My wife had one, and we’ve started filling up my eldest daughter’s in the same antique chest.
Except we call the actual collection a trousseau and the chest a kist.
No not amongst my generation either, unless they’re very young. Imo, most committed couples end up moving in together first. When combining households instead of a hope chest that could barely contain the contents of a linen closet, a rented storage unit would come into use first. 
My sister was born in late 70’s and had a hand me down chest that we called a hope chest. It was really just for family mementos like my grandmas wedding dress. The name remained but the actual roll it played was long gone.
My mother has one. She graduated from high school in the 1940’s. It’s a Lane Cedar chest, I believe. It’s the only piece of furniture she and Dad started with, since the furniture they ordered didn’t show up on time. They had to eat, sit, and sleep on the floor, in a fourth floor walk up, for weeks. Fun times.
I bought one after getting married, just for storage and because I thought it was pretty.
My older sister (b.1955) had one. I’m not sure if it was supposed to be one or if she just got some old-timey chest and called it a hope chest. She was also stoked to get my grandma’s old painted iron headboard, something like this…
https://images.app.goo.gl/tZKrQQHLA1zxRx9p8
ISTM that as others have posted, it was as if young women’s big aspiration should be to marry. Women’s lib really kicked in during the late 60s/early 70s…?
I know my future was supposed to be taking an appropriate girl job (teacher, secretary, nurse) then get married and become a stay-at-home-mom to a brood. It’s pretty much what I was raised to expect. But the whole business of never dating in high school, followed my my spur of the moment decision to enlist in the Navy, completely redirected my life. But for a brief stretch in my youth, a Hope Chest would have been a practical reality.
Instead, I got a foot locker…
I graduated high school in 1978, my grandmother died about a month previously so I inherited her hope chest. I had already begun asking for gifts for my future several years earlier. My mother understood what I was about but neither one of us considered it a hope chest, just a preparing for living as an adult plan. I had an iron and ironing board, Ingrid dishes, some cooking implements (I acquired these by working in a supermarket that had a bargain price), and tableware. When my brothers moved out, they had to go buy the stuff I already had and were surprised by their broken banks. For a while there, my parents thought I was their smartest kid.
I am 50+ and I heard the term growing up, but I don’t think I ever knew of anyone who actually had a hope chest. If I ever saw one, it was something old timey.
Most of what people are describing is what I was told is a moving chest. I have my great-grandmother’s that was handed down to my grandmother. They were tenant farmers, sometimes moving each year, and the blankets, jewelry, linens, toiletries, etc…were put in here while moving.
About 3’ wide, 2’ deep, and 2-1/2’ high. Has multiple compartments with a top section that can be lifted out. Even has a secret compartment. Wood framed with a leather covered material for the sides. Sturdy but lightweight when empty.
When the kids were younger we hid Christmas presents in it. When they were older we would put their electronic devices in it when they were grounded. They never figured out the false bottom in one of the compartments.
Here is my hope chest. I was born in 1970 and got this (I think) for my 16th birthday in '86. It is now used as my budgie feeding station (forgive the dust).
My son and his wife lived on their own for maybe 2 years, and didn’t really accumulate linens for a queen bed or decent cooking equipment.
I was born in '75. Maybe it’s because I’m a guy or just don’t read enough historical fiction, but I have never heard of them until today.
I expect that the budgie (budgies?) indeed hopes to be fed!
Hope chest indeed!
It’s beautiful…
Graduated high school in 1988. All the girls got boxes like the ones in hajario’s link.
[Rob Schneider]I put my weed in there![/RS]. Bet I wasn’t the only one, either.
My girl cousins, who had to share a room, each had her own cedar chest. But as I understood it, that was not for the purpose of accruing linen, but just so each could have her own storage area, with no confusion about what belonged to who.
a6ka97 mentions a “moving chest”. When my MIL was alive, she and Mr. Rilch and I were cleaning out one of the “extra” buildings on her property. One item was a kind of trunk, with a curved top and a lock. “Don’t ever throw that out,” she said. “It’s what I took with me to college, and it was my mother’s before me, but she took it to her first house when she got married.”
Lightbulb moment for me. “So…when people in Hays Code era films said “I’m leaving; I will send for my things!” or “Get out; I will send you your things!” this is what they meant. Because one’s ‘things’ could be entirely contained in one of these.”
“Yes, nowadays people need a U-Haul for their Things. Kind of takes the edge off of a dramatic exit, eh?”
No recollection why, but I’d heard of a trousseau as a child long before hearing of a Hope Chest. I had no idea what it was for, and thought it was something much smaller than a chest. I’m surprised to hear people still have these, it seemed like something from the Victorian Era.
It’s just practical to not have to buy everything all at once.
Plus it’s subliminal reinforcement of the idea that they’re going to move the fuck out of our house as soon as possible.
I should mention that we’d do it regardless of the gender of our kids.
I’ve long thought that, rather than giving housewares as wedding gifts, we as a society should be giving those things to young adults moving into their first apartment. Accumulating those things in a chest over the years may not be the way to go, as the first apartment may be a long way from home. It might make more sense to buy things online and have them delivered to the new residence, or just give cash/gift cards for that purpose. I was very grateful to have my parents’ help with that.
Exactly so. So I started preparing for it. Though I knew what a hope chest was, I also knew it made sense to start gathering the things I would need for my own place, regardless of marriage. As it turned out, I used everything that I had collected (pats self on back) long before I had a partner.