothing to do with electricity, but everything to do with display.

A digital clock is a clock which displays time purely through numerical arrangements, and without the aid of hands or pointers. Like “09:45”.

Such clocks (and even watches) have been around since at least the Victorian era. But analogue clocks just remained more popular. One of the first serious digital clocks of the modern era is the famous ‘flip-clock’, which has white numerals on a black background of metal (later, plastic) leaves, which flip and drop along a horizontal axis, to display the time. Developed in Italy in the late 1940s, this simple, easily-read, and much less-cluttered design made it popular and more straight-forward than a conventional analogue dial-clock of the era.

The Teasmade

The lawyer in the court-room, 
In the middle of an alimony plea,
Has gotta stop and help ’em pour,
When the clock strikes four!

Everything stops for tea… 

A “Teasmade”

Yes indeed. One of the more interesting alarm-clocks that you could possibly find is the ‘Teasmade‘. Existing in one form or another since Victorian times, this device is typically a combination alarm-clock and automatic kettle and teapot all in one. Originally a crude, mechanical, clockwork-operated device starting in the 1890s, it took off in the early 20th century and by the 1930s, the first mass-produced ‘Teesmades‘, as they were originally spelt, came onto the market, starting in 1933.

The Teasmade became incredibly popular in the postwar era during the 1970s and 80s. It died off somewhat around the turn of the century, but is steadily being revived, and today, you can still buy brand-new teasmades, online, or at retail shops in the U.K.

Electrical and Quartz Clocks

Electromagnetic clocks have existed since the 1840s, but for a long time, these were restricted to large clocks found in public buildings, as they were often too expensive for private use. The same applied for quartz clocks, which use the regular pulses generated by a quartz-crystal (when electricity is passed through it) to keep time.

Developed in the late 1920s, quartz clocks (and by extension, quartz alarm-clocks) would not become practical and cheap until the 1970s and 80s. Before then, most people relied on mechanical alarm-clocks to continue waking them up each day.

Alarm-Clocks in the 21st Century

These days, everything has an alarm-clock on it, from your mobile-phone to your laptop computer. But alarm-clocks still grace the bedside tables of millions of people around the world. Traditional, spring-driven mechanical clocks are still produced, and can be purchased cheaply and easily online. They follow a basic and classic design that hasn’t changed in over a century.

But for people looking for something with a bit more umph, there’s everything from flying alarm-clocks, exploding alarm-clocks, alarm-clocks that play air-raid sirens, and even Ticky, Tocky and Clocky, three different types of wandering alarm-clocks, that will literally roll off the end of your bedside table and roll around on the floor, beeping incessantly, forcing you to get up and chase it around to turn off the alarm.

Everyone, meet Clocky!

More Information?

Westclox “Waralarm” clocks (1943-1945)

The History of Flip-Clocks

Mommy had a baby, 
His name was Tiny Tim!
She put him in the bathtub,
To see if he could swim!

He drank up all the water,
He ate up all the soap!
He tried to eat the bath-tub,
But it got stuck in his throat!

Mommy called the doctor,
The doctor called his nurse,
His nurse called the lady,
With the alligator purse!

‘Measles!’ said the doctor,
‘Mumps!’ said the nurse,
‘Nothing!’ said the lady,
With the alligator purse!

Mommy punched the doctor,
Mommy slapped the nurse,
Mommy thanked the lady,
With the alligator purse!

This kids’ song (usually with the last verse removed!) which dates back to the 1950s is one I fondly remember from my own childhood. It’s funny and it makes you laugh. But it also made me think. It made me think of a facet of social life and history which has almost vanished from modern life.

When is the last time you saw a doctor make a house-call?

In days gone by, if someone was sick, a runner-message, a telegram, or a jingle on the pipe summoned your friendly family physician to your front door. Armed with a smile, a hat and his leather ‘Gladstone‘ bag, he’d treat you for everything from a broken arm to a case of influenza. When’s the last time you remember seeing a doctor walk along a residential street and head into a patient’s house?

Armed with his trusty Gladstone bag, Dr. Ernest Ceriani makes a house-call in the small Colorado town of Kremmling. Photograph taken in 1948

Once upon a time, it was normal for a doctor, a general practitioner, a family physician, to make house-calls. Nowadays, this ancient practice has almost ceased to exist in certain countries. Whatever happened to all that?

