WAUCaliforniaSeafoodPHColl1123.xml Guide to the Photographs of California Seafood Canning Plants circa 1910's - 1930's California Seafood Canning Plants photograph collection Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries © 2013 (Last modified: 4/12/2018)
Seattle, WA 98195
Finding aid written inEnglish. Finding aid based on DACS (Describing Archives: A Content Standard). University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections PH1123 Photographs of California seafood canning plants circa 1910's - 1930's 17 photographic prints (1 box) Collection materials are inEnglish. Photographs of 7 seafood canning plants in California

The California commercial seafood canning industry had an 80 year (22 season) cyclical boom and bust history. Several of the largest canneries were located in Long Beach, San Diego, and up the California coast at Monterey Bay. Starting in the 1890's, small and large commercial processing plants produced tuna using whole sardines as bait. Because tuna is a seasonal fish, and canned sardines were found to have consistently a greater profit margin, a shift was made to catch and pack sardines during the off-season months. By the early 1920's the California fishing industry focused primarily on processing and producing high quality canned sardines for people in addition to producing fish oil, chicken feed, and plant fertilizer from the canning waste "reduction". By the late 1920's most of the commercial catch sold to the public was canned instead of fresh, and over 200,000 tons of the canned products sold were sardines. Packing was performed by hand with use of a conveyer belts and assembly lines.

Due to the profit margin made from the reduction products, some processing plants turned their focus to catching and processing everthing caught into reduction products, until government regulation stopped the practice. By the 1930's competition from Japan was noted to doom the fishing industry and by the 1950's foreign competition was generally reguarded as a serious threat to the industry. By 1968 the sardine industry met its demise, from competition and over fishing, and consequently completely collapsed.

Photographs of the Monterey Canning Co.; Neptune Sea Food Co. of San Diego; Normandy Sea Food Co. of San Diego; Premier Packing Company of San Diego; Los Angeles Tuna Canning Co. of Long Beach; South Coast Canning Company of Long Beach; South California Fish Cannery of San Pablo; Stanley Hiller, Inc. fish scrap reduction machine.

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Processed by Melody Hauf, 2012; processing completed in 2012

Transferred from Industries and Occupations File, 2011

Visual Materials Collections (University of Washington) Fishing and Canning California Photographs

 

Monterey Canning Co., Monterey, California

The Monterey Canning Co. was opened in 1918 and comprised of two large buildings linked by a wooden bridge over the street. It was part of the crowded four block long Cannery Row community that processed primarily sardines, fish oil, and fertilizer. By the late 1940's the fishing industry was declined to the level that Monterey canning companies only survived by processing sardines that were trucked-up from southern California. The Monterey Bay area's fame and recognition however continues today due to the years of high quality sardines canned and sold around the world in addition to John Steinbeck's popular writings about cannery row.

 1/1 1 View of men on pier hoisting fish up from boats and fish being conveyed into canning factory circa 1910's - 1930's 1/1 2 Interior view of workers in processing room circa 1910's - 1930's

Caption on photo: View showing fish entering dryers, just before being fried. Trucks are filled with baskets of fried fish, and packers are placing fish in cans.

 1/1 3 Interior view of workers in canning area where tomato puree was prepared and placed in cans before fish was packed circa 1910's - 1930's 1/1 4 Interior view of workers in canning area where cans were conveyed from puree room to packing tables circa 1910's - 1930's Neptune Sea Food Co., San Diego, California.

The Neptune Sea Food Co. cannery was opened in 1916 for canning sea food. Neptune sold high qualitySapphirebrand sardines through brokers and wholesale distributors to Australia, India, France, Philippines, and England.

 1/2 5 Exterior view of canning and processing buildings circa 1910's - 1922 Normandy Sea Food Co., San Diego, California.

Normandy Sea Food Co. started in the early twentieth century to process sea food and sardines. Normandy merged with Sun Harbor Packing company in 1922 thus creating what was said to be the largest sardine packing plant in California.

 1/3 6 Group of workers standing outside a processing building circa 1918 J.A. Bruce Commercial Photography, San Diego, California 1/3 7 Interior view of a processing building where workers are processing sea food and loading carts with the canned product circa 1918

Written on verso: Hendrickson 1918.

 1/3 8 Interior view of a worker unloading a cart of canned sardines from a horizontal steam oven circa 1918 J.A. Bruce Commercial Photography, San Diego, California Premier Packing Co., San Diego, California.

Premier Packing Co. was opened during 1912 to process tuna and by the next decade was noted for processingSteele's Premiumcanned sardines.

 1/4 9 Interior view of workers in processing room standing and working at fish cleaning stations circa 1910's - 1930's Los Angeles Tuna Canning Co., Long Beach, California.

Los Angeles Tuna Canning Co. started 1915 with 8 newly built fishing boats and a 25-ton refrigerating plant to canPanamabrand sardines and tuna.

 1/5 10 Interior view of canning room with men sealing cans and moving carts circa 1930's Auditorium Studio, Long Beach, California 1/5 11 Exterior view ofPanama BrandLos Angeles Tuna Canning Co. at Long Beach with model T cars in the parking lot circa 1908 - 1930's South Coast Canning Co., Long Beach, California.

South Coast Canning Co. was established circa 1910 and processedAvalonbrand sea food.

 1/6 12 Interior view of processing room with mainly female workers in "mob hats" sitting and processing fish at a canning line circa 1920's Auditorium Studio, Long Beach, California South California Fish Cannery, East San Pedro/Terminal Island, California.

South California Fish Cannery producedBlue Seabrand canned seafood.

 1/7 13 View of cannery interior with man pouring ingredients into steam kettle to make catsup for the large fish production circa 1910's - 1930's Unidentified San Francisco, California fish scrap reduction plant

These photos are of the Stanley Hiller Inc. fish waste reduction machine utilized in the canning industry for the reduction of waste and control of smell from rotting sea food. Hiller's produced this machine to help canneries reduce waste (25 - 150 tons per day) and smell, and by each cannery owning an individual unit, the canner could save money and become its own producer of products made from the remnants and canning waste.

 1/8 14-16 Fish waste reduction machine inside San Francisco, California fish scrap plant circa 1920's 1/8 17 Dismantled fish waste reduction unit on truck outside brick building circa 1920's Gordon, San Jose, California