The Block – Fall 2008
Bring it back:
From insouciant to stylish, the backpack stays ahead.
In 1693, Gemelli, Careri, and Italian writer and adventurer, gleefully abandoned a short-lived career in law to embark on a five-year journey, travelling through the Middle East, India, China, Mexico, and Cuba.
The peripatetic Careri, needing some way to carry his life around for a half-decade of travels, used a simple, animal hide sack sewn together with intestine: a 17th-century backpack. This jaunty, backwards little bag made its debut as a traveller’s best friend: a reliable sidekick, a silent companion on every adventure.
