Hartman Luggage … A Trunkmaker’s Saga!Mike Yeager Hartman luggage has been around for a while. The advent of the steam engine in the mid 1820s heralded the first wave of mass tourism. Mass organized travel probably began in 1841 when a 33 year old Thomas Cook organized his first rail tour. And from then onwards, luggage has performed a dual role of not only protecting one’s belongings, but also surreptitiously declaring one’s social status. Travel was the exclusive realm for the leisure of the well-heeled. The end of the Napoleonic Wars saw great advances in technology, leading to the arrival of the steam engine, which soon permitted travel by rail. By the 1870s, sleeping and dining cars had arrived, bringing about unheard of comforts in travel. The jet age dramatically changed the dynamics of travel which no longer remained in the domain of the rich. Today, a traveler would truly be lost without luggage. It is therefore fascinating to think that one company, which has seen it all, has not only survived the sea-change but has also come up trumps – the Hartmann Luggage Company! Inspite of a couple of ownership changes during its era, this company which was founded in 1877 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin by Bavarian Trunk-maker, Joseph S. Hartmann, retained the “Hartmann” brand name, matured like vintage wine, and has as yet, kept its rightful place among the premium luggage-makers. Distinctively stylish Hartman luggage. Hartman luggage is designed to be distinctively stylish, and yet as strong as you expect luggage to be. Hartman luggage is often even more useful than you would imagine, and comes in matching sets with a lifetime warranty. The Hartmann product-mix includes wheeled luggage, carry-on luggage, garment bags, hard-sided luggage, briefcases, totes, travel and business accessories, wallets and what-have-you. Today, Hartmann luggage has truly become a fashionable object of conspicuous consumption; an emblem of caché and exclusivity, identifying the owner as a well-traveled and cultured person of means just like it used to be in the 19th century. A true case of history repeating itself .....in altered circumstances.
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