Unloading Bananas from Steamer, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1900-1910

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 Central American plantations to ships bound for U.S. ports in the Gulf of Mexico. This photograph shows dockworkers in New Orleans, Louisiana, transferring bunches of bananas -- each weighing around 86 pounds -- to a refrigerated railcar for transport to market.

Artifact Details

Artifact

Photographic print

Date Made

1908

Subject Date

1900-1910

Creator Notes

Photographed by Lycurgus S. Glover. Published by Detroit Publishing Co., Detroit, Michigan.

Location

By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center

Object ID

37.102.P.070566

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