Dole | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

January 13, 2026 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Ginaca

‘Pineapple’ was given its English name because of its resemblance to a pine cone. It was first recorded in the Islands in 1813 by Don Francisco de Paula Marin, a Spanish adviser to King Kamehameha I.

Although sugar dominated the Hawaiian economy, there was also great demand at the time for fresh Hawaiian pineapples in San Francisco; then, canned pineapple.

The pineapple canning industry began in Baltimore in the mid-1860s and used fruit imported from the Caribbean. (Bartholomew)

Commercial pineapple production (which started about 1890 with hand peeling and cutting operations) soon developed a procedure based on classifying the fruit into a number of grades by diameter centering the pineapple on the core axis and cutting fruit cylinders to provide slices to fit the No. 1, 2 and 2-1/2 can sizes. (ASME)

Up to about 1913, various types of hand operated sizing and coring machines were used to perform this operation. The ends of the pineapple were first cut off by hand. The pineapple was then centered on the core and sized.

Production rates were about 10 to 15 pineapples per minute. A large amount of labor was required, and it was not practical to recover the available juice material from the skins. (ASME)

The first profitable lot of canned pineapples was produced by Dole’s Hawaiian Pineapple Company in 1903 and the industry grew rapidly from there. (Bartholomew) In 1907 Hawaiian Pineapple Company opened it cannery in Iwilei.

About 1911, Henry Gabriel Ginaca of the Honolulu Iron Works Company, Honolulu, was engaged by Mr James Dole, founder of Hawaiian Pineapple Company, to develop the machine which made the Hawaiian pineapple industry possible and which bears his name today. (ASME)

The early Ginaca had a production capacity of about 50 pineapples per minute and required from three to five operators depending on how much inspection of the machine product was performed at the machine.

The increase in production from 15 to 50 pineapples per minute was enough to reduce the cannery size to economical proportions and made possible the design of efficient preparation lines. Once the new preparation and handling systems were proven the industry grew rapidly.

The term “Ginaca” is now generally applied to a variety of machines which are designed to automatically center the pineapple on the core, cut out a fruit cylinder, eradicate the crushed and juice material from the outer skin, cut off the ends and remove the central fibrous core.

The cored cylinder leaving the Ginaca machine is then passed to a preparation line where each fruit is treated individually to remove cylinder defects or adhering bits of skin. (ASME)

After a number of years of constantly increasing production, a new high-speed machine was designed at the Hawaiian Pineapple Company capable of preparing from 90 to 100 pineapples per minute depending on fruit size.

The Ginaca machine made canning pineapple economically possible. As a result, until the “jet age” Hawaii had an agricultural economy and pineapple was the second largest crop (behind sugar.)

Henry Ginaca was born May 19, 1876. The records are not clear whether he was born in California or in Winnemucca, Nevada, where his father had worked as a civil engineer. His father was Italian, his mother French.

While a teenager, he became an apprentice at the old Union Iron Works in San Francisco. He also took a course in mathematics to enable him to become a mechanical draftsman.

He was hired by the Honolulu Iron Works and came to Honolulu, apparently to work on engine designs. Dole later hired Ginaca to work specifically on a mechanical fruit peeling and coring machine.

He joined Hawaiian Pineapple Co in March, 1911, at a salary of $300 per month, a substantial wage in those days. Ginaca was 35 years old.

In the first year of Ginaca’s employment he came up with the initial design for his machine. From then until 1914 he added improvements and refinements to it.

Though many “bugs” had to be worked out, Ginaca’s machine was a success from the beginning. The machine was awarded a gold medal at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915.

In 1914 Ginaca and his two brothers decided to return to the mainland and try their hand at mining. The mining ventures of the three brothers were failures.

