Laboring Landscapes of Citrus in 3D

Created by Arnold Martin
Images Curated by the Citrus Power Crew

Stereoviewer at Varietal Grove

Installation shot of a Sweet & Sour: Laboring Landscapes of Citrus stereoviewer, A 3D glimpse of the people who put citrus onto the map of California and into homes around the globe.

Artwork by Arnold Martin; Photo by Sharon Sekhon.

Created by artist Arnold Martin and curated by the UCR Public History Program, the two larger-than-life-sized viewers are loaded with images from the past that help populate and add another perspective to the view before you, of the groves. They offer a 3D glimpse of the people who put citrus onto the map of California and into homes around the globe.

Laboring Landscapes of Citrus in 3D is presented in conjunction with Migrating the Museum, an installation of four stereoviewers on the pedestrian mall in downtown Riverside (3824 Main Street) that draws upon the archives of UCR’s California Museum of Photography.

Laboring Landscapes of Citrus in 3D is on view along the trails at the California Citrus State Historic Park.

Man looking through Stereoviewer

A visitor peers into a Sweet & Sour: Laboring Landscapes of Citrus stereoviewer, A 3D glimpse of the people who put citrus onto the map of California and into homes around the globe. Artwork by Arnold Martin; Riverside, May 6, 2017.

 

Photo by Kate Alexandrite.
Woman looking through Stereoviewer

A visitor peers into a Sweet & Sour: Laboring Landscapes of Citrus stereoviewer

Photo by Kate Alexandrite.

Viewer 1

To gaze upon the groves with an eye to the past reveals the people who built the fledgling city of Riverside. Entire families and multiracial crews labored here, some housed in segregated camps nearby.

Japanese picking crews for Arlington Heights Fruit Co.

Japanese picking crews for Arlington Heights Fruit Co., 1910s.

Collection of the Riverside Public Library.
Independence leader Dosan Ahn Chang Ho

Independence leader Dosan Ahn Chang Ho organized pickers and established the nation’s first organized Koreatown in Riverside, c. 1905.

Courtesy Special Collections, Rivera Library, University of California, Riverside.
Furrow irrigation

Local zanjeros still tend the irrigation canals constructed by Chinese and Native Americans in the 1870s and 1880s. Furrow irrigation (employed in this image) was likely derived from Chinese methods, 1909.

David Boulé California Orange Collection.
Fumigating the groves

Grove owners used fumigation tents, sulfuric acid, and cyanide to reduce pests—here with children in tow, c. 1910.

Collection of California Historical Society.
Smudge pots at night

Men and boys lit smudge pots overnight to prevent citrus freezes, blanketing the region in oily soot, 1937.

Courtesy Special Collections, Rivera Library, University of California, Riverside.

Viewer II

The citrus industry shaped the region’s landscape and people’s imaginations. While Anglo marketers promoted a citrus utopia to generate tourism and global trade, immigrants and women often labored behind the fantasy.

Postcard

Postcards glamorized citrus country and marketed California’s golden fruit, 1915.

Private Collection
Citrus cart in Sutherland

The architecture of Sutherland Fruit Co. beckoned tourists to watch packers and order shipments of Blue Banner oranges to commemorate their visit, 1902. Today, the building for Sutherland Fruit Co. still stands on Mission Inn Avenue and Vine Street, Riverside.

Courtesy Special Collections, Rivera Library, University of California, Riverside.
Chinese laborers at F. B. Devine packinghouse in 1880s

Chinese laborers at F. B. Devine packinghouse in 1880s, before exclusionary laws limited their immigration to the U.S.

Courtesy Special Collections, Rivera Library, University of California, Riverside.
Women in the packinghouse

Women’s careful handwork operated in tandem with industrial machinery and the assembly-line orchestration of labor in the packinghouse, 1939.

Collection of Los Angeles Public Library.
Latina workers in the packinghouse

Since WWII, Latinas have performed the majority of packinghouse labor. Pictured: Lupe Vasquez, Margaret Rodriguez, and Elsie Frogge of Riverside, c. 1940s.

Collection of Riverside Metropolitan Museum.

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