Lane hope chest: The must-have piece of furniture for mid-century brides
Hope chests weren’t a new idea, but Lane helped turn them into an American tradition. The company, known for its high-quality cedar furniture, launched a national marketing campaign in the 1920s, positioning their chests as the perfect gift for young women. By the 1940s and 1950s, Lane was even giving out free miniature hope chests to high school girls, creating brand loyalty before they were even engaged. The cedar lining wasn’t just for show — it protected fabrics from moths, making these chests both practical and sentimental.
By the mid-century, a Lane hope chest was a staple in many American homes. Ads, like those we’ve collected below, often featured brides-to-be lovingly filling their chests with household essentials, reinforcing the idea that marriage and domestic life were the ultimate goals. These chests were symbols of stability, preparation and tradition. But as cultural attitudes shifted in the late 20th century, the hope chest faded from popularity, along with the expectation that young women should prepare for marriage from an early age.
Still, for those who grew up with them, Lane hope chests remain a nostalgic piece of history. Many families still have them, passed down through generations, filled with memories instead of trousseaus. Here’s a look at nearly two dozen of the all-important pieces of wooden furniture from the twentieth century, with styles ranging from classic to modern.
Will a Lane hope chest double her chances for a happy marriage? (1938)
My heart did a tap dance when my Lane hope chest came! (1941)
A million maidens yearn for this romantic love gift (1944)
Her Lane hope chest: “That’s what I’m fighting for”
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Love knows no distance when pledged with a Lane hope chest – The gift that starts the home (1944)
Actress Shirley Temple for linen chests (1945)
Shirley Temple says: “For your real-life romance, a Lane cedar hope chest is the sweetest valentine of all!”
ALSO SEE: Shirley Temple & Bojangles dance up the stairs (1935)
It’s love everlasting when romance starts with a Lane (1946)
Slip into her heart forever — give her a Lane this Valentine’s Day (1947)
The hope chest of the ’60s meant more than ever – in a different way (1962)
The Harper County Journal (Buffalo, Oklahoma) December 13, 1962
When the hope chest was in its heyday, Christmas was open season for it, both as a gift and in promises.
These cedar boxes were rare and expensive, as furniture items went in those days, But storage space in homes was at a premium, with few built-in clothes closets; hence, a hope chest made an ideal gift for the daughter about to finish high school.
Presented by parents on the Christmas before her graduation, it was ready to receive the offerings of hand-embroidered linens and hand-pieced quilts, promised by aunts, cousins and grandmothers gathered for the holiday meal.
ALSO SEE: Did married couples really sleep in separate beds back in the ’50s?
By the time a young lady was ready to “set up housekeeping,” her hope chest was filled with monogrammed towels and sheets, and handmade undergarments.
Later, the hope chest was used to store baby’s layette. Now that linens, lingerie and infants’ clothes are so easily bought a few days before the big event, the hope chest has outlived its usefulness.
Or so it would seem.
Last week, we emptied one to have it refinished as a window seat. As we handled each forgotten item we realized that “hope” had become “memory.”
Out came velvet leaves from Mother’s wedding hat; Grandmother’s eyelet-embroidered wedding petticoat, almost 100 years old; our own engagement dress; our son’s baby jackets and dresses; a heart-shaped Bavarian lace pillow.
As the pile of treasures grew, memories toppled over each other to nestle again in their folds.
One thing about a window seat, we thought happily; there’s still room inside for all our yesterdays. This Christmas, one of our nicest gifts will be the face-lifting of our memory chest!
Its modern painted exterior may fool visitors, but we at home know that what lies inside will enrich the heart.
“For a special someone… on a very special occasion!” (1952)
“I’ve just received the most beautiful gift ever… my shining new Lane Cedar Chest is as unexpected, as precious, as my first love letter — and as lucky, somehow, as a four-leaf clover.”
A hope chest: What a thrifty way to start the new year! (1953)
Now, when your heart is full of hopes and plans for the bright new year ahead… what a perfect time to get your Lane cedar chest!
Can you imagine happier planning than the kind that goes with a Lane… as you gather lovely things for your home or your trousseau, knowing that they’ll stay tissue-paper fresh, sparkling new.
Give her the graduation gift that gathers more gifts (1955)
A Lane hope chest
Whether your girl graduate is trousseau-gathering or just sweater-collecting, a Lane is a gift she’ll adore! one that will become more precious as time goes on.
Every girl loves to plan for the future, to collect fine towels, tablecloths, delicate lingerie and cloud-soft blankets… the lovely things she’ll need when she has a home of her own. And a Lane Hope Chest is a wonderful idea for friends and relatives who will want to help with the happy collecting.
MORE: 129 ways to get a husband: Truly terrible tips from the 1950s
A lane Sweetheart hope chest (1964)
When he gives you a Lane Sweetheart Chest to fill, you know he’s ready for marriage, for sharing a home, for helping you pick out the tables, bedroom and dining room furniture you’ll want by Lane.
