Entries Tagged 'Collections' ↓
July 15th, 2009 — Collections
Portrait of Three Unnamed Mexican Men, History San José Collection
This is an early (1870 – 1880) tintype from the History San José’s collection. We don’t know the names of the men in the photograph but is it an excellent example of a portraits from the late 19th century.
On Sunday, July 26th you are invited to join History San José to celebrate the founding of El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe at the Founders’ Day Fandango at the Peralta Adobe – Fallon House Historic Site. The free Founders’ Day Fandango will feature live music and dancing, children’s activities, and tours of the Peralta Adobe and Fallon House.
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Melissa Johnson
Curator of Interactive Media
July 10th, 2009 — Collections
A new addition to the History San José collection is the iconic pets.com puppet. In the late 1990’s whenever you turned on your television, you were likely to encounter a commercial for pets.com. The company’s mascot was a sock puppet of a dog with a wristwatch for a collar, holding a microphone embossed with the corporate logo.
Jim Reed, Curator of Library & Archives with the pets.com sock puppet. Photo by David Hartwick
For the general public, pets.com came to symbolize the Internet “bubble” of the late 1990’s. The company, founded in 1998, abruptly ceased operation in November 2000, having burned through more than $300 million in investment capital.
The sock puppet, however, captured the public imagination. It appeared in the 1999 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and was interviewed by People magazine and by Good Morning America.
The pets.com sock puppet remains an important symbol of the nation’s exuberance about the marketing potential of the World Wide Web.
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Jim Reed
Curator of Library & Archives
July 1st, 2009 — Collections
This image shows the eleborate decorations and costumes residents of New Almaden made to celebrate the 4th of July in 1898. From left to right: Minnie Odgers; May Wasley; Susan Edwards; Charles O’Brion, a popular employee; Emma Hill; Ethel Chequin; Joe Pearce, and in front : Ernest Hopkins.
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Melissa Johnson
Curator of Interactive Media
May 13th, 2009 — Collections
Mother in the Garden, c. 1902
Alice Hare Collection
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Due to techinical difficulites, this image wasn’t posted in time for Mother’s Day.
May 12th, 2009 — Collections
Around 1870, a shipment of flowering peaches ordered by James Lick from China is believed to have introduced a devastating insect pest, later named the San Jose scale, into orchards in the Santa Clara Valley. From here, it spread to fruit-growing areas throughout the United States and Canada, and by 1895 had reached the East Coast. Since then, the pest has spread globally.
The San Jose Scale and The New Peach Scale
In the early 1880’s, an entrepreneur named John Bean purchased a ten acre almond orchard near Los Gatos. He soon discovered that the orchard was being devastated by the scale. Having earlier invented a pump that would send out a continuous spray, Bean set out to adapt that device to atomize and spray insecticides on orchard trees. By 1884 he was satisfied with his device, and applied for a patent. The company that he established, The Bean Spray Pump Company grew over the years, eventually becoming FMC.
The San Jose scale is a sucking insect that injects a toxin into the plants it feeds upon. Once infested, a tree can die completely within two years. The insect produces anywhere from two to six generations per year. An adult female can produce as many as 30 million offspring in a year. While some commercial pesticides have been successful in controlling infestations, San Jose scale continues to be a global problem for fruit trees and for some ornamental trees and shrubs.
We’re curious: are there other plant pests or diseases out there that take their name from a U.S. city?
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Jim Reed
Curator of Library & Archives