To make their brands recognizable to dealers across the country, California's citrus growers generated a new commercial art form. In the 1880s, citrus growers in southern California began working with lithographers in San Francisco and Los Angeles to create colorful crate labels. For the next seventy years approximately thirty-five lithography companies produced wine labels, but as the citrus industry thrived the major printers in San Francisco began to create fruit and vegetable labels for growers throughout California. The Schmidt Lithograph Company opened offices all along the West Coast including their headquarters at Second and Bryant Streets in San Francisco. The building’s clock tower today remains a local landmark greeting thousands of commuters at the entrance to the Bay Bridge. Lithography is the printing of an image using a flat surface which is treated so that ink is retained where needed and repelled where it is not. Nineteenth century lithographers drew images onto limestone blocks with a greasy substance. When the limestone was wet, ink sticking to the greased areas transferred the image onto paper. In the twentieth century, multiple zinc or aluminum plates were used in a similar method. However, each plate transferred a different color of ink. Color printing depended on precisely lining up each plate to fill in the exact areas needed with the correct color. Early on, lithographers discovered the effectiveness of using two different artists to create one label. The lettering or script artists worked with magnifying glasses in silence for long periods of time to obtain the fine details required. They were well respected for their extreme patience and concentration. The illustrators created watercolor sketches and after the client's approval the illustrator, or an engraver, would draw the images on separate color plates for the printing process. The label art industry ended in the 1950s when wooden crates became too expensive to make. Growers and packers began to use cardboard boxes with simple two color stamps replacing the dramatic 11 by 10 inch labels. The labels left in packinghouses and in lithograph and citrus industry archives comprise the bulk of citrus label art collections today. Special thanks to Dr. Vince Moses, The Riverside Municipal Museum, the Ontario Museum of History and Art, and Gordon T. McClelland for loans and assistance to "The Big Orange: California Citrus Label Art."