Unloading Bananas, Mobile, Alabama, 1895-1910

01

Artifact Overview

Bananas arrived on grocery store shelves via a transportation system controlled by competing fruit companies and their government allies. Refrigerated railcars moved the crop from plantations in Central America to ports in the Gulf of Mexico. Steam vessels, supplemented with sails, transported bananas across the Gulf to U.S. ports. This photograph shows dockworkers in Mobile, Alabama, unloading the precious cargo.

Artifact Details

Artifact

Photographic print

Date Made

1901

Subject Date

1895-1910

Location

By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center

Object ID

37.102.P.013514

Credit

From the Collections of The Henry Ford.

Material

Paper (Fiber product)

Technique

Gelatin silver process

Color

Sepia (Color)

Dimensions

Height: 7 in
Width: 9.25 in

Unloading Bananas, Mobile, Alabama, 1895-1910