Romanticized Ramona

Of all the individuals associated with California's missions, the most enduringly popular did not really exist at all. She was Ramona, heroine of Helen Hunt Jackson's 1884 novel of the same name. Although written to expose the mistreatment of the Mission Indians by Anglo-Americans, the book did much to encourage interest in Spanish/Mexican California, and romanticize its missions. Ramona became a valuable marketing tool in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as can be seen in these two trademarks. Identification Information, from upper left clockwise around: Records of the California Secretary of State, "New Series" Trademark #808, "Ramona Sweets," registered in 1903; Cover of 1885 edition of "Ramona" by Helen Hunt Jackson, California State Archives Rare Book Room; Records of the California Secretary of State, "New Series" Trademarks #10016, "Ramona" Flour, registered in 1924.