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USF Libraries Exhibits

Fruit factory

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Dunn, Hampton. Women working in a citrus factory. Hampton Dunn Collection, 26 January 1957.

The modernization of the industry began in the 1930s with the major proliferation of juicing machinery. However, it was not until the 1950s that mechanized lines quickened the process at all levels of production. Workers still packed citrus into boxes and packed them on pallets, but little else in the process was done by hand, beyond the picking of fruit. Women worked many of the factory jobs in citrus plants, including the peeling of fruit to be sold as fresh-cut fruit as shown in the photo.