Descriptive Summary
Scope and Content of the Collection
Organization and Arrangement
Items Removed from the Collection
Indexing Terms
Descriptive Summary
Title: David Boulé California Orange Collection
Dates: 1882-2016 and undated
Collection number: H.Mss.1098
Creator:
Boulé, David
Extent:
27.25 Linear Feet
(2 records boxes, 1 doc box, 1 oversize doc box, 2 short doc
boxes, 2 flat boxes, 2 oversize flat boxes, 2 multi-tray artifact boxes, 3 sectional
artifact boxes, 2 music roll cartons, 1 stereoscope box, 4 cartons, 1 negatives box, 8
custom artifact boxes)
Repository:
Claremont Colleges. Library. Special Collections, The Claremont
Colleges Library, Claremont, CA 91711.
Abstract: This collection
contains materials related to orange and citrus cultivation in California in the late 19th
and early 20th centuries. Items include advertisements, vendor guides, labor documents,
photographs, artifacts relating to production and packing, and a sizable collection of
souvenirs and products offered to tourists and consumers. Developed by author, researcher,
and avid collector David Boulé, this collection contains many valuable resources relating to
the California citrus industry, including rare posters, pamphlets, and candid photographs.
Mr. Boulé's collection has long been a fixture of the LA Archives Bazaar and the subject of
many exhibits and talks. In 2017, Mr. Boulé chose to donate the entirety of his collection
to the Special Collections of The Claremont Colleges Library. The bulk of the materials are
made up of advertisements and souvenirs, including posters, magazine ads, booklets,
postcards, figurines, pins, and perfume. Items of note include photographs of the people of
color who worked as orange pickers and in the packing houses, a rare 1940 Sunkist poster of
California with illustrations of the citrus cultivation process, and artifacts such as the
first commercial and home electric juicers, an intact packing crate, brass crate printing
die, and a "giant orange" papier mache container.
Physical Location: Please consult
repository.
Language of Material: Languages represented in the
collection: English.
Administrative Information
Access
Collection open for research.
Publication Rights
All requests for permission to reproduce or to publish must be submitted in writing to
Special Collections.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], David Boulé California Orange Collection (H.Mss.1098). Special
Collections, The Claremont Colleges Library, Claremont, California.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Gift of David Boulé, 2017.
Accruals
No additions to the collection are anticipated.
Processing Information
Processed by Sara Chetney in 2018. Materials were rehoused in archival folders and boxes,
oversized items were separated and housed in flat folders. Photographs have been sleeved
in mylar, and fragile items were encased in mylar and housed separately. Artifacts are
housed in boxes with customized trays and sections, with archival batting and tissue
supports. Custom boxes were created for large, heavy, or unsually shaped artifacts. These
boxes were lined with Volara padding, and foam supports were placed to prevent artifact
movement within the housing. Original order was maintained where present, with other
materials separated into series based on type or intended use.
Supplemental materials with information about objects in the collection were placed in
the Boulé collection file. Please contact Special Collections staff to view this file.
Biography / Administrative History
There is a strong case to be made that California's identity, the "dream of California,"
was built on the orange. The citrus industry's boom days created more than fields of
oranges and lemons; its various marketing campaigns sought not only to sell their products
but to project an image of California as a paradise, a pleasant land with a mild climate
that could not help but burst with fresh fruit. Of course, the reality was that California
did not naturally produce these "Gardens of the Hesperides," or even make it particularly
easy for aspiring orchardists to develop them. Successful citrus farming resulted from
precise management, imported water, precautions against the weather, and the hard work of
laborers in the orchards and packing houses. The "dream" was as constructed as the
orchards themselves.
Citrus cultivation was first brought to Baja California in 1793 by the Spanish Jesuit
missionaries, and in 1796 was carried north by Franciscan friars as they established
missions throughout California. Citrus was frequently grown at the missions, including a
large grove of 400 trees at Mission San Gabriel. It was from this mission that William
Wolfskill, a U.S. native and naturalized Mexican citizen, borrowed seedlings in order to
begin his own grove, the first commercial scale orchard in the state, in 1840. At the time
of his death in 1866, Wolfskill's property boasted 60,000 grape vines and over 4,000
orange and lemon trees. More growers quickly followed, and California became a major
producer of the nation's oranges.