For Henry Ginaca, a productive career came to an untimely end on October 19, 1918, when he died of influenza and pneumonia at the old Mother Lode mining camp of Hornitos. He was only 42. (ASME)

Dole bought the island of Lānaʻi and established a vast 200,000-acre pineapple plantation to meet the growing demands. Lānaʻi throughout the entire 20th century produced more than 75% of world’s total pineapple.

By 1930 Hawai‘i led the world in the production of canned pineapple and had the world’s largest canneries. Production and sale of canned pineapple fell sharply during the world depression that began in 1929, but rapid growth in the volume of canned juice after 1933 restored industry profitability.

But establishment of plantations and canneries in the Philippines in 1964 and in Thailand in 1972, led to a decline in Hawai‘i (mainly because foreign-based canneries had labor costs approximately one-tenth those in Hawai‘i.) As the Hawaii canneries closed, the industry gradually shifted to the production of fresh pineapples. (Bartholomew)

In 1991, the Dole Cannery closed. Today, Dole Food Company, headquartered on the continent, is a well-established name in the field of growing and packaging food products such as pineapples, bananas, strawberries, grapes and many others.

The Dole Plantation tourist attraction, established in 1950 as a small fruit stand but greatly expanded in 1989 serves as a living museum and historical archive of Dole and pineapple in Hawai‘i.

November 3, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Molokai

It used to be referred to as ʻĀina Momona (the bountiful land,) reflecting the great productivity of the island and its surrounding ocean.

It is about 38-miles long and 10-miles wide, an area of 260-square miles, making it the 5th largest of the main Hawaiian Islands (and the 27th largest island in the US.)

The island was formed by two volcanoes, East and West, emerging about 1.5-2-million years ago. The cliffs on the north-eastern part of the island are the result of subsidence and the “Wailua Slump” (a giant submarine landslide – about 25-miles long that tumbled about 120-miles offshore – about 1.4-million years ago.)

In separate volcanic activity about 300,000-years ago, Kalaupapa Peninsula was formed. Penguin Bank, to the west of the island, is believed to be a separate volcano that was once above the water, but submerged within the last 100,000-years.

Molokai is divided into two moku (districts,) Koʻolau on the windward side and Kona on the leeward side. (These are common district names that are universally used across of the Hawaiian archipelago (“Koʻolau,” marking the windward sides of the islands, and “Kona,” the leeward sides of the islands.))

Archaeological evidence suggests that Molokai’s East end was traditionally the home of the majority of early Hawaiians; large clusters of Hawaiians were living along the shore, on the lower slopes and in the larger valleys. Productive, well-kept fishponds were strung along the southern shoreline.

The water supply was ample; ʻauwai (irrigation ditches), taro loʻi (ponded terraces) and habitation sites were found in every wet valley. ʻUala (sweet potato) and wauke (paper mulberry) were cultivated in the mauka areas between long shallow stone terraces which swept across the lower kula slopes.

The windward valleys developed into areas of intensive irrigated taro cultivation and seasonal migrations took place to stock up on fish and precious salt for the rest of the year.

The drier coastal regions of the West end were sparsely populated on a year-round basis, although they were frequently visited for extended periods of fishing during the summer months. (Papohaku on the west shore is the longest stretch of white sand beach in Hawaiʻi (3-miles long and 300-feet wide.))

East end’s Pukoʻo had a natural break in the reef, good landing areas for canoes and nearby fishponds built out over the fringe reef. Archaeological evidence suggests it was a heavily populated area; it was also destined to become the first town in the western tradition on the island of Molokai.

When the American Protestant missionaries arrived on Molokai in 1832, they settled at nearby Kaluaʻaha. The first church was made of thatch (1833,) a school soon followed. By 1844, a stone church was built.

It was not long before a small community was forming around the church buildings. It became the social center of the entire island, with people coming from as far away as the windward valleys, over the pali and by canoe, just to attend church sermons on Sunday and socialize.

