Skip to main content

The Massachusetts Codfish License Plate Fiasco of 1928

A 1928 Massachusetts license plate with a bad omen!




1928 was a bad year for the Massachusetts codfish yield.  Whose fault was it?  The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles', of course—or you might think so, to listen to some of the irate fishermen that year.

The problem started with the new license plate design.  At the time, it was common for states to issue brand new license plates every year, and Massachusetts was no exception.  The new plates for 1928 featured something revolutionary, too: it was the first time any state put a picture of anything on the plate.  Since Massachusetts was known for cod, the picture the RMV chose was, logically, a codfish.  It appeared at the bottom of the plate.  In the bottom left-hand corner was the year, 1928.  In the bottom right-hand corner was the state, written “Mass.”  And in the middle was the codfish—the first picture of anything that ever appeared on an American license plate.  That should make the fishermen happy, right?

Well, no.  Complaints started pouring in from irate fishermen who were not happy at all.  One problem was the codfish decal.  They didn’t like it because, as they complained, it looked more like a “giant guppy” than a codfish.  Worse, it was facing away from the name of the state, suggesting that the codfish were leaving Massachusetts!  This could have been a strange kind of modern superstition.  More likely it stemmed from raw nerves on the part of the fishermen, whose nerves were already frayed because the codfish yield had been down all decade, and this probably just set them off.  

The 1929 Massachusetts license plate: there, is that better?
Whatever the reason, this was a problem for the RMV, and they took action.  For the 1929 license plates, the design was updated.  This time, the codfish was represented in more detail, so it looked more like a real fish.  And instead of swimming away from “Mass.”, it was swimming toward it.  Did it help the codfish yield?  Not at all.  1928 and 1929 weren’t good years for cod fisheries, but the 1920s and 1930s generally weren’t.  But the RMV learned its lesson: the 1930 Massachusetts license plates had no fish on them at all!

There’s no record of how the fish felt about the license plates, but then, fish don’t drive.

The 1930 Massachusetts license plate: fine, no fish for anyone.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I actually ended up here because I was trying to figure out a reference in HP Lovecraft's story called "Whisperer in Darkness".

"....and bearing Massachusetts licence plates with the amusing "sacred codfish" device of that year.
Anonymous said…
The audiobook reader says "... scared codfish...".
Anonymous said…
"Whisperer in Darkness" for the win!
Anonymous said…
Me too. Am writing my bachelors thesis about it right now.
Anonymous said…
"...scared codfish.." Given the fishermen's sentiment, this mistake is ironic. Maybe Cthulhu was in the Bay State's bay at the time.
Shep said…
One of us.lol HP Lovecraft
Lawrie said…
Same. Potentially an over enthusiastic proofreader who was unfamiliar with the story of the sacred codfish, not having google to lead them here.

Popular posts from this blog

How the Lemon was Invented

Lemons How do you make a lemon?  Silly question, isn’t it?  You just take the seeds out of one and plant them, and wait for the tree to come up, right?  That’s true, but it hasn’t always been that easy.  Lemons today are a widely cultivated citrus fruit, with a flavor used in cuisines of countries where no lemon tree would ever grow.  You might think that it was just a matter of ancient peoples finding the trees, enjoying their fruit and growing more of them, but that’s not true.  The lemon is a human invention that’s maybe only a few thousand years old. The first lemons came from East Asia, possibly southern China or Burma.  (These days, some prefer to refer to Burma as Myanmar .  I’ll try to stay out of that controversy here and stick to fruit.)  The exact date of the lemon’s first cultivation is not known, but scientists figure it’s been around for more than 4,000 years.  The lemon is a cross breed of several fruits.  One fruit is the bitter orange, best known in the west for

Origins of the Word Hoser, eh?

Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas as cultural icons Bob and Doug McKenzie These days we often hear Canadians referred to as “Hosers”.  It’s a strange word, and it sounds a little insulting, but it’s sometimes used more with affection than malice.  Any such word is difficult to use correctly, especially if you don’t belong to the group the word describes.   I can’t say I feel comfortable throwing the word around, myself, but I can offer a little information about it that might shed some light on what it means. First off: is it an insult?  Yes… and no.   The word hoser can be used as an insult or as a term of endearment; the variation hosehead , is certainly an insult.  It’s a mild insult, meaning something like jerk or idiot or loser .  Its origin is unclear, and there are several debatable etymologies of the word.  One claims that it comes from the days before the zamboni was invented, when the losing team of an outdoor ice hockey game would have to hose down the rink in or

The Whoopie Cap

What can you do with your father’s old hats?  If you were born after, say, 1955, the answer is probably “Not much.”  Men were still wearing fedoras in the 1970s and 1980s, but by 1990, fashion had turned to the point where unless you were Indiana Jones, the hat didn’t look right.  Some blame Jack Kennedy for starting it all, strutting around perfectly coiffed and bare-headed in the early 1960s.  In 1953, Harry Truman, a haberdasher by trade, stepped out of office, and just eight years later we had a president who didn’t care for hats?  The times, they were a-changin’. If you set the WABAC machine to the 1920s or 1930s (when Indiana Jones was supposed to have lived), you would see the fedora was still very much in style.  Men just didn’t leave the house without a hat of some kind, and for what remained of the middle class, the fedora was the topper of choice.  But like any other piece of clothing, hats wear out, too.  When that happened, you’d just throw it away.  Though if there were