How a Rain-Soaked Seattle Bookstore Helped Invent the School Backpack

(via Mental Floss)  A leather belt. That’s what kids in the early 1900s often used to cart their school books around, securing the strap around the pile and using the slack as a handle.  But a chance meeting at the University of Washington campus bookstore between an outdoor equipment salesman and a store manager would forever influence how kids toted their school supplies.