Fruit From Washington - Fruit Harvest and Patriotic Posters from Depression Era and War Years

Fruit From Washington - Fruit Harvest and Other Historic Posters from World War I, the Depression, New Deal and World War II

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Save Food - Don't Waste subjects of World War I Patriotic Posters • Harvest Scene from the New Deal Era, between the World Wars • Crop Harvests during Second World War Years • Food was a national concern - sugar was scarce • Tending of Victory Gardens • Federal Art Project posters of fruit and better health • Eat More Corn, Oats and Rye Products

Crop Harvests at Home in America during World War II

The United States Government campaigned to find pickers to bring in the harvests during the war years, 1941-1945. Congress authorized funds for an Emergency Farm Labor Service that included the Women's Land Army, a branch of the U.S. Crop Corps. These organizations were specifically designed to get laborers into the orchards and fields to bring in the crops during a time of extreme farm worker shortage on the homefront.

War genre, patriotic posters have an important place in our cultural and social history. Here are a few examples on an agricultural theme that FruitFromWashington has gleaned from the National Archives.

Cotton, legume and grass seed as well as other war time crops were all in need of extra laborers at harvest time. These historic posters that promoted the U.S. Crop Corps can be found in the National Archives and Records Administration and specifically the Still Picture Branch (NWDNS), National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, Maryland. Some of these posters were created by the Office of War Information (OWI) in conjunction with other departments including the War Food Administration.

The timely harvest of fruits, vegetables and other farm products, such as cotton, was a priority. Every effort was made to prevent waste and spoilage of much needed foodstocks and farm products. A high profile print and radio advertising campaign got results.

"Recruits were not expected to have farming experience, but the WLA (Women's Land Army) specified that applicants be physically fit and possess manual dexterity, patience, curiosity, and patriotism.” - Encyclopædia Britannica

Harvest War Crops - The Women's Land Army of the U.S. Crop Corps

“Apply to your county agent or agricultural college”

The Country Needs You to Help Harvest the Cotton Lock Your Desk- Close Your Door and Do Your Part.

Harvest Legume & Grass Seed For Your Use and the Nation's Need

Help Harvest Join U.S. Crop Corps

Help Harvest War Crops Join the U.S. Crop Corps

Food was a national concern in the United States during Second World War years.

"Make Food Fight for Freedom by Eating Wisely" was the title of a booklet prepared by the War Ad Council around 1944. Citizens were encouraged to cooperate with rationing efforts ("Rationing Safeguards Your Share") and to grow Victory Gardens ("Grow it Yourself"). The bounty produced from a plot of land was too valuable to waste. Not to grow a garden or care for fruiting shrubs and trees was considered unpatriotic. To fail to preserve its bounty was downright un-American. One 1946, Department of Agriculture poster carried the message, "Am I Proud -- I'm fighting famine . . . by canning food at home."

"Get the Good...From Fruit" was the title of a World War II Era Poster prepared by the Bureau of Home Economics - U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Office of Government Reports, United States Information Service. It's message was: Use fruit juice fresh....if it has to stand, keep covered and cold. Cook in the peel if you can....if you must peel, make it thin.

Get the Good...From Fruit!
1941-1945

Source: National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD
(NWDNS-44-PA-867B)

Sugar is scarce, make it stretch.

1946 poster from the U.S. Office of Price Administration
Source: Northwestern University's Library Government Publications and Maps Deprtment

Fruit You Waste Here!

...May Prevent His Wounds from Healing There! Vitamin "C" (Ascorbic Acid) found in citrus fruits is an aid to healing wounds and building tissue.

Source: National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD (NWDNS-44-PA-847)

"...to speed our boys home...

Produce and conserve, share and play square with FOOD!" Don't waste a crumb or drop of it!" Charles D. Jarrell, Artist for the Office of War Information, 1942 -1945.

Source: National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD (NWDNS-44-PA-225)

"Food is a weapon.

Don't waste it! Buy wisely, cook carefully, eat it all." Office of War Information, 1942-1945.

Source: National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD (NWDNS-44-PA-378)

United States War Production Board encouraged the Tending of Victory Gardens.

A Little Cultivation Now! Means a Big Harvest Later On! This poster produced by the War Production Board during 1942 or 1943, urges citizens to "Take Care of Your Victory Garden." Source: National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD (NWDNS-179-WP-269)

See more about growing your own vegetables for a common cause from the era of the First World War, excerpted from Bolton Hall's Three Acres and Liberty (1918).

Harvest Scenes were a standard subject for the Work Progress Administration Arts Project during the New Deal Era, between the First and Second World Wars.

Arnold Blanch, painted this harvest scene in 1937 as part of the WPA Arts Project. The oil on canvas painting depicts people picking apples in an orchard and participating in other farm activities. The painting is displayed in Fredonia, New York's (Chautauqua) Post Office. Click for more information on the New Deal for the Arts. (Source: Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, 4079 Albany Post Road, Hyde Park, NY 12538)

Artists working under the Federal Art Project also produced color posters to inform and instruct the populace about good dietary practice.

