Fresh Art from Sunny California. So Juicy.

You probably haven’t thought much about “fruit crate label art.”

It’s a genre of art that emerged from the abundant bounty of California agriculture from approximately 1890 to the 1940s. These colorful labels were affixed to wooden crates. The crates were a new way to protect the perishable, juicy, fresh fruit while it was transported.

Fruit crate art and a few other art forms (like cigar box art) popped up because they:

• Identified and promoted brands which had products that were difficult to differentiate.
• Were used on products, for example, crates of fruit, that were basically the same size and shape.

To create a product difference, the designs needed to be eye-catching. So the art often included folk traditions like dance, festivals, traditional regalia, and religious iconography. Exotic icons, like dark-haired women, sun-drenched fields, and the thrill of rare sights—like camels or royalty, were also relied on to conjure up precious products.

Connections Between Art and Industrial Invention

I love the story of this art form because, like many styles of art, it was vitally dependent on the industrial advances of its era.

If history hadn’t unrolled as it did, would Fruit Crate Art have emerged?

Transportation for Perishable Produce

Before the railroads extended across the country, it was impossible to transport perishable fruit to far-flung markets like Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York.

Once the transcontinental railroad routes were established, the whole country became the market. Soon there were ventilated railroad cars, and by 1888, even refrigerated cars.

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In the late 1880s, growers started to merge into co-ops. This was the beginning of Sunkist. Originally called the Southern California Fruit Exchange it was established in 1893.

Some early co-ops, like Sunkist, still exist.

Another delightfully creative image featuring friendly clowns promoting Pajaro Valley fruit emphasizes the freshness of the fruit by including garlands of apple blossoms. The immigrant influences are shown here in the name of the firm packaging the fruit.  This image was provided to me by an art student of mine. He is a descendant of the owners.  The following image has a contemporary feel and is an early use of the word "sunkist." Although the word stands for the Southern California Fruit Exchange, it is a clever invented word to describe all that is implied in the romantic vision of California: beautiful, fresh, delicately kissed by the sun.

History of California Agriculture

Between 1889 and 1919, California farmers nearly doubled the yield for their fruit trees.

Growers sought to identify the products and to promote their brand, so future purchasers would come back to the original co-op and continue to buy from it.

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Fortuitously, at the same time that label art was emerging, high speed printing and lithography could handle the various colors in detailed art at a relatively low price. The printing capabilities inspired artists to create bright, imaginative illustrations including an endless diversity of hand-drawn lettering.

The art on the labels featured art thought to inspire people to eat fruit. Sometimes exotic climes like countries in Africa, or the mountains of the US, were featured.

The art often included illustrations of babies, “housewives,” dogs, cats, and endless horses and cowboys.

I presume this brand name, Alphabetical, was chosen because it would rank this produce grower close to the top of an alphabetical list of preferred vendors. As an appeal to the concept of "rarity" some unusual animals featured on the blocks like an elephant, ostrich, and camel.

A humorous anecdote about Mis-hearing Spanish

How did the growers name their produce brands? Some of these names sound unlikely for marketing fruit. And, perhaps apocryphal, but here is an example of how one brand was named.

Essential for the Prosperity of the Region: Water and Irrigation

Some forms of gravity-based irrigation were used as early as pre-1700. But, right on cue, industrial irrigation systems happened about 1900. This marked the first use of electricity for pumping irrigation into fields and orchards in the Central Valley of California.

Imagine that. Now, electricity would bring the water through the fields. Talk about a game changer.

So, ta-da! Fruit crate label art was born.

As agricultural production surged, selling the fruit required promoting the brand. The marketing concepts captivated the allure of California. It promised irresistible sweets and at that time, unfamiliar flavors like avocado, dates, papaya, pears, and more.

It tempted its East coast buyers with a culture that was diametrically different than the doldrums of the dark, dirty, crammed streets of the big cities—especially in the winter.

