Open Archive
Free to browse, free to cite. The collection exists to be looked at, taught from, and shared.
About The Museum
Preserving Art & History, Est. 2007
Vintage Fruit Labels began in 2007 as a private collection and has grown into a volunteer-driven museum dedicated to crate labels — the lithographed paper art that once dressed every box of fruit shipped from orchard to grocer.
What We Collect
Apple, citrus, peach, pear, grape, and grapefruit labels printed between roughly 1900 and 1965. We focus on the artwork itself: the printer's mark, the regional iconography, and the brand voice that packing houses commissioned from working illustrators.
Every piece is photographed, catalogued by region and decade, and accompanied by what we know about its grower and printer. Where the record is thin, we say so plainly.
How We Work
A Volunteer Project
Honest Provenance
Origin, decade, and printer are listed where known. Uncertain pieces are flagged, not embellished.
Contributor Driven
Collectors, historians, and orchard families send labels, scans, and stories. Each addition is credited.
Acknowledgements
With Thanks
Special thanks to CrateArt.com for generously providing web space, design, and programming support, and to every collector who has lent a label to the archive.