The “I Grow These Myself in California” Brand is one of the most sought labels in the field of collecting fruit box labels. It is a label that crosses over to other collecting fields as a piece of Americana and as one that exemplifies the California dream. It is also a very rare label, making it difficult to acquire.
The I Grow These Myself in California brand is commonly referred to as the Uncle Sam brand label. It was first produced in the 1890s and continued to be used into the early 20th century. When it was introduced, the message of the label was clearly to induce people from the east coast to come west to California. If you were willing to pull up stakes and move to California you, too, could have a chance to own an orange orchard in the golden state of “health and wealth”. At around the time this label was first used, a special deal was promoted by the railroad companies where one could buy a one-way train ticket from any destination to California. Why not start a new life as an orange grower!
Adding to the desirability of the I Grow These Myself in California brand is the gorgeous use of color though the stone lithography printing process, a process that was replaced by new technologies in the 1920s. It was printed by the top lithography company in the United States at the time, the Calvert Litho Co. out of Detroit, Michigan
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