Whatever goes up, must come down

As industrial innovations led to the need and mastery of fruit crate labels, by the 1950s, corrugated cardboard boxes began to replace the fruit crate. They were cheaper, lighter, arrived flat and could be broken down for reuse or for disposal. The boxes themselves could be printed on eliminating the need for and the extra step of labels. The labels printed on the cardboard boxes become 100% functional, rather than decorative and designed to reinforce the brand benefits.

The boxes were not seen by any decision makers. The labels lost the need to be striking and became strictly functional. Sigh. It reminds me of how architecture has changed; but I digress.

Fruit crate art has become a forgotten relic of the excitement and maybe naivete of early marketing efforts in the first quarter of the 20th C. Its place in history is pre-Madison Avenue which soared in the 1950s post WWII.

Fruit label art precipitated the creation of other art.

For example, advertising art from advertising meccas like Chicago and New York was built on the stylized, romanticized concepts of “Hollywood” heroes, beautiful women and a desired lifestyle; concepts flourishing in fruit crate art.

Consider the Marlboro Man for cigarette branding. (Original campaign: 1954 to 1999.) The concept of a rugged, solitary cowboy follows the hero type of the cowboys of fruit crate art.

Or Camel (cigarettes)

We can see a direct line from the camel as used in fruit crate art to the original camel on a pack of cigarettes.

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I never get my fill of fruit crate art.

Literally. Fruit crate art seems naive; so unjaded. It is almost childlike in its wordplay and visual metaphors.

It was produced by artists who had not yet intersected with the art showing the blinding angst of the Abstract Expressionists (post WWII), or the depressing cynicism and fear in the 21st C.

As artists, we can't help but be influenced by studying the work of other artists. So, I'm glad the fruit crate label artists were in a separate world so to speak. I imagine they fed off each other and were inspired by the labels they saw around them.

I romantically envision it to be the perfect cloistered environment to promote fresh fruit. I know they were affected by the panic of the stock market crash of 1929, and the dust bowl disaster in the 1930s, or the very personal impact of the loss of demand for products because of all these terrible things.

Yet, the brightness and straightforwardness of the illustrations cheer me up.

In a world of so many things that can "get you down," be fruit crate art! :-)

Summary of the Industrial and Social Components

Here’s a review of some of the influences I feel led to the emergence of fruit crate art. I put them alphabetically, since they happened at about the same time:

• Appeal of fresh fruit
• Appeal of the exotic
• Advances in agriculture
• Electricity
• Irrigation
• Printing
• Railroads
• Technology

There are many other influencers, like automobiles, introduction of the telegraph and telephone, etc., that coalesced to help California agriculture to prosper. Let me know in the comments, some of the industrial innovations that you think may have positively influenced the era of the fruit crate art, 1890 to 1940s.

Just a note, I didn't cover other west coast fruits and vegetables, like those of Oregon and Washington. And, I didn't cover art for can labels for produce that is canned. It was tantalizing, but I knew I had to find a stopping point to my research.

Sources

I did extensive research on this topic of Californian agricultural history. In addition to the links above, here are some of my sources:

Concepts and general information, in addition to digital art were found in:

"A History of California Agriculture," Giannini Foundation, Alan L. Olmstead and Paul W. Rhode, December 2017, University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Center for Sacramento History. Many of the images were from the collection of this official archive for the city and county of Sacramento; public records date from 1849. https://www.centerforsacramentohistory.org/collections-research​

LAPL Fruit Crate Label Collection, from the collection of the Los Angeles Public Library. https://lapl.org/collections-resources/blogs/lapl/tags/fruit%20crate%20labels​

UC Davis Digital Collection. https://digital.ucdavis.edu/collection/lug_labels​

FYI: Interested in Buying Fruit Crate Art?

You can buy actual labels from The LabelMan. These are not reproductions, but actual labels left over in warehouses when the growers stopped using the labels. I have no affiliation with them. But just an individual small business supporting another small business.