The Federal Art Project sponsored by the Work Projects Administration produced color silkscreened prints on posterboard which have been collected by the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (Washington, D.C.) as part of their Work Projects Administration Poster Collection. Here are three examples which highlight and promote the sale and consumption of fruit for better health!

Eat fruit - be healthy

Federal Art Project, ca. 1938.
(Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, WPA Poster Collection, LC-USZC2-5301)

Fruit store -

Federal Art Project, ca. 1941.
(Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, WPA Poster Collection, LC-USZC4-5064)

A good lunch -

one hot dish, meat, vegetables - sandwich - fruit - milk - WPA school lunch.

WPA Oklahoma Art Project, Federal Art Project, sponsor. ca. 1941. (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, WPA Poster Collection, LC-USZC2-5427)

ARC Identifier: 196412 Title: Rehabilitation client's son, Kaufman Co., Texas. Photographed by Rothstein., ca. 1942 Franklin D. Roosevelt Library (NLFDR), 4079 Albany Post Road, Hyde Park, NY. Courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library Digital Archives. More about Fruit Preservation.

During World War I, the United States Food Administration encouraged conservation of food resources by publishing a series of patriotic posters. The message was urgent to save food, don't waste it.

Sugar was a scarce item during the First World War years. "Let Your Fruit Trees Save Sugar" is the title of a war era poster showing the U.S. (P)reserves of soldiering jars of jams and jellies marching beneath the proud gaze of Mrs. Patriot's Fruit Tree while Mrs. Waster's Fruit Tree glowers over the rotting and wasted fruit at her feet. The message is not very subtle. This campaign effectively instilled a sense of "fruit guilt" in our grandparents' and parents' generations that continues to thrive today. We know this because of the healthy dose of "fruit guilt" we inherited from them.

Cornell University's Albert R. Mann Library features an archival exhibition titled Meatless Mondays, Wheatless Wednesdays Home Economists in World War I. The exhibit makes mention of a World War I publication titled Foods that will win the war: and how to cook them (Authors: Goudiss, C. Houston b. 1880., Goudiss, Alberta M. b. 1876.) which offers such illustrated gems as:

Food
1 - buy it with thought
2 - cook it with care
3 - serve just enough
4 - save what will keep
5 - eat what would spoil
6 - home-grown is best
don't waste it

Suggestions for a Meatless Day Menu included:

Breakfast
Baked Pears with Cloves and Ginger
Cornmeal and Farina Cereal
Coffee
Toast

Luncheon or Supper
Welsh Rarebit
Hot Tea
Fruit Muffins
Lettuce Salad

Dinner
Cream of Corn Soup
Baked Fish
Macaroni with Tomato Sauce
Whole Wheat Bread
Lyonnaise Potatoes
Orange Sage Custard

Source: Foods that will win the war: and how to cook them - Authors: Goudiss, C. Houston b. 1880., Goudiss, Alberta M. b. 1876 accessible in Cornell University's Hearth Library archive - http://hearth.library.cornell.edu/h/hearth/food.html.

Eat More Corn, Oats, and Rye Products

- fish and poultry- fruits, vegetables, and potatoes, Baked, Broiled, and Boiled Foods. Eat less wheat, wheat sugar and fats to save for the army and our allies.

World War I Poster created by the U.S. Food Administration, ca. 1918

Source: Source: National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD
(ARC Identifier: 512500)

Let Your Fruit Trees Save Sugar

World War I Poster, 1917-1919
R.M. Brinkerhoff, Artist

Source: National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD
(NWDNS-4-P-75)

Fruit and Vegetable Packs

World War I Poster created by the U.S. Food Administration, 1918 - 1919

Source: National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD (NWDNS-4-P-104)

"Don't Waste Food While Others Starve"
(ca. 1917-1919)

United States Food Administration Poster - Contributor: L.C. Clinker. Artist: M.J. Dwyer.

Source: National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD (NWDNS-4-P-145)

President says, "Hunger does not breed reform; it breeds madness and all the ugly distemper that makes an ordered life impossible...

The future belongs to those who prove themselves the true friends of mankind." America's food pledge 20 million tons. Save food. Don't Waste It.
United States Food Administration Poster, ca. 1917 - 1919.

Source: National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD (NWDNS-4-P-98)

"Win the Next War Now. Can Vegetables, Fruit and The Kaiser, too."

"Write for Free Book to National War Garden Commission, Washington, D.C. Charles Lathrop Pack, President. P.S. Ridsdale - Secretary."
J. Paul Verrees, Artist (ca. 1918).

Source: National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD (NWDNS-4-P-150)

Other War Era Poster Links
Victory Gardens - Growing your own on the Homefront - World Wars I & II

Produce for Victory - Posters on the American Home Front (1941-1945), Natural Museum of American History Virtual Display

Powers of Persuasion Poster Art from World War II, National Archives and Records Administration