Seed Packages Art

Introduction

The Smithsonian Institution Libraries have a unique trade catalog collection that includes about 10,000 seed and nursery catalogs dating from 1830 to the present. Many of the trade catalogs were part of the Burpee Collection donated to the Horticulture Services Division by Mrs. David Burpee in 1982. The collection includes both Burpee and their competitors' catalogs.

The real gems of the collection date from 1830 to the 1930s and are both beautiful and important multidisciplinary historical documents. The seed trade catalogs document the history of the seed and agricultural implement business in the United States, as well as provide a history of botany and plant research such as the introduction of plant varieties into the US Additionally, the seed trade catalogs are a window into the history of graphic arts in advertising, and a social history, through the text and illustrations, showing changing fashions in flowers and vegetables.

http://www.sil.si.edu/ondisplay/Seeds/intro.htm  

Also see: http://www.nal.usda.gov/speccoll/collect/nursery/nursery.html

Click Picture Company Name: BURPEE'S Catalog Title: Seed-Sense Publication Date: 1901   Click Pictures Company Name: D.M. FERRY & CO Catalog Title: Seed Annual 1908 Publication Date: 1908   Click Picture Company Name: D.M.FERRY & CO Catalog Title: Bulbs and Seeds (Autumn) Publication Date: 1912   Click Picture Company Name: FARMER SEED CO. Catalog Title: Farm and Garden Seeds (Spring) Publication Date: 1906   Click Pictures Company Name: J. BOLGIANO & SON Catalog Title: Bolgliano's 100 Years Publication Date: 1918   Click Picture Company Name: J.M. PHILIPS' SONS Catalog Title: Garden, Farm and Flower Seeds Publication Date: 1903   Click Picture Company Name: JOHNSON & STOKES Catalog Title: Garden and Farm Manual Publication Date: 1906   Click Pictures Company Name: MISS C.H. LIPPINCOTT Catalog Title: Flower Seeds Publication Date: 1899   Click Pictures Company Name: OSCAR H. WILL & CO Catalog Title: Thirty-Fourth Annual Publication Date: 1917   Click Pictures Company Name: PETER HENDERSON & CO Catalog Title: Everything for the Garden Publication Date: 1913   Click Pictures Company Name: RATEKIN'S SEED HOUSE Catalog Title: Men, Women and Children Wanted to Plant Good Seeds Publication Date: 191?   Click Pictures Company Name: ROSS BROS. CO. Catalog Title: Farm and Garden Supplies Publication Date: 1910   Click Picture Company Name: ROSS BROS.CO Catalog Title: Farm and Garden Supplies Publication Date: 1909   Click Pictures Company Name: W. ATLEE BURPEE & CO Catalog Title: Farm Annual/Quarter Century Edition Publication Date: 1901   Click Pictures Company Name: W.W. RAWSON & CO Catalog Title: Rawson's Garden Manual Publication Date: 1909   Click Pictures Company Name: WM. ELLIOTT & SONS Catalog Title: Seeds (Spring) Publication Date: 1910   Click Pictures Company Name: WM. ELLIOTT & SONS Catalog Title: Seeds (Spring) Publication Date: 1911   Click Pictures Company Name: WM. ELLIOTT & SONS Catalog Title: Seeds Publication Date: 1914   Click Pictures Company Name: WM. ELLIOTT & SONS Catalog Title: Seeds Publication Date: 1916   Click Pictures Company Name: WM. ELLIOTT & SONS Catalog Title: Seeds Publication Date: 1918

Biographies of American Seedsmen & Nurserymen

Ball, George Jacob
Ball, George, Jr.
Barry, Charles Patrick
Barry, Frederic Gaffney
Barry, Patrick
Barry, William Crawford
Belden, James Lockwood
Berckmans, Prosper Julius A.
Berger, H. H.
Blanc, Albert A.
Bliss, Benjamin K.
Bodger, John
Braslan, Charles P.
Breck, Charles H. B.
Breck, Joseph
Bridgeman, Alfred
Bridgeman, Thomas
Briggs, Charles
Briggs, John T.
Brown, Charles & Robert
Buist, Robert
Burbank, Luther
Burpee, David
Burpee, W. Atlee