A Lane love chest (1980)
From someone who loves you, a gift to hold the things you love. “I love you.” Few gifts say it as beautifully as a love chest. It’s a centuries-old tradition.
And now the gift that says it all says it better than ever. For the cost of postage and handling, your very own love story will be branded on a cedar plaque for mounting inside the lid of your chest…
Vintage 80s hope chest for a graduation gift (1983)
Vintage 80s hope chests linen chests from 1984
15 1980s hope chest styles from Lane
1980s hope chest in a teenage girl’s bedroom (1983)
What do you put in a hope chest, or linen chest? What they said in 1902
The Saint Paul Globe (St. Paul, Minn.) August 13, 1902
A linen chest (or hope chest) is the American girl’s latest fancy, and she is reveling in this deliciously old fashion of getting her linen together long before she has selected her man — or he has selected her.
The hope chest is not the exclusive possession of the wealthy man’s daughter. In olden times, no matter how humble the household, the daughter of it always had her linen chest — one, perchance, that her mother had once filled — and into it, she puts every piece of household goods that she could make or purchase.
She began very early to fill this chest, for as she generally married early and it took some time to accumulate, it necessarily had to be started when she was still a wee small lassie.
Now that American girls have taken this idea up, it is not likely that the linen chest will begin to be filled when the girl is very young, though some mother, with great forethought, have provided them for tiny daughters.
The price of a hope chest should not deter a girl from having one, as the stores are selling them from $3 up. Of course one can pay a fabulous price if one desires. It is wise to buy as good a one as can possibly be afforded, as it is something a girl will want to keep.
After she has bought the chest and brought it home, she should take care that every doily that she makes, every lunch cloth, every hemstitched tablecloth with napkins to match, etc., is carefully laid away.
And then when Prince Charming finally does make his appearance, and the day is set, with honest pride she can show him her store of household linen that proves that she is a tidy, thrifty girl and will make him a good wife.
MORE: Tips for a happy marriage: Advice for newlyweds, from the 1900s
NOW SEE THIS: What every girl wanted: A cedar-lined Lane hope chest for linens and her trousseau
What is a hope chest used for? Insight from 1920
Great Falls Daily Tribune (Montana) May 09, 1920
“What shall I put in my hope chest?” asks the girl in a letter. “We had an argument about it last night, any sweetheart and I. He says house linen, towels and things — and I say personal affairs for my trousseau. Which is correct?
“There are four of us girls all filling hope chests, and we want to know what is the proper thing to put into them.”
Put in linen, my dear, and muslin and soft embroideries. Put lace in and lingerie and pretty filmy materials. Put the art of needlework in, fine stitches carefully taken, gay colors, gaily embroidered, bright ribbons.
Put in little funny pettiskirts with ruffles on them and every ruffle bound with ribbon, blue ruffles bound with pink, and pink ruffles bound with blue, and green ruffles bound with black, and plain ruffles bound with nothing at all.
Put dainty underwear of all kinds into the hope chest, pretty things that you couldn’t afford for every day. Little boudoir caps for breakfast, negligees for days when you aren’t quite up to dressing. House jackets with flowing sleeves and funny little French peignoirs, all imagination and ribbons.
MORE: So this happened… 12 too-cute vintage engagement stories from the ’20s
Home and the hope chest
But first of all, and before all, put right in the bottom of the chest — linens, the best you can afford and some even better than you can afford. Go without the new dress, trim your old hat over and put some of the money into the linen for your hope chest.
Embroider and hem and press and fold this linen with your own hands. Sheets and pillowcases, towels and tablecloths and napkins, plenty of them, and plenty, and then some more.
And when you put them in lay a sprig of lemon verbena or rose geranium leaf, or — if you can’t get that — a bunch of lavender in with the linens.
And day by day your chest will fill and fill, and hour by hour your heart will warm and warm, and by the time you have finished with your hope chest, anyone who would try to persuade you to live in a hotel or to board in somebody else’s house, even in that of your own parents, would be no friend of yours.
With every stitch you take, you write “Home” upon your heart. “H-o-m-e” spells home, and it doesn’t spell another thing on earth.
Home for tired hearts, home for weary brains, home for restless nerves — peace, comfort, the joy of living, the delight of little pleasures, the bright fire on the hearth, the plant in the pot in the corner.
The books on the shelf and on the table — your chair on one side and his not too far away on the other Moonlight or starlight sunshine or rain — foggy or windy old or young — careless or careful — beautiful or plain — H-O-M-E.
MORE: 62 beautiful vintage home designs & floor plans from the 1920s
And put, too, in your hope chest, first of all — love. True, honest, faithful, trusting love. Love that does not fail at the first provocation. Love that is kind. Love that is understanding. Love that will be to the man of your heart like a shield and a buckler in the battle of life.