This posting will look at the history of house-calls. Why they happened, what for, what happened when you got one, and why they’ve almost disappeared in modern society.

Why Did Doctors Make House-Calls?

From the earliest days of professional medicine, until fairly recently, it was common for doctors to make house-calls. I still remember my family physician making house-calls when I was a child, which was not that long ago. It was perfectly normal to call him on the telephone in an emergency, and he’d drive out to see you. It was well-known that you couldn’t reach him at home, or at the office, on certain days of the week (usually the weekend), because he dedicated one day a week to visiting patients at home.

Why?

Why is it that doctors made house-calls? Why were they famous for such attention to their patients? Let’s consider the context…

For much of human history, travel was slow. Most people walked. Owning a horse and carriage, or any other horse-drawn vehicle, was expensive, like owning a car today. Only with much higher maintenance costs. Going to a doctor was not always possible.

If the patient was too ill to walk and no convenient transport could be found, it was completely impossible. Would you chance a ride on a horse in the middle of the night, when you’ve got a brain-splitting fever so bad you can hardly drag yourself to the bathroom?

I’ve had one of those. It’s so bad you can’t even stand up, let alone get on a horse. You’re so dizzy you’d break an ankle falling down the steps just trying to get to the damn stables.

Don’t forget folks…this is before the days of telephones. Before the days of ambulances and 911 and Triple-0, before the days of 999. There was no quick and simple solution back then.

In an emergency, a doctor had to be sent for. And he would have to come. In a hurry! Because a doctor had to treat all sorts of things, most of them were general practitioners, meaning that they studied everything from minor operations and surgeries, to how to deliver babies, how to take your temperature, or how to prescribe medicines for that head-cold you’ve had for four days.

It was this lack of a ‘middle-man’, the emergency-response system, that meant that house-calls were necessary. And doctors training and education, covering a wide range of areas of medicine, reflected this. Even the vehicles the doctors used to get to their patients were specially-made.

The Doctor’s Buggy

Victorian-era Physician’s Buggy

In an age when doctors did a lot of travelling around making house-calls, some of them extremely serious, they had to have reliable and safe transportation. It wasn’t safe to ride on horseback to every appointment, especially if you were transporting fragile medical equipment with you. You needed a wheeled vehicle of some kind, which was suitably designed for your purpose.

This is a Victorian-era doctor’s buggy, and it was designed for use by visiting physicians. You’ll notice a few things about it. To begin with, it’s surprisingly large for a vehicle that would carry two people at most. It’s got a wide base and a low center of gravity, and storage in the foot-well behind the dashboard. This is so that the doctor could load his equipment into the front of the buggy, and drive it at high speeds, and take corners with minimal slowing. The low center of gravity prevented rollover accidents while on the way to a medical emergency.

The buggy is simply constructed. It doesn’t have the heavy glass and wood body of a larger carriage or coach. Such extra weight was unnecessary, and only slowed the doctor down in an emergency. These buggies were made to be fast and safe.

The Gladstone Bag

My antique Gladstone bag in crocodile leather. Purchased for $25 at a local antiques shop!

It’s been decades since most physicians ever carried one of these things. But they’re still called ‘doctor’s bags’ to this day. Invented in the mid-1800s by an English bag-manufacturer known only to history as “J. G. Beard”, these leather-sided, gate-mouthed bags were named ‘Gladstones’, after the four-time British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, and of whom Mr. Beard was a supporter.

Gladstone bags were carried by everyone. Tradesmen, businessmen, carpenters and laypeople of all kinds. They were used as weekend-bags and overnight bags by travelers going by train, carriage or ocean-liner, and even as equipment-bags by adventurers and archaeologists. Such a bag wouldn’t be out-of-place in one of Indiana Jones’ adventures through the deserts of Egypt or the wilds of Arabia.

Despite the Gladstone bag’s long history and numerous, numerous uses, in popular culture, it is, has, and always will be, firstly and most commonly associated with physicians. To this day, they’re still called ‘doctor’s bags’. The reason for this probably dates back to the days when they still made house-calls.