In the 1850s, Catholic priests began to visit the island; during the 1870s, Father Damien, who had come to Molokai to serve the patients at Kalawao, traveled top-side to gather congregations of Catholics. He built four Catholic churches on the East End of Molokai, at Kamaloʻo, Kaluaʻaha, Halawa and Kumimi.

In later years they built a wharf at Pukoʻo – it became the center of activity for the island and the first County seat. However, with economic opportunities forming on the central and west sides of the Island, Pukoʻo soon lost its appeal (there is no commercial activity there, today.)

Like Pukoʻo, Kaunakakai had a natural opening in the reef. In 1859, Kamehameha IV established a sheep ranch (Molokai Ranch) and built his home, Malama, there. “It is a grass hut, skillfully thatched, having a lanai all around, with floors covered with real Hawaiian mats. The house has two big rooms. The parlor is well furnished, with glass cases containing books in the English language.”

“On the north west side of the house is a large grass house, and it seems to be the largest one seen to this time. The house is divided into rooms and appears to be a place in which to receive the king’s guests.” (SFCA)

Rudolph Wilhelm became manager of Molokai Ranch for Kamehameha V in 1864. However, Kamehameha V was probably best known on Molokai for the establishment of the Leprosy Settlement on the isolated peninsula of Kalaupapa in 1865.

Meyer started to grow sugar shortly thereafter (1876.) By 1882, there were three small sugar plantations on Molokai: Meyer’s at Kalaʻe, one at Kamaloʻo and another at Moanui.

Meyer also served as the Superintendent of the isolated Kalawao settlement (Kalaupapa) (serving with Father Damien and Mother Marianne Cope (now, both are Saints.))

Kaunakakai Harbor was an important transportation link and key to these various activities. After 1866, it became vital to bringing in supplies for the Kalaupapa Settlement. Goods, personnel and visitors were landed at Kaunakakai then transported by mule down the pali trail.

During the 1880s, sugar and molasses from the Meyer sugar mill were loaded onto carts and taken to the harbor where they were transferred into small boats. These boats came up to the sand beach and take the sugar and molasses to larger ships anchored in the harbor. By 1889 a small wharf had been built at Kaunakakai.

After Molokai Ranch was sold to the American Sugar Company in 1897 a new, more substantial stone mole with a wooden landing platform at the makai end, was put up next to the old wharf to service their expected sugar shipments.

Finally in 1909, a political division of the island was made incorporating Molokai into Maui County and excluding the State Health Department administered area of the Kalaupapa Settlement. This district became known as Kalawao County.

During the 1920s Kaunakakai first began to develop as the main business center of the island. Several stores were built along either side of Ala Malama Street indicating the sense of prosperity of the times. This activity continued well into the 1930s, a period that corresponded to the largest increase in population on Molokai.

At that time and into the early-1930s, Kaunakakai gradually became the main hub of activity, partially due to its central location and increased population. It was here that a larger, improved wharf had been developed for the pineapple plantations and for the shipment of cattle.

Another major change occurred when the Government passed the Hawaiian Homes Act in 1921. Seventy-nine Hawaiian homesteading families moved to Kalamaʻula in 1922 and in 1924 the Hoʻolehua and Palaʻau areas were opened for homesteading on lands previously under lease from the government to the American Sugar Company Limited. The homestead population rose from an estimated 278 in 1924 to 1,400 by 1935.

In 1923, Libby, McNeil & Libby began to grow pineapple on land leased from Molokai Ranch; their activities were focused primarily in the Kaluakoʻi section of the island. Lacking facilities and housing, the plantation began building clusters of dwellings (“camps”) around Maunaloa. By 1927, it started to grow into a small town – as pineapple production grew, so did the town.

In 1927, California Packing Corporation, later known as Del Monte Corporation, leased lands of Naʻiwa and Kahanui owned by Molokai Ranch to establish a pineapple plantation with headquarters in the town of Kualapuʻu. The town takes its name from kaʻuala puʻu, or the sweet potato hill, the hill to the south where sweet potatoes were grown on its slopes.

