The Frog Worth Carrying

There is something rather wonderful about being asked to make a bag for a museum that spends its days helping to protect some of the world's rarest tree and poison dart frogs.

That is exactly what happened when the Horniman Museum and Gardens came to us ahead of their 125th anniversary celebrations. They wanted a tote that carried a little piece of the place they love, something visitors could take home after a day spent wandering the Gardens, watching the tree frogs in the Aquarium, or standing in front of the famously overstuffed walrus. So they came to us to bring it to life, and to have it made by the mothers at Sreepur Village. What they came away with was a Hold Everything tote, a natural cotton canvas bag with a bold orange and black poison dart frog printed on both sides, and the Horniman logo sitting quietly beside it.

Why a frog

If you have ever visited the Horniman, you will know the Aquarium is one of its best loved corners. Tucked among the coral reefs and the jellyfish are the poison dart frogs and tropical tree frogs, tiny, striking creatures that visitors press their noses to the glass to see properly. The museum has spent years working to protect endangered tree frog species too, so the frog is not just a pretty design choice. It is a small nod to a much bigger story about looking after the natural world.

We loved that. A bag is a small, everyday thing, but it can still carry something meaningful. So when the Horniman brought us their frog design, it felt like exactly the right thing to put our hands to.

Made with the same care, every time

Every Horniman Tote was made by hand by the mothers at Sreepur Village in Bangladesh, just as every bag we send out into the world is. The canvas is cut, sewn, and finished by women who are building a steady income and a future for themselves and their children. Many of these women came to Sreepur with nothing and have found a home, a wage, and a community there.

That is really what Hold Everything is about. A bag made in Bangladesh, carrying the emblem of a museum in south London that has spent over a century bringing the wider world closer to the people who visit it. Two places, two cultures, meeting on the same piece of canvas. It feels rather fitting for a museum whose whole purpose is to connect us with global cultures and the natural world.

There is something rather lovely about that thread running all the way through. A frog cared for so carefully at the Horniman that it might help save its species from disappearing. A bag made just as carefully, by hands that are changing lives one stitch at a time. Two very different stories, quietly connected.

The Horniman felt that partnership just as strongly.

"It has been wonderful working with a partner like Hold Everything who prioritises a transparent and sustainable supply chain. The Hold Everything team really helped develop our product into a stronger one, and the popularity of the bags have been clear through sales numbers."

Where you will find it

The Horniman Tote was made especially for the Horniman Museum and Gardens as part of their 125th anniversary celebrations, so it has a home there rather than in our own shop. If you are visiting Forest Hill this year, do keep an eye out for it. And if you spot one out and about in London, you will know exactly where it came from, and exactly whose hands made it.

We are always proud of the bags we send out into the world, but there is something a little bit special about this one. It is not every day you get to make something for a museum with a walrus as its icon and frogs as its quiet heroes.