The Washington Banana Museum
The Washington Banana Museum
Auburn, Washington
.... an on-line museum (sorry, no on-site visitors) ....
Take a virtual tour and feel free to email with any questions or if you'd like a picture of a certain item. Be sure to sign the guestbook at the end.
BANANA FACTOIDS:
An average American eats 26 pounds of bananas every year - that's about 150 bananas.
Immigrants arriving at Ellis Island in the early years (1892-1920s) were given bananas to eat. Many had never seen them and didn't know how to eat them - some ate the whole thing, peel and all.
Bananas were introduced to the American public at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, the same expo that introduced Alexander Graham Bell's telephone.
The Washington Banana Museum curator is Ann Mitchell Lovell. Ann has assembled close to 4,000 items, a melange of artifacts, folk art and other cultural oddities devoted to the world's perfect fruit. Assembled by a longtime scholar of banana consciousness, it features a compendium of whimsical and serious representations of the #1-selling fruit in the United States.
Even as a child, Ann knew her calling. Her parents even called her Anna Banana! But it was not until a trip to Hawaii in 1980, that Ann began this quest to assemble the greatest collection of banana artifacts. "A friend and I found a bar there called Anna's Bannanas [that's right, it's misspelled], and I bought a T-shirt with its logo." Over time, she found other items that made their way into her home. "I started finding banana things and saving them. Friends began noticing and would also seek out banana stuff. Though I never really intended to collect bananas, the collection just came in a bunch!"
Bananas, bananas, who's got the bananas? YOU can help me get the bananas! C'mon, cough up the green and help me get some mellow yellow. Today, instead of getting an extra latte, donate that $4.00 to add to my future banana artifacts fund. You will see them posted here. Thank you so much!
Marx wind-up toys from the mid 1960s
The following is courtesy of Al Wallace's blog: "Typically when bananas fruit they produce one stalk of flowers that ripen into a 'bunch.' A variety of apple banana, owned by Al and Barbara Wallace of Kihei, Maui had a twin flower that has ripened into two bunches. Just an odd tidbit in the mystery of life!"
Original 1904 ad for Bananine bread, made with bananine flour (left) and a slightly different version in a later color postcard. It depicts the meeting of Sir H.M. Stanley and Dr. Livingstone in deepest, darkest Africa perhaps discussing the health benefits of eating Bananine bread, the Food of Foods.
Carved bone banana, origin unknown
Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr. (with scarf) posing with the photographer and a 1923 Packard and enjoying the popular fruit of the day. He was born in 1898, a great great grandson of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, the shipping & railroad magnate and founder of the family fortune. Cornelius Jr. traveled extensively by car in the 1920s and 1930s and this photograph might have been taken on one such trip. He died in 1974. The other photo (underneath) was taken in 1919 - this time Mr. Floyd Raymond Monaweck with his family eating bananas in front of their touring car. He was a co-founder of Taylor's Produce (later Norman's Produce) in Battlecreek, Michigan.
Tony Rubino Produce delivery wagon in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, c1900. Note the straw in the wagon to prevent banana bruising during transport.
Milo Winter illustrated this 1927 calendar (left). On the right, a 1912 double-sided 42-inch heavy cardboard sign from United Fruit.
Same image used on a valentine and a postcard, from Germany
The lovely and talented Tina de Jarque joins the ranks of Josephine Baker imitators in the 1920s. These photo cards were included with boxes of Trinidad y Hermanos (or Trinidad y Hno) cigars.
Josephine Baker in her famous banana skirt from 1920s Paris and imitator
Seattle artist and all-around great person Cindy Small created this mixed-media piece especially for the museum. It takes a special place in the collection. The fortune says "You constantly struggle for self-improvement."
Banana graffiti discovered December 31, 2007, on the Inter-Urban Trail in Auburn, Washington
Poster from the Strand Theatre,(Freehold, New Jersey) probably 1923 and West India bananas poster
Series of lithographed signs advertising the benefits of bananas, circa 1920s....
"Fruit Dispatch Co. Import the Best" - Copper woodblock (left) with banana bunch from Fruit Dispatch Company, circa 1900-1910 and a print from it (right)
My earliest sheet music (from 1904) "The Banana Man" and one from 1936
"Eat Bananas" - a 24"x36" porecelain enamel sign from Fruit Dispatch Company, probably from the 1920s, and a grocery store price marker of the same era
Banana tintypes
Banana Safety Matches and Zeo-Ripe Bananas pinback button....
Tobacco label and tobacco tin tag....
Smoking banana peels paraphernalia....
Taking a banana break in the 1900s....
Kids, dogs and bananas
Banana consumption in front of the Beyer home at beautiful Winona Lake, Indiana, c1909. Photograph by Starr of Valparaiso, Indiana....
A Chicago theater troupe featuring Bertha West (2nd from right), a relative by marriage, of Betsy Ross, c1900 (photo courtesy of Randall Wells).
Bananas in vaudeville?
Yes, We Have No Bananas from Samoa....
"Yes, She Needs Some Bananas" - From a 1944 Pittsburgh newspaper article: "Six-year-old Lucille Tielsch has been Pittsburgh's "banana girl" for the last four years, because she must eat from 6 to 10 pounds of the fruit daily. Those are doctors' orders if Lucille, victim of rare coeliac disease, is to stay alive. She can't digest fats, starches, or most sugars, but bananas keep her weight normal, and don't upset her digestion."
Paperweight from the Bluefields Steamship Company, based in New Orleans, c1900, and some miscellaneous treasures including a 1961 5-franc gold coin from Katanga , Chiobitti Banana Co., Ltd, watch face and another banana watch
The Food Value of the Banana, published by the United Fruit Company, 1928, cover by Lawrence Wilbur and Unifruit poster (partial)
Folks from the Skodsborg Sanatorium (aka Skodsborg Sanitarium) near Copenhagen, 1907, and an Elders & Fyffes cookbook from London from the same era, extolling the consumption of bananas
Elvepe Bananas chalk display piece (Belgium). A reproduction from the 1980s, originally from the 1930s and Fyffes display piece
from Paris....
Chiquita Banana ride-on toy, c. 1969 and a 1971 photo with a happy girl
Banana dudes and ladies
Fiberglass banana bass instrument, 4-feet tall. Bought in Brimfield, MA, and a small banana band
Ban the Banana, poster made in 1967, Bedford Fruit & Produce Co. wood sign, and another poster
Carmen Miranda from "The Gang's All Here" (1943)....
Banana cookie jars.
A vintage 1920s-1940s banana shipping box.
From the library...
See the complete bibliography here.
Want to see the museum where these things are on display? Click on one of the thumbnails, sit back with a tasty banana, and wait for them to appear before your eyes.
Entrance
Closer Look 
Mostly Chiquita
"Ban the Banana" 
More Stuff
Kitchen I'm always on the lookout for cool banana items.
If you have any tips or comments please e-mail me. Thanks!
Bananas.org International Banana Society - Bananas.org contains many ongoing discussions about bananas, banana care, banana identification, recipies, members from around the world. Photo Gallery, Map, Resources for the banana enthusiast.
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