The Washington-Oregon Canning Pear Association organized in the fall of 1953 and incorporated under Washington Law in March 1959. The expressed purpose of the Association is to: stabilize the canning pear industry, return a fair price to growers, bring about an early price, cooperate fully with all segments of industry, and grow quality pears in the most efficient and scientific manner possible. The Association began as a strictly Washington enterprise and in 1954 the membership was about 600. In 1956 Oregon joined the Association and the membership swelled to over 1000.
The records of The Washington-Oregon Canning Pear Association include minutes, correspondence, financial statements, price data and production statistics, newsletters and photographs of the association of pear producers in Oregon and Washington State. Correspondents include buyers and United States Representative Catherine May.
The first series, minutes, contains minutes of the directors, general, district, and some committee meetings for the period October 1953 through June 1962. Some correspondence is included in the two loose-leaf binders of the minutes of directors and general meetings. The binders cover the period March 1954 through June 1962. The remainder of the minutes series includes records of district, directors, annual, and committee meetings during the period between 1953 through 1959.
The second series, the office files, includes material from the period between 1953 through 1962 with the bulk of this series centering on the late 1950's. Although there is no formal correspondence file or series, correspondence may be found throughout the office files under the many different subjects included in this series. The office files series contains material on directors, legislation, membership, production surveys, publicity, legal forms and files, and other subjects. Included in the office files series is an incomplete run of the Association newsletter "The Pear Facts," for the period April 1956 through August 1962.
The third series, the buyers file, is composed of correspondence and purchase and shipping orders from the various companies who bought pears from the Association during the period 1954 through 1974, with the bulk of the material after 1958.
The fourth series, the mimeo file, contains all the mimeographed material sent to the members of the association as well as that material sent to the directors, shippers and purchases, and news releases. Material in this series includes memoranda to the members and directors, shipping information, purchase price negotiations, financial statements from the Association, information on general and annual meetings, news releases, ballots for officers, production and price statistics, and some early issues of the Association newsletter.
The collection also includes some photographs, many of which are unidentified and/or undated, that have been placed at the end as the last series.
The collection is arranged in five major series. The bulk of the minutes series is arranged in two loose-leaf binders; these minutes are arranged chronologically from March 1954 through June 1962. The remainder of the minutes series is arranged chronologically with the most recent entry first. The office files series is arranged alphabetically by the name of the purchasing organization and chronologically within the individual buyer's file, with the most recent entry first. When the purchasing organization has changed names, the previous names are listed in parentheses in the container list. The mimeo file is arranged chronologically with the most recent entry first. The photographs are generally unidentified and undated.
This collection is open and available for research use.
Copyright restrictions may apply.
[Item description]
Washington-Oregon Canning Pear Association Records, 1953-1974 (Cage 353)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
The records of the Washington-Oregon Canning Pear Association were donated to the Washington State University Libraries by the organization through Secretary-Manager Clay Whybark in June 1977 (77-24).
Yakima Valley Growers-Shippers Association Records, 1917-1981
Yakima Valley Traffic and Credit Association National Apple Week Scrapbook, 1927
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.