Grab it, drag it, roll it
A Touriseum special exhibition in the coach house of Trauttmansdorff Castle
01/04/2021
Special exhibition
South Tyrol Museum of Tourism
How would gentlefolk travel “with bag and baggage”? What about travelling light? Who might arrange to have their luggage carried, and who would drag it themselves? What do suitcases and bags tell us about their owners? A special exhibition at the Touriseum in Trauttmansdorff Castle adressed these and other questions concerning luggage.
What should I pack? What do I still have room for? Every journey begins with these thoughts. They are matters of etiquette, time and character. But regardless of what and how much it might contain to make life easier for its owners while they are away from home, luggage is the symbol of travel par excellence.
Over the past 200 years, the design of luggage has been adapted to contemporary forms of transport and the needs of the respective social classes as they travelled. The curved lids of cases intended to be stowed on coaches gave way to wardrobe trunks that could easily be stacked in the baggage cars of trains, while large travel bags for car journeys were supplanted by small, lightweight trolley suitcases for air travel.
For the exhibition “Grab it, drag it, roll it – Luggage through the ages” the Touriseum has taken some 50 never-before-shown travel companions from its collection to reveal the stories that carriage cases, wardrobe trunks, travel bags, hat boxes, necessaires, rucksacks, car bags and trolleys all have to tell: of a dangerous ride by carriage over the Alps, of a fine summer retreat at the Grand Hotel, of an audacious round-the-world bike tour or a new start in life: but also of the daily carrying back and forth for guests, of involuntary departures for war, or hasty escapes from one’s homeland.
The exhibition catalogue
Packen, schleppen, rollen
Available in German or Italian.
