Apple Box Attractions, Part 2

The art on the ends of apple boxes sold the

red and gold harvests from the early 1900s

until they were phased out when the

hand-assembled wooden apple boxes were

replaced by the more practical and economical

cardboard carton.  By the mid-1960s, the

paper labels had been all but forgotten.

Marie Waverak of East Wenatchee has been

collecting, selling and trading the labels for

several years.  “I saw how beautiful there were,

and then I found out there was money to be

made in collecting them,” she says.

The combination was a delicious a prospect as

a crisp red apple fresh from the tree.

The labels Waverak collects and those available

in antique stores, never made it to the end of an

apple box.  They were leftovers, stored by thrifty

farmers raised in an era of “waste not, want not.”

“Suppose a farmer had a shipment of 7,000 boxes

but only 2,000 labels. He’d have to have a new set

of labels made.”  Waverak says.  And, she adds,

he saved the leftover labels just in case they

could be used the next season.

As a collector, she’s searched old barns and

storehouses for the forgotten labels.  But Waverak

also searches through nursing homes and

convalescent centers for old growers who could

tell her more about the labels she had found.

Part 2