Antique 1920s Monmouth Eatmor Cranberries Barrel Label ✨ NY, NJ, CHI

Why Is Molly Pitcher on a Cranberry Label? 💥 Monmouth Brand Eatmor Cranberries of New Jersey, Molly Pitcher at the Cannon

Size: 10" x 6 3/4" ~ Little to no wear.

This is an antique 1920s Monmouth Eatmor Cranberries of New Jersey barrel label, packed for the American Cranberry Exchange out of New York and Chicago. The picture in the oval is pure Revolutionary War: a woman in a long red skirt and white cap throws her weight behind the rammer at a big field cannon while Continental soldiers in tricorn hats and blue coats work the gun around her. MONMOUTH BRAND runs down both side panels in red, and Eatmor Cranberries stretches across the top.

This label is rarely, if ever, found anymore. It is reproduced as magnets, posters, mugs, etc. You can be one of the few who own the original that started it all.

🏷️ What's Printed on It

• Eatmor Cranberries of NEW JERSEY
• MONMOUTH BRAND (down both sides)
• ONE FOURTH U.S. STANDARD BARREL
• PACKED FOR THE AMERICAN CRANBERRY EXCHANGE
• PACKER'S NUMBER (an empty box for the grower's number)
• NEW YORK, CHICAGO

The back is blank, with the design showing through in reverse. The Boston Public Library has this same Monmouth label in its print collection and dates it to about 1920 to 1929.

💥 Molly Pitcher at Monmouth

Put a woman at a cannon on a label called Monmouth, and every New Jersey kid knows the story. The Battle of Monmouth was fought on June 28, 1778, near Monmouth Court House in what's now Freehold, New Jersey, George Washington's Continental Army against Sir Henry Clinton's British, in a heat wave where the temperature went over 90 degrees. The legend says a soldier's wife was carrying water to the gunners, and when her husband fell she took his place swabbing and loading the cannon, and George Washington himself commended her. She's most often identified as Mary Ludwig Hays, and one scholar has said "Molly Pitcher" is really a name for the hundreds, maybe thousands, of women who served in the war. The battle itself ended in a draw, but historians count it as the day the Continental Army came of age.

🍒 Eatmor and the American Cranberry Exchange

New Jersey's cranberry business grew up in the Pine Barrens. In 1895 New Jersey and Massachusetts growers formed the Growers' Cranberry Company, and in the spring of 1911 the growers' sales companies of New Jersey, New England and Wisconsin joined together as the American Cranberry Exchange, headquartered in New York with a Chicago branch, the two cities on this label. The Exchange put the Eatmor name on its best berries starting in 1916, began advertising nationally in 1917, and by the 1930s the Eatmor ads were running in Good Housekeeping and Better Homes & Gardens. The Exchange moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1951, became Eatmor Cranberries, Inc. in 1953, and voted to dissolve in 1957.

🖼️ Display

Crate Labels are a reminder of a bygone era but the amazing lithography process is unparalleled even to this day in my opinion. Museums and Art Institutes have galleries dedicated to them and more and more collectors are seeking these out to preserve their history. Once the limited supply for sale is gone and on display with collectors or in galleries then they will be very difficult to acquire.

Imagine this amazing vintage advertising hanging as home decor in any room of your home instead of a museum! It's perfect for a Thanksgiving table, a history lover's den or anybody from Monmouth County.