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Sunday 23 January 2011

Canned - Sepia Saturday

“…a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream.”

This is how John Steinbeck described Cannery Row in Monterey, in California in the opening sentence of his book. Doc, the marine biologist, in Cannery Row was based on Steinbeck’s friend Ed Ricketts.

Ricketts had a laboratory and store at 800 Cannery Row in the period 1928-1948


 (By Lord Harris – GNU Free Documentation License V1.2+

As I had no hat connection to Alan’s post I spent some time in the US government archives and discovered this cannery shot.

 Noon hour at an Indianapolis cannery (1908)

You’ll notice there’s a lot of young faces here. Apparently the photo was part of a series dealing with child labour.

I then discovered a photo of native girls in Hawaii packing pineapples into cans in an exhibition on the history of work in America.

 (By Edgeworth, for Katakura & Company, Nov 20 1928.
Records of the Women’s Bureau, National Archives)

Then I remembered something much closer to home. Scarborough, North Yorkshire was once the tuna fishing capital of the UK. Tuna fishing began in 1929 the climax being reached in 1933 when a gentleman named Mitchell-Henry caught a fish that is still the UK record weighing 851lbs off Whitby.

 (Scarborough tuna)

7 comments:

Christine H. said...

Wow, those are some huge tuna!. Great photos and history.

North County Film Club said...

Cannery Row is one of my favorite books.
Cannery Row is still there but now it's pretty much a tourist attraction. Fun to visit, though, especially if you're a Steinbeck fan.

Alan Burnett said...

Bob, I love the way you take the starting image and go on a fascinating excursion. My post was not intended as a theme : but you have got me thinking.

Bob Scotney said...

Alan, as I'm short of sepia photos I usually use your post as a prompt to find connections that interest me, and hopefully others.
I really envious of the family stories other 'sepia-ites' put up.

Bruno Laliberté said...

looking at those tunas, i figure that's a lot of cans... gotta go get me some now!!
:D~
HUGZ

Anonymous said...

You know Bob I've visited Scarborough many times but I never knew that it had a history of tuna fishing.
Interesting pictures...thanks for sharing them.

Bob Scotney said...

Paul, I believe there is a fish and chip cafe in Scarborough called The Tunny. Te premises were once the home of the tuna fishing club of Great Britain.