The town was first created when Molokai Ranch (American Sugar Company) moved their ranch headquarters from Kaunakakai to Kualapuʻu after the demise of their sugar enterprise.

After the Hoʻolehua homesteads were opened up by Hawaiian Homes Commission in 1924, the ranch headquarters began to take on the character of a real town. However the real change came with the arrival of California Packing Corporation in Kualapuʻu to grow pineapple for shipment to the Oʻahu cannery.

In 1968, there were 16,800 acres of pineapple under cultivation on Molokai. The Libby plantation was sold to the Dole Pineapple Corporation in 1970, which very soon closed down the plantation when they determined it was no longer a profitable venture. After fifty-five years of operation, Del Monte began a phased shut down operation in 1982 which terminated in 1989.

Maunaloa and Kualapuʻu were towns created expressly for agriculture. Kaunakakai came into its own due to its harbor, central location, and the shift of population from the east end of the island. It gradually became the administrative and business center of Molokai, much as Pukoʻo had been many years before.

The image shows an 1897 map of Molokai. (Lots of information here is from Curtis.)

October 23, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pineapple In Hawai‘i

Christopher Columbus brought pineapple, native of South America, back to Europe as one of the exotic prizes of the New World. (‘Pineapple’ was given its English name because of its resemblance to a pine cone.)

Pineapple (“halakahiki,” or foreign hala,) long seen as Hawaiʻi’s signature fruit, was introduced to the Kingdom of Hawai‘i in 1813 by Don Francisco de Paula Marin, a Spanish adviser to King Kamehameha I.

Credit for the commercial production of pineapples goes to the John Kidwell, an English Captain who started with planting 4-5 acres in Mānoa.

Although sugar dominated the Hawaiian economy, there was also great demand at the time for fresh Hawaiian pineapples in San Francisco.

After Kidwell’s initial planting, others soon realized the potential of growing pineapples in Hawaii and consequently, started their own pineapple plantations.

Here is some brief background information on four of Hawai‘i’s larger pineapple producers, Dole, Libby, Del Monte and Maui Land & Pineapple.

Ultimately, as part of an economic survival plan, pineapple producers ended up in cooperative marketing programs and marketed the idea of Hawaiian products, as in “Don’t ask for pineapples alone. Insist on Hawaiian Pineapple!”

Dole Pineapple Plantation (Hawaiian Pineapple Company)

James Dole, an American industrialist, also famously called the Pineapple King, purchased 60 acres of land in the central plains of Oahu Island and started the Hawaiian Pineapple Company in 1901.

In the year 1907, Dole started successful ad campaigns that introduced whole of America to canned pineapples from Hawaii.

In 1911, at the direction of Dole, Henry Ginaca invented a machine that could automatically peel and core pineapples (instead of the usual hand cutting,) making canned pineapple much easier to produce.

The demand for canned pineapples grew exponentially in the US and in 1922, a revolutionary period in the history of Hawaiian pineapple; Dole bought most of the island of Lāna‘i and established a vast 200,000-acre pineapple plantation to meet the growing demands.

Lanai throughout the entire 20th century produced more than 75% of world’s total pineapple. More land on the island of Maui was purchased by Dole.

The Dole Plantation tourist attraction, established in 1950 as a small fruit stand but greatly expanded in 1989 serves as a living museum and historical archive of Dole and pineapple in Hawai‘i.

Libby, McNeil & Libby (Libby’s)

Libby’s, one of the world’s leading producers of canned foods, was created in 1868 when Archibald McNeill and brothers Arthur and Charles Libby began selling beef packed in brine.

In the early 1900s it established a pineapple canning subsidiary in Hawaiʻi and began to advertise its canned produce using the ‘Libby’s’ brand name.

By 1911, Libby, McNeill & Libby gained control of land in Kāne‘ohe and built the first large-scale cannery at Kahalu‘u. This sizable cannery, together with the surrounding old style plantation-type housing units, became known as “Libbyville.”

