Apple Family is on the Way
All the Apples are coming to The Fourth
National Apple Show and E-Nak-Ops Jubilee, at Spokane November
23 to 30. This card promoted Arcadia Orchards Company of
Spokane, Washington in the early 1900's. Described as The
largest irrigated apple orchard in the world where
we plant, cultivate and scientifically bring to bearing
every tract sold. The entire price of these orchard
tracts is not given, but $250.00 cash secures a 10
acre tract. $125 cash secures a 5 acre tract. Eight years
time to pay balance. Details
were to be had at the National Apple Show and E-Nak-Ops
McIntosh Red, Miss Delicious,
Mr. Newtown Pippin, Mr. and Mrs. Rome Beauty, Herr Spitzenberg,
Grimes Golden, Mr. and Mrs. Wagener, Brother Jonathan, Mr.
and Mrs. Wolf Rivers and The Crab Family are all on their
way to Spokane. Bartlett Pear, Tommy Quince and a little
girl Peach are all unhappy that they can't go too.
One of the beautifully decorated
carloads at the National Apple Show!
for back view)
In the Shade of the
Young Apple Tree. Picking Pippins for the Fourth National
Apple Show - Spokane, Washington (November 23-30, 1911)
For more classic, 1911 E-Nak-Ops
Spokane spelled backwards) Jubilee postcards, and other
very rare exaggerated images, see the E.
Morgan Williams Special Collection!
H. Mitchell Big Fruit and Vegetable Postcards
We have many examples of Edward
H. Mitchell Postcards dating to the early 1900's, including:
an E.H. Mitchell postcard of a carload
of giant figs on a Southern Pacific Railroad car...
...or this 1909 E.H. Mitchell Postcard
of a carload of almonds on the S.P.R.R.
...or this 1910 E.H. Mitchell Postcard
showing how watermelons grow in California.
more Edward H. Mitchell cards included below.
watermelons grow to an enormous size and are especially
luscious. They grow in all parts of the State and mature
very early. Early melons may be had in the California market
in May. Curious
what the sender wrote to father back in Georgia?
Of course, other artists than
E.H. Mitchell produced postcards of giant fruit but we don't
know their names.
For instance, these later
two examples, showing big apples from Shenandoah Valley,
Virginia are by artists unknown to us.
Set in a blooming orchard,
this postcard is titled, Shenandoah Valley, Land of
Luscious Apples - circa 1950.
in 1907 by Raphael Tuck and Sons Co. Ltd. N.Y.
The message of this wistful apple head card
by E. Curtis is designed to touch the heart. A handwritten
message of love by a wife to her husband appears on the
back in which she exclaims, "You are the apple of my
eye and darling of my heart."
Curtis designed an entire series of fruit
and vegetable head cards. Others in the series (not shown
here) include a beet head in pajamas holding a candle with
the message, "Dearest Valentine, you do (beet) all the
others" and a watermelon head moaning, "Your unkindness
makes me (melon) -choly"!
Thanksgiving Day Postcard -
May I have this dance? - Anonymous Illustrator
Fruit, Vegetables & the Railroads
& Railroad Novelty Postcards
is an old style variety of apple.
In slang, pippin is also
something or someone that is very much admired. From the
look of this 1904 historic novelty card, it appears to
be a combination of both!
Pear and Peach Orchard Harvest
Harvesting an Oregon Pear and Peach Orchard
from around 1910, published by the Portland Post Card Company
of Seattle and Portland. The postmark
is Grants Pass, Oregon, July 16, 1910.
I reced. your letter and was glad to
hear from you. Am glad you are all well. I shall leave here
next week sometime. It think I shall go to Portland. It
gets quite warm here sometimes. 101° in the shade last
week. From J.E.G.
Collectors still grow Pippin apples in their
heirloom orchards but it's not a variety that you will see
widely grown again for commercial use. However, do not be
too sad for our little Pippin. It shall not die out in complete
obscurity. It has achieved some reknown as ithe parent of
the popular Ginger Gold
apple, which is the result of a lucky cross between
the Golden Delicious and the saucy Pippin.
||A Carload of Mammoth Apples From
(you fill in the blank). This Edward H. Mitchell Southern
Pacific Railway postcard dates to the early 1900's.
Southern Pacific Railroad,
not to be outdone, put the charming, mammoth yellow Belleflower
apple in a boxcar and another giant pair of Belleflowers
on a flatcar.
||The Southern Pacific Railroad cards were
created by Edward H. Mitchell in San Francisco, California,
||The Kind We Raise Here - Quality and Quantity,
is the title of this exaggerated apple postcard. The apple
rides on a Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway (LS&MS)
railroad flatcar. The LS&MS
is described as the route of empire as America expanded westward,
1869 - 1914.
||This black and white postcard is described
as a Farm Scene near Drake. It shows three Northern Spy apples
loaded on a flatbed with a railway worker beside the car.
||Here is a horse drawn load of Montana spuds.
||A Maine Potato - Greetings from Animal Fair,
Old Orchard Beach, Maine. This later reproduction of a traditional
exaggerated postcard doesn't quite live up to the early standards.
However, model train fans might like it!
and War Era Patriotic Posters
Your Fruit Trees Save Sugar is a World War II era
poster. The U.S. (P)reserves of soldiering jars of jams
and jellies are on march beneath the proud gaze of Mrs.
Patriot's Fruit Tree while Mrs. Waster's Fruit Tree stares
helplessly down at the rotting and wasted fruit at her feet.
and their print characteristics at postcardshopping.com's
"Postcard Age Identification" page.
you enjoyed a glimpse of the past from this Fruit From Washington
collection. Come by any time for another look at these novelty
cards and others which we expect to arrive any day now from
points north, south, east and west.