SANTA PAULA, CA – A Taste of History: The Story of Citrus Labels exhibit will open at the Santa Paula Art Museum on Saturday, July 16th with an opening reception from 4-6 p.m. Wine and hord d’oeuvres will be served. Members $15, Non Members $20. For an invitation or reservation information contact the Museum at 805-525-5554 or email info@santapaulaartmuseum.org.

A History of Citrus Labels is co-curated by Santa Paula and Ojai farmer, Mike Shore and Museum Director/Curator, Jennifer Heighton. “After all, Santa Paula is the Citrus Capital of the World”, said Shore. “The label exhibit ties into our Community so well”. “And it ties into the wonderful Art Museum building, said Heighton. ”The Santa Paula Art Museum is housed in the original headquarters of the Limoneira Company, who just happens to be the largest grower of lemons in California.” This informative exhibit is set to show the evolution of labels along with equipment used in the labeling process.

Citrus box labels began to be used to identify the brand name and packing house location of boxes of fresh fruit in Southern California in the late 1880s. These labels replaced the earlier methods of identifying shipments of citrus fruit; stenciling, stamping or burning the brand information on wooden-crate ends or the tops of wooden barrels.

Labels were used on wooden boxes until the mid-1950’s when the wooden boxes were replaced by cardboard boxes with preprinted labels on the box ends. The termination of the use of the wooden boxes left large quantities of unused labels in citrus packinghouses. These labels were gradually gathered up by collectors, some of which will be featured in this exhibit.

The exhibit will run until October 30th, and may be viewed during regular Museum hours: Wednesday – Saturday, 10 AM – 4 PM, and Sundays, 12 PM – 4 PM. The Museum is located at 117 North 10th Street, Santa Paula, CA 93060.