Lemon Men's Club Collection, 1880-1992, bulk 1890-1960

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Summary

Creators:
Lemon Men's Club.
Abstract:
This collection contains photographs, documents, and ephemera related to the history of the citrus industry primarily in Southern California from the late 1890s to the early 1960s. The materials were chiefly collected by members of the Lemon Men's Club.
Extent:
approximately 880 photographs in 7 boxes + 16 boxes of printed materials and records
Language:
English.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains photographs, documents, and ephemera related to the history of the citrus industry, chiefly in Southern California. The materials were donated at the request of the Lemon Men's Club for "historical documents covering the California-Arizona citrus industry." A letter to the Huntington Library from H. W. Nixon, chairman of the Lemon Men's Club Citrus Historical Committee, references their cooperative project to collect citrus historical materials beginning in 1958 (see Box 18, Folder 12).

The 880 photographs in the collection include loose prints, some film negatives, and albums with photographs of citrus orchards, citrus fruit (lemons and oranges), workers in the field, packing houses, and citrus fairs, chiefly in Southern California. Several companies show up in the photographs including the California Fruit Growers Exchange, San Dimas Lemon Association, Santa Barbara Lemon Growers Exchange, and the Covina Citrus Association.

The papers, publications, and ephemera date chiefly from the 1890s to the 1950s and include scrapbooks, ledgers, reports, minutes, pamphlets, clippings, promotional materials, and ephemera. These documents relate to a variety of Southern California fruit exchanges and growers and include materials related to the development of the industry including financial ledgers, by-laws and constitutions, minute books, annual reports, circulars and miscellaneous correspondence and financial statements of individual organizations. There are also pamphlets and technical reports related to citrus production, citrus culture, cost analysis, packaging, pest control, and advertising and marketing. Many of the technical documents in the collection were produced by the University of California College of Agriculture Agricultural Experiment Station, Berkeley, California, and the United States Department of Agriculture. There are also typescript oral histories from the late 1920s (Box 17, Folder 4).

Within the collection there are papers and photographs related to Frederick Arthur Little, a citrus grower who helped organize the first Fruit Exchanges, as well as a scrapbook of T. H. Powell, a Sunkist sales manager.

Biographical / historical:

The Lemon Men's Club, based in Los Angeles, California, was started in 1904 as a service, education, and advocacy organization for the lemon industry in Southern California, including lemon associations, shipping houses and growers.

Frederick Arthur Little (1868-1965) was a leader in the California citrus industry. Born in England, Little moved to Canada and then Ontario, California, in the 1880s, where he started a lemon grove. In 1896, Little moved to Santa Barbara and helped organize the Santa Barbara Fruit Exchange before returning to Ontario in 1898, where he organized the Ontario Fruit Exchange. He later worked as packing house superintendent for the Arlington Heights Fruit Company in Riverside County and managed the Arlington Heights Fruit Exchange. Little was an active collector of materials related to the history of the citrus industry.

Acquisition information:
Received from various sources including gifts of J. L. Powell, August 1958; Mr. and Mrs. Herman W. Nixon, 1959, June 1967, and 1970; San Dimas Lemon Association and A. L. Stevens, September 1959; Mr. and Mrs. Leslie A. Warren, September 1959; Verne Jobe, December 1959; Lemon Men's Club, ca. 1963; Kathleen Blandin, April 1964; and Winifred Little, September 1984. Some of the photographs were the gift of C. A. Lyon; Dawson's Bookshop (Items 45-54); Anita S. Maes; and Jane Chandler.
Arrangement:

Arranged in 23 boxes in the following order:

  • Photographs (Boxes 1-7)
    • Box 1: Items 1-71 (Loose prints: Orange pickers, packing houses, citrus fairs and auctions)
    • Box 2: Items 72-109 (Loose prints: Sierra Madre-Lamanda Citrus Association, San Dimas Lemon Association, Covina Citrus Association)
    • Box 3: Items 110-199 (Loose prints: Various citrus associations; various views)
    • Box 4: Volumes 1-4 (Lemon Handling; Various packing house; Pacific Fruit Express Co.; Santiago Fruit Growers Exchange)
    • Box 5: Volumes 5-6 (North Whittier Heights, Puente, California; Construction of the California Fruit Growers Exchange building)
    • Box 6: Volume 7 (F.A. Little Ranch, Riverside, Ca., various views, studies in pomology)
    • Box 7: Volume 7 Addenda (Loose prints and negatives: F.A. Little ranch and assorted views)
    • Oversize items: Loose prints: Sierra Madre-Lamanda Citrus Association and Covina Citrus Association (photOV 10750-10758)
  • Papers, publications, and ephemera (Boxes 8-23)
    • Box 8: Southern California Fruit Exchange Circulars, 1894-1897 [2 bound scrapbooks]
    • Box 9: Lectures, publications, and bound volumes, 1893-1957
    • Box 10: California Fruit Growers Exchange scrapbook; Paul S. Armstrong, "The Way Sunkist Began"; Thomas Crawford Inc. record book, 1916-1918
    • Box 11: California Fruit Growers Exchange, 1904-1932. Statistics. Ledger book.
    • Box 12: Lamanda Orange and Lemon Association; Redlands Orange Growers Association
    • Box 13: Orange County, California. Valencia and Lemon Production Cost Studies, 1926-1952
    • Box 14: Arlington Heights Fruit Company, Riverside, California
    • Box 15: California Citrus Companies and Exchanges
    • Box 16: Pasadena Orange Growers Association; Sierra Madre-Lamanda Citrus Association
    • Box 17: California Fruit Growers Exchange; Southern California Fruit Exchange etc.
    • Box 18: California Citrus Growers and Industry – Miscellaneous Materials
    • Boxes 19-21: Publications & Reports
    • Box 22: Oversized Materials: Scrapbooks & Bound Volumes
    • Box 23: Oversized Materials: Miscellaneous ephemera

Rules or conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2129
reference@huntington.org
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