Physicians who made house-calls had to be prepared for absolutely anything. Anything. From childbirth to mumps, boils to appendicitis, influenza to rampant diphtheria. Because of this, they had to carry a wide array of equipment in their bags. Not just measuring-tapes, a thermometer and a stethoscope, but most things that doctors today wouldn’t normally carry around – surgical and amputation-kits, bottles of medicine, swabs, measuring-cups, needles, syringes, tourniquets and other nasty and potentially deadly items.

Doctors required a bag to store all these important items in. The bag had to be large, easily-opened, securely locked to prevent tampering and theft, and with an easy grab-and-carry design. The upright, gate-mouthed opening of the Gladstone Bag made it ideally suited for this purpose. Not having to fumble around with a saggy, soft-mouthed bag (for example, a haversack or a duffel-bag) made the doctor’s job easier when he had to reach inside his bag in an emergency, to find some vital piece of equipment.

Being able to open the bag, have it stay open, close the bag, lock it, pick it up and walk with it without the contents inside (which could be sharp, fragile or poisonous) shifting and breaking, was the deciding factor in why physicians carried Gladstone bags. They were simply safer to transport their dangerous equipment around, than other bag-designs of the era.

Don’t forget that until fairly recently, thermometers were still fragile glass tubes filled with mercury. Or that doctors used to carry poisonous drugs like chloroform or ether with them, if they had to sedate a patient during an operation. You wouldn’t put stuff like that in a briefcase, close the lid, lock it, pick it up, tip the contents sideways all over each other in the process, only to have the lock fail and suddenly have everything spill out onto the floor and shatter into a million pieces! The design of the Gladstone bag made such an occurrence impossible.

What Was Involved in a House-Call?

Absolutely anything, short of a heart-transplant.

In the days when it was not practical for most people to visit a doctor, and when the doctor came to the patient, the physician had to be prepared for absolutely anything that his training covered. It’s one reason why he carried his Gladstone bag with him – it was one of the few practical luggage-types of the era that could hold so many different and dangerous objects with relative safety.

Physicians called out to a patient’s home could be expected to do anything from listening to a heart-beat, taking temperatures, prescribing medicines, and checking pulses, to more serious stuff, like childbirth, re-setting broken bones, stitching up wounds, or even minor surgery, like removing a patient’s appendix!

I’m old enough that I still remember a time when doctors made house-calls. Three house-calls I remember my family physician making when I was a child, tackled everything from broken bones, to stitching up a gash to the head, and one particularly memorable house-call which involved the removal of a fish-bone from my throat…to this day I can’t stand eating fish with bones in it.

The Golden Age of the House-Call

House-calls were common throughout history, but peaked during the 19th and 20th centuries. Advances in medicine, communications and transportation made it easier and safer for physicians to make house-calls. Telephones, bicycles and motor-cars made calling a doctor faster and safer.

“Say ‘Aaah!'”

House-calls began to fall steadily as a medical priority, after the end of the Second World War. This is matched by a steady decline in the number of general practitioners, among other contributing factors.

The End of the House-Call?

In an age when medicine was far more hands-on and personal, a physician had to cover a wide range of skills, since he had no idea what he might be called out to attend to, at any hour of the day, or night. Such physicians were called ‘general practitioners’ because they did not specialise in one particular area; they covered a ‘general’ field of medicine, learning the basics of every field, to serve them in their profession.

These days, there is a much higher number of specialists than general practitioners – physicians who will concentrate on one part of the human body. Eye-doctors, hearing specialists, Ear-Nose-&-Throat doctors, cardiologists who look into heart-conditions, podiatrists, who handle your feet, dermatologists who handle skin-issues and so-forth.

This spreading-out of knowledge means that there are fewer and fewer doctors who can handle a wider range of diseases and illnesses. And this means, fewer doctors who can handle house-calls, with their unpredictable natures.

In the 1920s in the United States, three-quarters of physicians were general practitioners. By the 1980s, that had dropped to less than 1%! With so few general practitioners around, it’s hardly surprising that house-calls are rapidly becoming a thing of the past! In the 1930s, 40% of patient-physician interactions happened through house-calls. In the 2010s, that’s dropped to less than 1%.