Love that will mean not hungry greed, not self-indulgence, not cruel rapacity — but generous, free, full giving — and giving — and giving — or only those who give can ever really receive.
What should you put in a hope chest? Love, faith & more
And with your love put faith, calm-eyed and level-hearted. And with that tie up a nosegay of hope, sweet, gay, light-hearted hope. Throw that into your chest, and for a good measure gather up a few herbs from the humble garden of patience — throw them into the chest.
And when you are all done and the chest is full and you put your hand into the hand of the man who loves you, take the chest with you and go somewhere together, and make in this harried, restless, worried world a haven and a shelter and a snug harbor against all the kinds that blow and all the storms that rage, and call it “H-O-M-E.”
Then you will have a real hope chest, and one of honest meaning and good import.
Nothing tells your love story like a Lane hope chest! (1950s)
Every man knows you’re actually two women: the one who dreams by candlelight, and the one who sets the alarm for morning chores.
Your ring, your new dress speak of romance. Ironing board and linens tell of your practical side.
There’s just one treasure that symbolizes your entire self: your Lane Cedar Chest. As vivid a symbol of love as a diamond — yet night and day, it protects blankets and woolens as no other storage method.
A masterpiece of fine furniture, it solves home-planning problems, collects trousseau treasures. Nothing tells so much about you as a woman — both before and after marriage — as a Lane.
Lane is the ONLY pressure-tested, aroma-tight cedar chest. Made of 3/4-inch red cedar in accordance with U. S. Government recommendations with a free moth-protection guarantee, underwritten by one of the world’s largest insurance companies, issued upon proper application. Helpful hints for storing are in each chest.
Shown: Front-opening Blond Oak console, sculptured Swedish base, sliding tray. Tambour-effect on paneled doors. #6345.
And finally, a snarky take on the concept (1982)
This vintage Virginia Slims cigarette ad used this illustration as part of their “You’ve come a long way, baby” campaign in the eighties.
It wasn’t entirely accurate, either, as most sources specifically talk about the chest holding linens and fabric items. The cedar lining was to help keep moths from eating the cloth.
NOW SEE THIS: See 20+ vintage hope chests from the 20th century: Cedar furniture with a special purpose
Hope chests you can still buy today
- Seat height of 18”H - Cushion size if needed: 40.5”W x 16.75”D – Weight limit: 275 lbs.
- Equipped with soft close hinges that can prevent slamming, making this chest a child friendly.
- Made of solid wood and MDF that provide great stability and durability for more years to come.
- Cedar chest, chest, storage chest, toy chest, storage for wool sweaters, cabin furniture
- pet coffin, wedding gift, graduation gift
- memory chest, blanket box, blanket chest
- Amish Made Cedar Chest: Cedar Storage Chests are handcrafted with care to ensure the highest quality. This family chest is made with Brown Maple Wood with a Cedar bottom. The Hope Chest features an...
- Hope Chest Cedar Chest: This handmade Cedar Chest is designed with a rounded, waterfall top and a scalloped bottom. The large chest measures 46" L x 20" D x 21" H and has a ¾ inch thick cedar bottom....
- Anti-Slam Hinges & Locking Lid: This large blanket chest trunk is designed with anti-slam hinges to prevent the lid from slamming onto the chest. The hinges will prolong the life and integrity of your...
- Cedar lining is a natural deterrent against moths and other pests, as well as mildew and warping from humidity
- Measurements of 40.5"L X W 16.75" X H 18" provide ample storage space and comfortable seat height
- Solid wood and MDF build provide stability and durability
- Added Bottom Drawer, 2-Tier Storage: One design highlight of this toy chest is the pull-out drawer with internal size 39"L x 15.5"W x 4.8"H, making this storage Bench suitable for storing small...
- Ample Storage Space for Items: Our storage chest has an overall size of 39.3"L x 15.7"W x 19.7"H with the weight limit up to 220 lb, providing you with a spacious storage space to organize your...
- Safety Device: This toy chest has a safety hinge to connect the top, supporting your slow opening and closing to access to stored items inside. The lifting safety device can effectively avoid the...
3 Responses
I have a lane ceder chest model # 3132 cant find its value. the out side finish is fair no chips but grainy looking .
have a lane pattern#44407 old lock reddish in color with railing on top lid.
My mother used to talk about “hope chests,” and eventually bought a cedar chest to store bedsheets and towels. I don’t know if it was a Lane chest. My daughter inherited it after my mother died, and uses it to store old photo albums. Also, it’s interesting to see how the “hope chest” evolved from a keepsake a bride-to-be would want, to a piece of furniture that could double as a bench or coffee table. I guess storing linens isn’t something girls aspire to anymore…