The Kāne‘ohe facility ultimately failed; some suggest it was because Libby built it on and destroyed the Kukuiokane Heiau in Luluku.

In 1912 Libby, McNeill and Libby bought half of the stock of Hawaiian Cannery Co. By the 1930s, more that 12 million cases of pineapple were being produced in Hawaii every year; Libby accounted for 23 percent.

Del Monte Plantation

Del Monte another major food producing and packaging company of America started its pineapple plantation with the purchase of the Hawaiian Preservation Company in 1917. The company progressed and increased its plantation areas during 1940s.

In 1997, the company introduced its MD-2 variety, popularly known as Gold Extra Sweet pineapple, to the market. The variety, though produced in Costa Rica, was the result of extensive research done by the now dissolved Pineapple Research Institute, in Hawaii. In 2008, Del Monte stopped its pineapple plantation operations in Hawaii.

Maui Land & Pineapple Company

The family of Dwight Baldwin, a missionary physician, created the evolving land and agricultural company. It first started as Haiku Fruit & Packing Company in 1903 and Keahua Ranch Company in 1909, then Baldwin Packers in 1912.

In 1932, it was renamed Maui Pineapple Company, which later merged with Baldwin Packers in 1962. In 1969, Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc. (ML&P) was created and went public.

In 2005, the company introduced its now famous “Maui Gold” variety, which is naturally sweet and has low acid content. Maui Gold pineapple is presently grown across 1,350 acres on the slopes of Haleakala.

Maui Land & Pineapple Company is now a landholding company with approximately 22,000-acres on the island of Maui on which it operates the Kapalua Resort community.

In 2009, the remnants of the 100-year old pineapple operation were transferred to Maui Gold Pineapple Company (created by former Maui Pineapple Company employees who were committed to saving the 100-year tradition of pineapple on Maui.)

While the scale of pineapple farming has dwindled, the celebration of pineapple lives on through Lāna‘i’s Pineapple Festival. Starting in 1992, the event, formerly known as the “Pineapple Jam,” honors the island’s pineapple history. (June 30, 2012 will be the 20th annual Pineapple Festival)

The image is the iconic Dole Cannery pineapple 100,000-gallon water tank. Built in 1928, it was a Honolulu landmark and reminder of pineapple’s role in Hawaiian agriculture until it was demolished in 1993. (images via: A Pineapple Heart and Burl Burlingame, Honolulu Star-Bulletin)

August 17, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Georgia O’Keeffe

“The pineapple is quite beautiful as it grows. When it is little and you look down into it as I did into the corn when I painted it – it is very handsome – and later when it is big and has not turned ripe it is a wonderful green and purple sort of color – very beautiful among its foliage …” (Georgia O’Keeffe; Saville)

James Drummond Dole founded Hawaiian Pineapple Company in 1901. Within a few years pineapple production at Wahiawa had increased that Dole planned a cannery at Iwilei, near the shipping facilities of Honolulu Harbor.

Later (1922,) Dole bought the Island of Lānaʻi and transformed it into the largest pineapple plantation in the world, with 20,000 farmed acres and a planned plantation village to house more than a thousand workers and their families.

The ad agency for Dole was looking for something special for a national magazine advertising campaign; in exchange for an all-expense-paid trip, they asked Georgia O’Keeffe to submit two paintings from Hawai‘i. She was also free to paint for herself.

The second of seven children of Wisconsin dairy farmers, Georgia Totto O’Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986) knew by age ten that she wanted to become an artist. In 1908, she won a prize for a still-life oil painting. After a short hiatus, she painted in earnest and in 1917 held her first solo show (organized by Alfred Stieglitz, her future husband.)

O’Keeffe became one of the greatest female artists of the 20th century. Best known for her still-life paintings, she painted natural settings at their most basic: large-scale flowers, bones and landscapes.