By the 21st century, the house-call is something almost consigned to history. When’s the last time you remember a doctor making a house-call? Most physicians work in their clinics or surgeries, most specialise in one area or another, of medicine. Not all of them have the skills necessary to carry out varied demands required of an unexpected house-call. With modern emergency services and improved communications and transportation, there’s less need for physicians to make house-calls. In our increasingly litigious society, some physicians have stopped giving house-calls over fears of being sued! And yet…

The Future of House-Calls?

House-calls have never really gone away. While it’s true a smaller number of doctors still carry out house-calls, there are some physicians, such as in the United States, who are trying to revive the practice. They believe it’s beneficial for a number of reasons. It gives reassurance to the elderly, or those living alone, or who can’t travel easily. For parents, it gives them comfort to know that their family doctor can check on their children if they should fall ill in the middle of the night. Doctors enjoy the personal time spent with patients. Not being slotted into an appointment-gap means that the physician can take his time with the patient and discuss their condition in detail, without the pressure of another patient waiting for treatment.

House-calls are being carried out these days, by more people than just doctors. Nurses and some paramedics also conduct house-calls, or conduct regular house-visits to elderly, infirm or otherwise house-bound patients. It provides comfort as well as medical care, and professional treatment for non-emergency medical conditions. In the United States, there’s even the Visiting Physicians Association, providing house-calls to the elderly and infirm.

Some doctors think that making house-calls is actually more cost-effective. Not having to maintain a professional premises and being able to work out of their own home (or the homes of others, in the case of house-calls!) makes reviving this ancient practice more attractive in the 21st century. On top of that, easier access to medical care in the home makes things more comfortable for those who have transport issues. Non-emergency medical problems can be treated at home, before they deteriorate and an ambulance has to be called, instead of a doctor!

Want to know more about the history of house-calls?

History of Medicine – House-Calls

‘Healthy Debate’ article about House-Calls (2011)

Doctors Reviving House-Calls

The Benefits of House-Calls

Modern Technology and the House-Call

“Separating the Wheat from the Chaff”

Meaning: To Single out Good Stuff from the Bad or Useless
Origin: Farming.

The saying, to separate the wheat from the chaff is a very old idiom, meaning to single out or separate something good from a mass of something that was bad, or useless. It comes from the age-old profession of wheat-farming.

Farming wheat goes through several different stages – Ploughing, sowing, reaping, threshing, and then winnowing.

Threshing and winnowing separates the grains of wheat from the stalks, and then the grains from the husks, leaving behind pure grains of wheat, which are crushed and ground up into flour. Everything that’s left behind is chaff, which is generally used as animal feed. To separate the wheat from the chaff was to separate useful parts of the crop from the less useful parts of the crop.

Traditionally, this was a slow, backbreaking process which took weeks to do. A harvested wheat-crop was first threshed (beaten repeatedly with a flail to separate the wheat from the stalks), and then winnowed, where the gathered wheat-grains were put into a basket and then tossed repeatedly into the air. Winnowing worked by having wind blow away the husks, and leaving the pure wheat-grains left in the basket.

“Making Hay while the Sun Shines”

Meaning: To get the most work done when the situation is best.
Origin: Farming.

Hay is dried grass, and a traditional feed for farm-animals. As grass would not grow through winter months, it was essential for farmers to make as much hay as possible during warmer months, to store in their barns and hay-lofts so that their animals would not starve during wintertime. As hay was often the only thing that the animals had to eat, it was vital that there was an abundant supply of it. So any and all opportunities to make hay ‘while the sun shines’ were taken advantage of.

Good hay can only be made out of grass that has been sun-dried. Wet grass just rots because of the heavy water-content, and it’s useless as animal-feed. So making as much hay while the sun was shining (and therefore, drying the hay) was essential.

“Keep several irons in the fire”

Meaning: Give yourself some options.
Origin: 18th Century.

You’ve probably heard your parents, or grandparents tell you to keep several irons in the fire, which is an idiom meaning to give yourself options.

