Autumn Pumpkins

by Anita Mae Draper

With pumpkin being a quintessential component of autumn displays and holiday meals in our modern world, I searched out pumpkin images from the 19th and early 20th century to see if history felt the same. This 1892 cover of Harper's Bazar (note the spelling) shows a woman cutting up a large pumpkin-like squash that we can guess will be used for pumpkin pie, pudding, and other baking. According to The Fire Lands Pioneer, Norwalk, Ohio, 1862, pumpkins were also boiled down to a syrup and used as a sweetener.

Harper's Bazar Thanksgiving, 1892. Library of Congress, Public Domain

For contrast, look at the similarity in this 1939 photograph where a man working in a Texas bakery is cutting up the same type of pumpkin. The genders are different, but the pose of their hands are almost identical. 

Cutting up pumpkin for pies. Bakery, San Angelo, Texas, Nov 1939. Library of Congress, Public Domain

Pumpkin size, shape and color varies depending on their use and were grown at local farms across North America, or sent to processing plants to be canned, as they are today. 

Miscellaneous products, Edmonton, Alberta, 1921. Glenbow Archives, Public Domain

Trethewey Farm in Toronto was a 600 acre Model Farm with greenhouses and canning facilities that produced products from field to market. This next Wikipedia image from the Toronto Public Library shows a girl carrying a pumpkin from Trethewey Farm, yet doesn't explain if she's a worker or happy buyer.

Girl with pumpkin from Tretheway Farm, Toronto, Canada, 1909. Source: Toronto Public Library/Wikipedia (Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license)

This glass lantern slide from the McCord Museum shows that the frost has decimated the pumpkin leaves and stems leaving a black, prickly mess, but this young lad doesn't mind as it only makes the pumpkins sweeter and hastens their ripening process.

Boy with pumpkin, about 1925, McCord Museum, Montreal

The fertile Yakima Valley in Washington state has long shown the abundance of its fruit and vegetable crops including pumpkins that required 2 men to carry from field to wagon in this 1904 stereograph.

Gathering in the pumpkins in the Yakima Valley, Washington, c1904. Library of Congress Public Domain

Many local fall fairs still have categories to see who can grow the largest vegetables including pumpkins and squash. 

William Warnock and Daughters with Giant Squash, Iron Bridge, circa 1930. Huron Shores Museum Public Domain

Pumpkins are abundant and never wasted. The ones that aren't attractive enough for home cooks and autumn displays, or shipped off for processing, are left in the fields for cattle fodder, or stored away for winter feed where they provide protein and energy to cattle, goats, and livestock. 

With the Canadian Thanksgiving held on the 2nd Monday in October, I'll leave you with this happy greeting...

Hearty Thanksgiving Greeting, 1910. Public Domain

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Anita Mae Draper lives on the Canadian prairies where she uses her experience and love of history to enhance her stories of yesteryear's romance with realism and faith. Readers can enrich their story experience with visual references by checking Anita's Pinterest boards. All links available on her website at www.anitamaedraper.com