On January 30, 1939, O’Keeffe and Stieglitz headed to New York’s Grand Central Station to start the trip. Nine days later, she stepped off the Lurline, was draped with ʻilima and crown flower lei and found herself in the Islands. (Stelle)

She spent her first month in Hawai‘i on O‘ahu. After 2-weeks, she finally saw a pineapple field; it was “all sharp and silvery stretching for miles off to the beautiful irregular mountains. … I was astonished – it was so beautiful.” (O’Keeffe; Steele)

On March 10, she moved to Maui and ended up in Hāna. “This seems to be the best yet. The trip over by plane was fine – I will be off in the far away some where – but every one says is the good place. The flying was very good and I am fine – 9 in the morning on a new island seems good – Wish you could see it.” (Postcard, O’Keeffe to Stieglitz, March 10, 1939; Saville)

She was hosted by the Willis Jennings family (he was manager of the Hāna sugar plantation;) “You would laugh to see where I am now – almost at the end of the road on Maui – a little sugar plantation town – at the managers house – the only white family for 60 miles and it is different as the man in Honolulu told me it would be – The mans wife is not at home but his daughter is”. (Letter, O’Keeffe to Stieglitz, March 12, 1939; Saville)

Twelve-year-old Patricia Jennings became her companion and guide for the next ten days. “The road to Hāna was there, but not paved all the way. We always took a picnic lunch because you never knew how long it would take.” (Patricia Jennings; Tarleton)

O’Keeffe would drive the family car to favorite island sites with Patricia, then send the girl off to amuse herself while she painted. The one exception was when a sudden ‘Īao Valley shower made them retreat to the car. Patricia watched, without speaking, enthralled by the brush in her hand, the effortless glide of oil paints onto canvas. (Tarleton)

“It is hard to tell about the islands—the people have a kind of gentleness that isn’t usual on the mainland. I feel that my tempo must definitely change to put down anything of what is here—I don’t know whether I can or not—but it is certainly a different world—and I am glad I came.” (O’Keeffe to Stieglitz, March 12, 1939; Saville)

From Hāna she spent a few days in Wailuku, then, headed to Volcano on the Big Island. “We drove about hundred and 75 miles—part of it through as tropical woods as I have seen—about a third of it along the sea—then up to the top of the volcano where they left me at the (Volcano House) hotel – It was a good day” (O’Keeffe to Stieglitz, March 31, 1939; Saville)

“I didn’t care for that place. I don’t like steam coming out of the earth and holes in the road where the earth has opened up and not closed properly – and great bumps about a foot high where the pavement just rose up and didn’t go down.” (O’Keeffe to Stieglitz, March 31, 1939; Saville) She soon left the Volcano area and headed to the Kona Inn.

“I guess we did this area of the island pretty thoroughly – First we watched fishermen bringing in their net of fish in a little bay -what beautiful fish – every color and many queer shapes – very very beautiful color – the men swim and dive about – have quite a time gathering their net in.” (O’Keeffe to Stieglitz, April 3, 1939; Saville)

“All day I was driving over here (Hilo) from Kona Inn and it was a wonderful day – Warm and lovely and blue this morning – the loveliest part the Parker Ranch – quite like (New Mexico) but it is high and the lower part of the island – shore line and sea floating off in space like a map far below with no edge where it went off into the sky – sky became water and water became sky – and all so delicate and lovely – It was as beautiful as anything I’ve ever seen.” (O’Keeffe to Stieglitz, April 9, 1939; Saville)

She returned briefly to O‘ahu and sailed for California on the Matsonia on April 14. More than six months after her arrival in Hawaiʻi, O’Keeffe had produced 20-paintings, not one included a pineapple and she subsequently “submitted depictions of a papaya tree and the spiky blossom of a lobster’s claw heliconia” for the Dole ads.