This phrase comes from the 18th century, when people used to iron their clothes with heavy, cast-iron…irons! Made of solid lumps of iron, heavy antique flatirons were used to iron out the wrinkles and creases in clothing, well into the 1900s. They were usually sold in sets of three, four or even more, depending on how much ironing was required.

These irons were placed on top of the coal-fired range-stove in the kitchen, or around a special flatiron stove, to absorb the heat from the fire and to warm up.

An antique ironing stove, used to heat up old-fashioned cast-iron flatirons

The heat in the irons would only last for a certain amount of time before it cooled off and had to be replaced on the stove to reheat. To have ‘several irons in the fire’ meant that you didn’t have to wait for ages and ages for the same iron to heat up again before continuing with your housework – you simply put down one cold iron, picked up the hot iron next to it, and went back to your work!

“To Strike while the Iron is Hot”

Meaning: To act while the best results can be obtained.
Origin: Blacksmithing.

Not to be confused with the other ‘iron’ one above, this refers to taking advantage of something when it is the easiest to do so. It comes from the craft of blacksmithing.

To shape metal, blacksmiths would heat iron-stock in a furnace until it was yellow-hot. At that heat, the iron is malleable and could be beaten into shape using the smith’s hammer and tongs. As the heat would only last a few seconds, to ‘strike while the iron is hot‘ was to do as much work as possible in the time allowed, and to take as much advantage of the situation as possible, before the iron had to be reheated for further working.

“Beyond the Green Baize Door”

Meaning: To go beyond a certain boundary.
Origin: England, 18th Century.

If you go ‘beyond the green baize door’, it means that you’re entering a place, or have crossed a boundary which few people are allowed to go beyond. But what is baize? And what’s the door? What does it all mean?

This term dates back to the Regency era of the early 1800s. The green baize door was the traditional dividing line in a household with masters and servants.

Servants quarters, such as the butler’s pantry, kitchen, servants’ hall, store-rooms, larders, pantries and servants’ bedrooms were usually at the bottom of the house, or housed in a separate wing of a larger house. Dividing the servants quarters from the rest of the house was a door with green baize cloth tacked onto it. Baize was used to the muffle sounds and absorb smells created by the servants, which might irritate the family of the house.

Being allowed to go beyond this barrier meant being allowed to meet and mix and mingle with those of a higher social status or standing. Therefore, to go ‘beyond the green baize door’ meant to be given privileged access to an exclusive world.

“Up to Scratch”

Meaning: Up to standard. Quality-control.
Origin: England, 1700s.

If something is “up to Scratch”, it means that it has passed quality-control tests and that it is ready for the open market. But why would you want to scratch something that you want to sell?

In England, the centers of the English silverware trade, London, Birmingham and Sheffield, had the tasks of ensuring that all the silver products they produced – cutlery, silverware, plates, flagons, pots, candlesticks, trays and anything else made of silver – were certified as being made of real silver.

Having a bunch of pretty hallmarks punched onto the bottom of granny’s silver teapot was not considered sufficient to pass the test. All items had to be tested for silver content before hallmarks were hammered onto the item.

This was traditionally done using an acid touchstone test.

It still works today.

It’s done in the following manner:

An item made of silver is scratched against a touchstone. The mark left on the stone is then treated with nitric acid. If the mark on the stone is silver metal, the acid reacts with it, turning the mark creamy white.

If the item passes this test, it has literally said to be “up to scratch”.

“Drawn Out”

Meaning: Extended or prolonged.
Origin: Blacksmithing

We’ve all experienced instances where something has been ‘drawn out’. Some long, boring, mind-numbing, brain-melting event which just seems to go on, and on, and on. And you end up falling asleep because it’s just so damn boring!

But why is it ‘drawn out’? Where does this come from?

‘Drawing out’ or to be ‘drawn out’ was originally a blacksmithing term. Metal which is heated and then beaten out longer and thinner, is said to be ‘drawn out’, to increase its length, or to decrease its thickness (usually both).

“Jumped Up”

Meaning: Inflated, arrogant, bigger than he really is.
Origin: Blacksmithing.

If someone’s said to be ‘jumped up‘, like some jumped up bastard, we generally mean that someone’s an arrogant, show-offy prick. Trying to make himself look bigger, or more important than he really is!

