Malcolm P. McLean Inventor of the Box That Changed the World by
Dr. Tom Hanchett* Reprinted with permission from the Tar Heel
Junior Historian. Fall 2006. Tar Heel Junior Historian
Association, NC Museum of History The idea to move goods in big
metal boxes was a simple idea, but a powerful one. Make each box
as large as a truck-trailer. Put the box on truck wheels and
pull it over the highway. Put it on train wheels and pull it
over the railroad. Build a huge crane to stack it onboard a
boat. Goods would move quickly and surely, because they got
packed in the box at the start of the trip and unpacked at the
end. In between, no one would touch them. Malcom P. McLean, of
North Carolina, turned that simple idea into an important
reality half a century ago. His invention—containerized
shipping—changed the world. McLean was born in 1914 in Robeson
County. From humble roots, he built a major business empire.
Young Malcom McLean began driving a truck at age seventeen
during the hard times of the Great Depression. By