Some creative ad copy featuring the heliconia noted, “Hospitable Hawaiʻi cannot send you its abundance of flowers or its sunshine. But it sends you something reminiscent of both – golden fragrant Dole Pineapple Juice”;– it ran nationally in Vogue and the Saturday Evening Post. (Yagi)

For the other ad, “(t)actful Art Director Charles Coiner,” as Time Magazine reported in 1940, “spouted to Painter O’Keeffe about the beauty of pineapples in bud, urg(ing) her to give the pineapple a break. He phoned Honolulu, had a budding plant put aboard the Clipper.”

“Thirty-six hours later the plant was delivered to the O’Keeffe studio in Manhattan. ‘It’s beautiful, I never knew that,’ exclaimed Artist O’Keeffe… She promptly painted it, and Dole got a pineapple picture after all.” (Yagi)

A year after her Hawaiʻi trip, in 1940, she bought a house at Ghost Ranch, in New Mexico. After Stieglitz died in 1946, she settled his estate and moved to New Mexico permanently. There in the wilderness and isolation she continued to paint, and she remained in New Mexico until her death at the age of 98. (Steele)

There is an interesting side note to this story; one day, I received an unrelated FB message asking about Willis Jennings (Patricia’s father.) Unrelated to that, earlier that same day, I received word that Patricia Jennings Morriss Caldwell had just passed away at the age of 87. Patricia Jennings is the mother of my HPA classmate, Lex Morriss.

Georgia_O’Keeffe_in_Hawaii,_1939

Georgia_O’Keeffe_in_Hawaii_1939

Patricia Jennings-Hana_companion and escort of Georgia OKeeffe

Waterfall — No. III — Iao Valley, 1939, by Georgia O’Keeffe

OKeeffe-Bella-Donna

O’keeffe_-_’Pineapple_Bud’,_1939

O’keeffe_-_’Papaya Tree, Iao Valley’,_1939

O’keeffe_-_Dole Pineapple Ad,_1939

Okeefe-Hibiscus

Black Lava Bridge, Hana Coast No. 1-1939, by Georgia O’Keeffe

Hana lava bridge-NYTimes

Black Lava Bridge, Hana Coast-1939, by Georgia O’Keeffe

Georgia_OKeeffe-Waterfall

Georgia Okeeffe-sign

November 10, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hawaiian Pineapple Day

“Pineapple growers in Hawaii during 1914 and 1915 are said to have sold their fruit at an average loss. Those producing this variety of fruit, and particularly those on the island of Maui, have not yet learned what price they will be offered by the canners this year, although there are indications that it will be better than during the past two years.”

“According to a grower in the Haiku district, island of Maui, there is evidence that the pack will not show the increase this year that it has in the past.”

“Many small growers on Oahu have been compelled to dispose of their holdings by practical inability to sell their fruit at all, and a considerable acreage has been allowed, for this reason, to grow up in weeds.”

“On Maui the crop will be short, both for the reason that the independent growers have not been planting heavily, on account of uncertainty as to price, and that the plantings suffered severely from incessant rains. The quality of the season’s pack also may be below the normal.”

“In order to stimulate planting the canning companies are advancing money to homesteaders and others. This has not been reported for several years. It is done on Oahu, and on Maui the Haiku Fruit & Packing Co. is also helping to finance small growers.”

“A homesteader in the Kuiaha tract has undertaken to plant 50 acres, and has been allowed an advance of $100 per acre for the property. Everything to interest planting has been done. However, the output for the Maui pack for the next two or three years is estimated to be smaller than in the past.”

“The price paid the growers on Maui last season was $11.25 per ton for first-class fruit, which low rate accounts for the indifference of growers in relation to extending their acreage. The new price will be announced in May.”

“The price of canned fruit has advanced some during the year and this may benefit the growers. The total pineapple pack for all the islands in 1915 was 2,175,000 cases.”