This is another term which has its origins in smithing.

Also called ‘upsetting‘, the process of jumping something up meant to compact or compress a piece of metal, to give it a thicker profile. This was usually done by heating up the piece of iron, placing the hot end against the anvil, and then beating or ‘jumping’ (due to the vibrations) the cold end with a hammer.

The force made the hotter, softer end of the iron-stock (pressed against the anvil) more compact. This made it look thicker or larger than the rest of the bar. Hence, one end of iron bar-stock which was made thicker (through compacting) than the other, was said to be ‘jumped up‘.

In all cultures throughout the world, unspoken body-language, usually hand-motions, have become ways for people to show respect, friendship, aggression, fear or other emotions or feelings. But where do all these gestures, movements and aspects of body-language come from? Why, for example, do soldiers and officers salute each other? Why do we shake hands? Why do Chinese people rap their knuckles on the dining-table? Let’s find out together…

The Handshake

The handshake has been a universal greeting for centuries…literally centuries. It goes back to Ancient Greece! What is today seen as a sign of respect, greeting and friendship, evolved out of the ancient custom of displaying open hands to another person.

In shaking hands, both parties displayed a lack of weaponry (swords, daggers and other knives) with which to cause harm. This showed that each party had enough respect for the other, or felt comfortable enough in each other’s presence, not to bring weapons into a meeting or engagement. Shaking hands proved this, as it indicated that neither party was armed.

The Salute

Ah, the salute. Famously used by soldiers and army officers the world-over. But what does it actually mean?

Saluting the Flag

The salute as we know it, as a hand-movement up to the forehead and down again, is the abridged, modern version of a much older, and far more elaborate movement or gesture which existed in earlier times.

The origins of the salute vary, depending on who you talk to. Some say that it goes all the way back to Medieval times. Knights dressed in full battle-armour would raise their visors to each other, as a sign of mutual respect, and it’s suggested that this may be one origin story of the salute, despite the fact that there isn’t much evidence to support this.

Some say it goes even further back, and that it was a hand-gesture to protect one’s eyes from the glare of the sun, when ancients stared up to the skies to pay respect to the Gods.

As heroic and fascinating as these origin-stories are, the truth is actually far less complicated. The salute is actually the evolution of the removal of one’s headgear!

Back when wearing hats was far more common, it was a mutual sign of respect and politeness to remove one’s hat or cap, either in the presence of a superior, or as a greeting. It was considered rude to keep one’s hat on in the presence of others, because it meant they couldn’t see your whole face, and suggested that you weren’t paying them proper attention and courtesy.

Winston Churchill tipping or doffing* his trademark homburg,
outside 10 Downing Street

The salute therefore evolved out of the movement of reaching up to grasp the brim of one’s hat to be raised as a sign of respect or courtesy. It used to be that the hat, once removed, was swept downwards, followed by a bow. You might see this in some period movies. Obviously too time-consuming, it was eventually shortened to the modern salute – a quick, sharp movement to the hairline, before restoring the hand and arm to one’s side.

— — — —

*Doffing is an older English term, meaning to remove an article of clothing. The opposite of the still-used ‘Don‘ (as in to don one’s uniform).

Chinese Knuckle-Tapping

This is a rather obscure custom. I’d only ever read of it, and never seen it, or done it myself until a relative of mine did it while out at a family dinner.

Next time you’re out at a Chinese restaurant with friends or family, and someone pours you a cup of tea, curl the three middle fingers of your right hand and rap your knuckles twice on the table. Considered a silent ‘Thank You’ gesture (for when you can’t speak, such as when your mouth is full), this gesture and custom goes back all the way to Imperial China.

Chinese Knuckle-Tapping

It is said to have come from the Qianlong (“Ch’yen Long“) Emperor, who ruled China for much of the 18th Century (in fact, over sixty years!). The emperor enjoyed travelling incognito around China to be closer to his subjects. Accompanied by servants, he did anything to blend in as much as possible, and so instructed his servants not to bow or kowtow to him under any circumstances, so as to maintain his incognito.

