Wailuku, Maui, Kingdom of Hawaii
1880s
Letterpress on paper
13 3/4" x 23 1/2" including frame (34.9 x 59.7 cm)
Provenance: Maine Trade
Wailuku became a center of commercial taro flour production on Maui during the 1880s, when the Kingdom of Hawaii encouraged the industry through manufacturing patents and a later legislative subsidy. This broadside was issued by the Alden Fruit and Taro Company of Wailuku to promote its taro flour to island households, a product made by drying and milling fresh taro into a shelf stable form. Printed locally on Maui, it documents an agricultural venture that briefly positioned Hawaiian taro flour as an export to mainland markets.
The sheet is headed ALDEN FRUIT AND TARO CO. OF WAILUKU, MAUI and repeats the banner TARO FLOUR above the promise that every household could make its own poi at home. Below the heading it sets out detailed preparations for cooking with taro flour, allowing buyers to reproduce a dietary staple without pounding fresh taro by hand. As a surviving piece of nineteenth century Hawaiian commercial printing, it records both the everyday importance of poi and a short lived chapter in Maui's agricultural history.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
Wailuku, Maui, Kingdom of Hawaii
1880s
Letterpress on paper
13 3/4" x 23 1/2" including frame (34.9 x 59.7 cm)
Provenance: Maine Trade
Wailuku became a center of commercial taro flour production on Maui during the 1880s, when the Kingdom of Hawaii encouraged the industry through manufacturing patents and a later legislative subsidy. This broadside was issued by the Alden Fruit and Taro Company of Wailuku to promote its taro flour to island households, a product made by drying and milling fresh taro into a shelf stable form. Printed locally on Maui, it documents an agricultural venture that briefly positioned Hawaiian taro flour as an export to mainland markets.
The sheet is headed ALDEN FRUIT AND TARO CO. OF WAILUKU, MAUI and repeats the banner TARO FLOUR above the promise that every household could make its own poi at home. Below the heading it sets out detailed preparations for cooking with taro flour, allowing buyers to reproduce a dietary staple without pounding fresh taro by hand. As a surviving piece of nineteenth century Hawaiian commercial printing, it records both the everyday importance of poi and a short lived chapter in Maui's agricultural history.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
