With the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, produce could travel all over the United States with ease. To stand out from competitors, farmers shifted from stencil-marked crates to vivid
crate labels, which were largely replaced by lower-cost cardboard boxes in the 1950s and 60s, allowing images to be printed right onto the boxes. These vivid bits of history are now
bought, sold, and traded by collectors (
related gallery).
Blue Sky Search and
California Bountiful have articles on the rise and fall of produce labels, and the subsequent collection of these art pieces.
Boston Public Library has a high-quality, larger format Flickr gallery, but the collection is limited.
Pat Jacob's Fruit Crate Labels has a collection of small images and a lot of information for collectors, and
Crate Label Museum has an extensive collection, though the images are smaller than those in the Boston Public Library's collection.
posted by filthy light thief
on Feb 7, 2012 -
19 comments
How to design cigarette cartons to be less convenient in order to discourage smoking?
Designed to Annoy: a theoretical look at designing inefficient packaging.
posted by AceRock
on Aug 5, 2010 -
138 comments
How much trans fat is in that Devil Dog? The FDA has announced that starting in 2006 food manufacturers must list the number of grams of trans fatty acid -- very bad fat -- on food packages. This is supposed to be a big deal, meant to save lives and billions of bucks. Not so fast. I say, it is a useless addition to the already confusing line-up of numbers on the nutrition panel. Besides, the presence of trans fats is already revealed in ingredients lists on food boxes and wrappers -- look for hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils. But the stuff flies off shelves anyway. I say, if the FDA really wants to tell people how bad these foods are, they should come right out with it. It's time for warning labels on junk food. THIS PRODUCT CAUSES OBESITY. THIS PRODUCT WILL CLOG YOUR ARTERIES. THIS PRODUCT MAY LEAD TO HEART DISEASE AND DEATH.
posted by jellybuzz
on Jul 10, 2003 -
62 comments
The Mohair Council of America wins the prize for our country's most unique lobbying group. (I mean, really - it's mohair!) The MCA exists largely to protect the
mohair subsidies, which are leftover from a time when the military used the material for uniforms. The subsidies were phased out in the mid 90s, but the MCA lobbied hard enough to bring them back in 1999. It just goes to show that with a well-placed lobbying arm, even the most useless, obscure interest group can get a piece of the government pie.
(Runner up:
The Flexible Packaging Association)
posted by risenc
on Jan 6, 2003 -
6 comments
Plastics! A new revolution in packaging, "By some measures, films made of metallocene-based polyethylenes can have two to three times the tensile strength, five times the impact strength, and twice the tear strength of a traditional polymer. That allows users to make much thinner films and parts, saving on everything from plastic resin to transport costs."
posted by kliuless
on Dec 17, 2001 -
1 comment