This collection was developed by David Boulé, a third generation Californian,
enthusiastic collector, researcher, archivist, and author. His vast and varied collection
started small with the purchase of two postcards depicting the idealized fields of oranges
that were so typical of the California dream's image. Since then, his collection grew to
include historic photographs, hundreds of postcards, rare advertising and marketing
materials, books, phonograph records, posters, journals and personal papers, newspapers
and press clippings, and many California orange-themed souvenirs and promotional items. He
has lectured on the impact of California's King Citrus, and his book, The Orange and Dream
of California, was published in 2014 by Angel City Press and was first catalogued in
WorldCat by Honnold/Mudd Special Collections. In its mission statement, Boulé describes
this collection as "explor[ing] the California citrus empire, how it shaped the state's
image and culture, and how the orange became a symbol for California's historic promise –
as a place of beauty, abundance, and potential. In addition to materials that portray an
idealized vision of California and King Citrus, the collection includes items that
illuminate the significant labor, enterprise and economic aspects of the California citrus
industry."
This "significant labor" was sometimes officially depicted in an idealized sense, but a
large proportion of the laborers involved were ignored in the construction of the
"California dream." People of color made up most of the industry's workforce, yet were
largely hidden from view. The Boulé collection includes rare images of the Chinese,
Japanese, and Mexican workers, both men and women, who provided the majority of the labor
that was so crucial for the success of large-scale citrus production in California. Other
items of note include industry artifacts such as an intact wooden Sunkist packing crate,
early electric juicers, and a smudge pot. Mr. Boulé generously donated the entirety of his
collection to Special Collections at The Claremont Colleges Library in 2017, where it is a
keystone collection and has already been featured in several exhibits.
Sources:
Boule, David. The Orange and the Dream of California. Santa Monica: Angel City Press,
2013.
Reccow, Louis. The Orange County Citrus Strikes of 1935-1936: The "Forgotten People" in
Revolt. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International, 1981, © 1971.
Thompson and West. History of Los Angeles County California, with Illustrations.
Berkeley: Howell-North, 1959.
Wilson, Iris Higbie. William Wolfskill 1798-1866: Frontier Trapper to California
Ranchero. Glendale: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1965.
Scope and Content of the Collection
This collection contains materials relating to the citrus growing industry of Southern
California. The majority of these items were created for the marketing and sale of oranges
and lemons, including advertisements, recipe booklets, signs and sales guides for vendors,
posters, and magazines. Audio and visual materials include sheet music, vinyl records, DVDs,
and a large collection of photographs. Photographs of note include rare unstaged images of
laborers of Asian and Mexican descent. A small number of business documents include
timesheets, receipts, and some correspondence. Artifacts in the collection range from
souvenirs such as perfume, candy in novelty orange crates, kitchenware, and jewelry, to
items used in the production and packing of oranges, including a Sunkist orange crate, brass
crate printing die, an employee identification badge, and smudge pot.
Organization and Arrangement
This collection has been arranged into the following series and subseries:
- Series 1: Marketing Materials, 1882-1984 and undated
- Subseries 1.1: National Orange Shows, 1893-1981 and undated
- Subseries 1.2: Vendor Materials, 1925-1981 and undated
- Series 2: Audio/Visual Materials, 1893-2010 and undated
- Series 3: Business Documents, 1907-1953
- Series 4: Artifacts, 1911-1966 and undated
- Series 5: Research and Exhibit Materials, 1886-2016 and undated
Materials have been organized alphabetically by type, and chronologically within each
type.
Items Removed from the Collection
Books were removed from the collection and catalogued separately, and shelved in Special
Collections.
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
library’s online public access catalog.
Subject Terms
Advertising
California, Southern -- History
Citrus crate labels -- California
Citrus fruit industry
Citrus fruits -- Marketing
Health education
Labor--California--History
Los Angeles (Calif.) -- History
National Orange Show
Orange County (Calif.) -- History
Orange box labels -- California
Packing House
Postcards--America
San Bernardino County (Calif.)
Tourism California
Genre and Form of Materials
Artifacts
Pamphlets
Photographic postcards
Poster stamps
Posters