It’s Wine Time!

Pour yourself a glass of your favorite oaky merlot or buttery chardonnay - it’s National Wine Day!  Although this bottle in the museum’s collection held grape juice, it was bottled by one of the earliest vineyards in the Los Gatos area, Lone Hill Vineyards.  In the 1860s, D.M. Harwood arrived in the area, and promptly planted the vineyard.  By 1876, Lone Hill Vineyards was the largest vineyard in the area, with 140 acres.  While this winery no longer exists, its legacy lives on; there is a Harwood Road in the Lone Hill Highlands neighborhood of San Jose, which is also home to Lone Hill Park.  

Lone Hill Vineyard, circa 1876. Courtesy of Los Gatos Library

Los Gatos has a long history of winemaking.  Franciscan monks introduced viticulture - the cultivation of grapevines - to the region in 1802 at Mission Santa Clara.  In 1888, Jesuit priests established the Novitiate Winery, which is California’s fourth oldest winery, and still operates today as Testarossa Winery.  The Novitiate Winery was able to survive Prohibition due to the fact that sacramental wine production was still allowed - in fact, the winery was able to double its operations and production during that time!  The priests would have used a stencil, like this one in the museum’s collection, to label their barrels of altar wine.  In 1852, French immigrant Etienne Thée planted vineyards in the foothills of the Santa Cruz mountains, establishing the Almaden Vineyards winery, which still operates today in the San Joaquin Valley and lays claim to the title of “California’s Oldest Winery.”  Thée’s son-in-law Paul Masson took over management of the winery in 1892, and went on to establish his own winery in 1905, which is known today as the Mountain Winery in Saratoga.  Cheers to Los Gatos history!

This photograph from NUMU's collection labeled as “a typical Almaden field worker,” depicts a man of Hispanic descent picking grapes for the Almaden Winery. The agricultural past of Los Gatos is not often discussed or represented, as much of that labor was done by people of Mexican descent and other peoples of color. This photograph gives a glimpse into the hidden history of Los Gatos, and the agricultural laborers that helped establish the successful businesses that led to the wealth of the Town.

Novitiate Winery, circa 1897. Courtesy of Los Gatos Library

Ships Passing in the Night (Literally)

Ahoy!  It’s National Maritime Day!  This holiday was established in 1933 to celebrate the maritime industry, and is celebrated on May 22nd to commemorate the day in 1819 that the steamship Savannah set sail for the first-ever transoceanic voyage under steam power.  The Savannah, along with every other ship throughout history and even ships today, would have used navigational instruments, like these in NUMU’s permanent collection.  This red navigation light, also referred to as a running light or nautical light, would have been situated on the port (left) side of its ship.  The starboard (right) navigation light would have been green.  These lights, always lit from sunset to sunrise, and during periods of low visibility, allowed ships sailing at night or in perilous conditions to see each other, and know what direction they were traveling in based on which navigation light (red or green) they could see.  

The maritime industry - ships and boats used for commerce, military, or recreational purposes - played an important, albeit indirect role on the development of Los Gatos.  Situated between San Francisco Bay and Monterey Bay, huge numbers of goods and people arrived at these ports every day.  Once they came on land, these goods had to be transported to other parts of California via the railroad.  The Los Gatos train depot was an important stop for both freight and passenger trains, which were likely carrying items that had originally been carried on ships.  Thus, while one does not normally associate Los Gatos with the maritime industry, it undoubtedly had an impact on the town’s history.

-Alexandra Schindler, Collections Registrar

This box compass from the 1870s was another essential navigational instrument for sailors, providing an accurate bearing when the stars and other astronomical cues were obscured by clouds.  The E.S. Ritchie Company, who manufactured this particular compass, was an innovator in the maritime navigation industry, pioneering the liquid-filled compass design and contracting with the United States Navy in 1861. 

