Early shipping methods
 

While replying to a post about Parker Gun cases I got to wondering what did Parker Bros ship the guns in before cardboard was used? I would assume a wooden crate. Whatever was used are there any pictures?

good question -cardboard was invented in England in the early 1800's - the corrugated version in 1856.

A google search says it was used for shipping by the 1870's. looks like they were made as precut boxes soon after and common in the US by the 1890s

i would assume as you have- prior to that- some form of wooden box- maybe returned for reuse and therefore not found as surviving pieces

Not long ago there were a few Parker wooden crates up in an auction.
I did not know enough about them to verify authenticity.

The one that interested me a lot was hand addressed on the crate to LeRoy, NY and had Meriden, CT railroad stamps on it. Bit there was no markings on it that I could see that confirmed that it actually came from Parker Brothers.

Probably not a good idea to mark Parker Bros. on the outside of a shipping crate.

I have the shipping box for my Ithaca NID No. 2 Super 10-gauge. It has a fancy Ithaca label picturing a No. 5E and the Railway Express label showing the purchaser had paid $30 down with his order and owed $27.50 cod. Different times.

In early summer of 1984 I was in the late Herschel Chadick’s gun shop in Terrell, Texas and he had an original wooden shipping crate from Parker Brothers. Inside of it was a cardboard box in which the gun was contained during shipment. The wooden crate had Parker Brothers return address along with the customers address. It also had the railway markings. As I recall the dates were in the mid 1890’s. Herschel also the gun which as I remember was a GH grade. Always regret never purchasing all but the family and I were on a two week western trip and I had allocated my discretionary income to our travels. ��
Oh, forgot to mention, the packing contents were of a cardboard type shredded material. ��

As Dave mentioned different times.
I can remember as a kid going to the rail station with my Grandfather and shipping many things.Most memorable were the bird dogs.That was't that long ago.Depending on the age of the dog(mostly puppies)they went in a wood crate(peach crate mostly).Give the porter a few dollars some food and off they went.On the railway I never heard of anything not reaching its destination.

According to the internet the REA was developed during World War I to secure shipping of packages, bankrupt in 1975.

In 1968 I bought a 20 gauge CE Fox from a Mr Balhagen from Iowa for $350.00 shipped by Railway Express. Bobby

As reported by history of the railroads in America they began shipping packages across the country in the nineteenth century as it was much faster than shipping by horses or wagons.