The Kowtow. Literally meaning ‘Knocking Head’ (Kow – ‘Knock’, Tow – ‘Head’), this ancient Chinese form of respect lasted well into the 20th century, but is rare today

To keep up his facade of being just another Chinaman, the emperor even took to pouring tea for his servants – something completely unprecedented in Chinese history. Legend goes that the receiving servant bent three fingers and rapped his knuckles on the table two times, to represent the act of kowtowing to the emperor. His middle finger was his head, his two other fingers representing his arms.

The Middle Finger

The legend surrounding the origins of the Middle Finger supposedly date back to the Battle of Agincourt. When the French captured English longbowmen, they sliced off their middle fingers, rendering them incapable of drawing their longbows. Flicking up the finger was a sign of defiance and showing that the English still had the upper hand.

True?

Not on your life.

You can draw a bow with any fingers on your hand. So chopping one off doesn’t automatically make it impossible to fire an arrow! And besides, the origins of the Middle Finger go back even further.

Just like the handshake, the Middle Finger dates back to Ancient Greece. And it’s meaning hasn’t changed much in 2000 years!

Ever wondered why the Middle Finger is considered rude? The Greeks can tell you.

It’s because it looks like a dick.

Start ’em while they’re young…

Extending the middle finger while keeping the others curled was a crude representation of an erect penis, with the knuckles of the clenched fingers making up the testicles. Thus – giving ‘The Finger’ to someone was the same as flashing your privates in their faces!

The Straight-Arm Salute

Made famous by the Nazis in the 1930s, the straight-arm salute supposedly goes back to Roman times…

…only it doesn’t.

It’s been incorrectly assumed for centuries that the straight-arm salute, as portrayed in this painting from the 1780s…

…was a a salutation from Roman times. The only problem is…it isn’t! No reliable sources from original Roman texts, paintings, sculptures, frescoes or artworks of any kind depict anything like the gesture shown in the painting above.

In fact, it’s questioned whether or not the salute even EXISTED before 1784, which was the year in which the painting (by Jacques-Louis David) was produced!

This painting is the basis of almost all belief in the “Roman Salute”, despite the fact that there is no evidence that the Ancient Romans themselves ever used it, or invented it. And it was depicted in artwork ever since!

Its influence led to it being used in the 1920s by the Italian Fascists under Mussolini, and this eventually spread to other organisations and nations.

It was most famously adopted for use by the Nazis in the 1930s, all the way up until the end of the Second World War in Europe, in May of 1945.

In the late 1800s, up until the Second World War, the salute was used by Americans, as well! Called the ‘Bellamy Salute‘, it was used by American citizens when taking the Pledge of Allegiance!

Before the war – American school-children saluting the flag, 1941

Unsurprisingly, this practice ceased in the 1940s when American officials noticed an embarrassing similarity between their ‘Bellamy Salute’ and the Nazi Salute. It was thereafter that the now, more familiar hand-over-heart gesture was adopted. The change between salute and hand-on-heart was officially made in 1942, when the United States Flag Code was updated.

After the war – American school-children pledging allegiance to the flag, 1950s

Today, rendering this salute in Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic is illegal, and considered highly offensive for obvious reasons.

Peace/Victory Sign

Popularised by Winston Churchill during the Second World War, the “Victory” (later, the “Peace”) sign, with the split index and middle fingers raised, has become an almost universal symbol.

The ‘V’ symbol, thus created, has meant many different things over the years. In Ancient Rome, it meant the number 5 (hence why ‘5’ in Roman numerals is a ‘V’). In some countries, the back of the hand facing outwards while doing a V is considered an insult (“Up yours!” basically).

The origins of this, together with the ‘Middle Finger’ also have false origins in the medieval wars between England and France. Sticking up two fingers was a sign of defiance at still being able to shoot the enemy with a longbow. However, this assertion can only be dated back to the 1980s, and is untrue.

But the V with palm outwards, meaning peace or victory, is believed to have originated in Europe during the Second World War. Starting in 1941, many countries on the Allied side, such as Great Britain, Belgium, the Dutch and eventually, the Americans as well, used the ‘V for Victory’ signal as a sign of solidarity and defiance against the German Nazi aggressors.

This sign eventually melted into the “V for Peace” sign, common starting from the 1960s onwards, and which survives to the present day.