Poster celebrating National Maritime Day, 1947. Courtesy of the National Archives

Poster celebrating National Maritime Day, 1947. Courtesy of the National Archives

The Luxury of Indulgence

Today is National Eat What You Want Day, and while many of us might celebrate by indulging in a treat, this object from the museum’s collection reminds us that such indulgence wasn’t always possible.  This War Ration Book No. 3 was issued during World War II by the Office of Price Administration.  On it, the owner would fill out the front with their information, while the back detailed instructions on how to use the stamps within the booklet.  Despite the fact that the federal government issued the ration books and oversaw the rationing system, it relied heavily on volunteers not only to distribute these books, but to educate people and businesses on how to use them; local rationing boards, staffed by volunteers, did the bulk of the work.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, when the United States entered World War II, a rationing system was almost immediately put into place, restricting the sale of certain in-demand goods.  Everything from rubber, to metal, to paper, and to certain foods were restricted to preserve them for the war effort while ensuring that the public still had access.  Tires were the first thing to be rationed since Japan controlled Indonesia, which was one of the main suppliers of rubber to the United States.  Sugar was the first food item to be rationed, followed by coffee, meat, cheese, and canned milk.  These foods had a monetary cost, with a ration points cost on top of it - a person would need both enough money and enough points in order to purchase what they wanted.  As expected, there were flaws in the system, and when rationing for a new product was announced, there was often a rush to go out and buy that product before it was restricted, resulting in further shortages.  We all experienced this in 2020 on a much smaller scale (toilet paper, anyone?). 

It is objects from the past such as these that remind us to be grateful for the ability to indulge ourselves and celebrate Eat What You Want Day.

-Alexandra Schindler, Collections Registrar

Office of Price Administration propaganda poster proclaiming the benefits of wartime rationing.

Aaaaaall Aboard...

It’s National Train Day!  These hats are just a sample of the numerous railroad related objects that NUMU has in its permanent collection.  They were traditionally worn by those who drive and operate the engines, and ensure that everything runs smoothly.  This now-classic style was invented in the early 1900s by train engineer George Kromer and his wife, Ida.  At the time, and as baseball was increasing in popularity, George took time off from the railroad industry to play semi-professional and professional baseball.  When he returned to engineering, he wore his baseball caps to work, but they didn’t quite fit his needs. So he and his wife designed a more practical cap that he could wear to work, which she made out of the blue and white pinstripe pillow ticking that she had on hand.  

Los Gatos train depot, 1900. Courtesy of Los Gatos Library.

Los Gatos train depot, circa 1880. Courtesy of Los Gatos Library.

Los Gatos train depot, circa 1880. Courtesy of Los Gatos Library.

George and Ida Kromer. Courtesy of Union Pacific Railroad Museum.

George and Ida Kromer. Courtesy of Union Pacific Railroad Museum.

The railroad industry played a large role in the development of Los Gatos, which was still a small, relatively unknown community before the Southern Pacific Coast Railroad chose the town to be the site of an important freight and passenger train depot on the line connecting the Bay Area with Santa Cruz in 1876.  It took two years to build the depot, and once they were done, Los Gatos became part of a busy and thriving railroad network, attracting not only industry, but tourists as well.  The Los Gatos station was also critically important as a water-refueling stop for steam locomotives about to make the trek up and over the mountains to Santa Cruz.  

There is more to this history we want to explore through the Los Gatos History Project. Particularly the stories of the Chinese laborers and other under-represented communities of color who were integral to the success of the railroad industry, not only locally, but nationally as well.

-Alexandra Schindler, Collections Registrar

Train passing Los Gatos depot, 1955. Courtesy of Los Gatos Library.

Train passing Los Gatos depot, 1955. Courtesy of Los Gatos Library.

Happy National Beer Day from your friends at NUMU!

It’s National Beer Day!  If you were living in Los Gatos around 1900, you might have celebrated by pouring yourself a drink out of a bottle like this one.  This bottle in our permanent collection was previously identified as a wine bottle, but upon further investigation, we found that it is, in fact, a beer bottle!  This particular bottle was made by Rudolph Scherf, a San Jose resident who ran his own beer-bottling and distributing business out of his house on N. Sixth Street.  Scherf worked with a variety of breweries, including the Fredericksburg Brewing Company, one of the earliest “craft” breweries in the South Bay.

Prevailing public sentiment toward beer, at the turn of the 20th century, was very different from today’s.  In 1904, The Ladies’ Home Journal endorsed beer as a more suitable substitute to patent medicines, stating “A mother who would hold up her hands in holy horror at the thought of her child drinking a glass of beer, which contains from two to five per cent of alcohol, gives to that child with her own hands a patent medicine that contains from seventeen to forty-four per cent of alcohol.” 

Although The Ladies’ Home Journal was partial to Budweiser - as it “contains only 3 89/100 per cent of alcohol. It is better than pure water because of the nourishing qualities of malt and the tonic properties of hops” - San Jose and the surrounding areas had a number of their own “healthy” brews, including the ones Rudolph Scherf bottled and distributed.

-Alexandra Schindler, Collections Registrar