“The large pineapple canneries, such as the Hawaiian Pineapple Co., Thomas Pineapple Co., Libby, McNeil & Libby, Haiku Fruit & Packing Co., and others which have large acreages of their own, independent of individual growers, had a large pineapple tonnage at their direct command throughout the year.”

“The Hawaiian Pineapple Packers’ Association, of Honolulu, entered into two extensive advertising campaigns in 1915. One was a grocery-window display of Hawaiian-canned pineapples in practically every State on the American mainland …”

“… while “Hawaiian Pineapple Day” … called for the preparation of special Hawaiian pineapple menus in American hotels from the Atlantic to the Pacific.” (Commerce Reports)

“[T]he growers in Hawaii realized that they were not helping themselves by trying to promote individual brands. Instead, they decided to focus on promoting the Hawaiian pineapple over other foreign suppliers to increase America’s awareness of the product and through that, demand.” (Calabretta)

It had an inauspicious start … they proposed November 23, 1915 as ‘Hawaiian Pineapple Day,’ but mainland wholesalers said that was too close to Thanksgiving and retailers didn’t want to give up display space.

“Turkeys, cranberries, roast suckling pigs with apples in their mouths, and other Thanksgiving dainties will fill the windows of the mainland grocers Thanksgiving week, and Pineapple Day would be bound to suffer in the comparison.”

“The advice of the wholesale grocers, however, once given, was controlling. After comparatively little consideration, the joint committee decided that it could not afford to go counter to the judgment of its most valued aids, and took action accordingly.”

So, Hawaiian Pineapple Day was changed and celebrated November 10, 1915. “On that day the Hawaiian Pineapple will be elevated to royal honors and proclaimed the King of Fruits.”

“We will place on the tables of the President of the United States, the Governors of States and Mayors large mainland cities, delicious bowls of sliced pineapples.”

“We believe that no menu, on Wednesday, November 10, 1915, will be complete unless its array of includes many dishes composed of the juicy Hawaiian pineapple. Last year practically every large hotel and cafe in the United States, and every railroad dining car and steamship dining saloon headed their menus ‘Hawaiian Pineapple Day,’ in red letters.”

“Grocers windows from Boston to San Francisco presented Hawaiian pineapples to the gaze of the passing public. We ask you to join with us in this celebration, by jotting down the date now, and thus help us show the world that the ‘Paradise of the Pacific’ has a new industry designed to satisfy mankind’s ‘sweet tooth.’” (California Grocers Advocate)

‘Hawaiian Pineapple Day’ was at the Panama Pacific Exposition, held in San Francisco in November 1915, complete with Hawaiian leis for visitors with a pineapple hangtag naming the time and place.

The exposition was widely advertised. Canned pineapple was placed before President Wilson and the State Governors on that day, and hotels and cafes throughout the United States featured Hawaiian pineapple. (Canning Trade)

In San Francisco the day was observed in an impressive manner, the event culminating in a celebration on the grounds of the Panama-Pacific Exposition that the San Francisco Chronicle believed was by far the most impressive of the events designed to promote a food product.”

An immense crowd was attracted and 5,000 cans of pineapples were given away to visitors at the Palace of Horticulture. (San Francisco Chronicle)

The association was so helpful, we take it for granted in ads today. Similar to how California was portrayed as a wealthy, luxurious paradise, Dole capitalized on Hawaii’s tropical flair and mystery tenfold.

Hawaii was incredibly exotic and fantastic to mainland Americans who had only read of such a place in books. Pineapples represented “the flavor of aloha” as stated on Dole’s website. (Calabretta)

The statistical results of the [Hawaiian Pineapple Day] campaign have been compiled by the Hawaii Promotion Committee and the Hawaiian Pineapple Packers’ Association, indicating that it was satisfactory.” (American Food Journal)]

The association not only helped increase sales, but also let Hawaiian growers command a higher price, even today. Many pineapples are grown and sold cheaper in Taiwan, but America’s trust has already been placed in the Dole Corporation and its Hawaiian fruits. (Calabretta)