Fave Find: Vintage Sugar Beet Posters

Six or seven years ago, I used to substitute at a local public library to make some extra money, and they’d occasionally give me random projects to work on while I was there. One night, my project was to go through the vertical files and recycle anything that could be replicated or found online.

In case you’re wondering what a vertical file is, it’s this:

If this doesn’t look familiar to you, then you’re young.

If it does, you’ll recall that basically a vertical file used to be a library’s way of keeping current background information on a really wide variety of subjects all in one place. Libraries don’t really need these anymore because the Internet is so awesome and radical. One exception to this would be an archive–many archives still have vertical files.

Anyway, I felt totally unqualified to do this job but went with it. I looked at the existing pile of recycling that someone before me had already started, and found some serious treasures! I asked if I could take anything from the recycling piles and the full time person I was working with said sure. These posters are one of the treasures I found, and they’ve been on display in my kitchen ever since.