“Desirable Pumpkins,” H.W. Buckbee Seed and Plant Guide (Rockford, IL, 1899). Special Collections, National Agricultural Library.    

Desirable Pumpkins

By the end of the nineteenth century, Americans used pumpkins mainly for pleasure, not for practicality. It became an object of display. Giant pumpkins were crowd-pleasers at county fairs, which became known as “Pumpkin Shows,” because the vegetable was a key attraction. Buckbee’s seed company called its “King of the Mammoth,” a 469-pounder exhibited at the 1893 World’s Fair, a “wonderfully grand and colossal variety, astonishing everyone by its mammoth size and heavy weight.” Merchants put them in their shop windows. Its popularity for dessert and display began to stir demand for this once-worthless crop and, by extension, profits for farmers.