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Nursery and Seed Trade Catalogues Collection, 1832-1999

Overview of the Collection

Title
Nursery and Seed Trade Catalogues Collection
Dates
1832-1999 (inclusive)
1885-1969 (bulk)
Quantity
23.50 cubic feet, (61 boxes, including 3 oversize boxes)
Collection Number
MSS Seed
Summary
The Nursery and Seed Trade Catalogues Collection consists of more than 2200 flower and seed catalogues produced by nurseries and seed companies in the United States, Great Britain, Europe and Asia from the mid-19th century through the 20th century. An on-line exhibit -- A Short History of the Seed & Nursery Catalogue in Europe and The U.S. -- includes images of selected catalogues from the collection.
Repository
Oregon State University Libraries, Special Collections and Archives Research Center
Special Collections and Archives Research Center
121 The Valley Library
Oregon State University
Corvallis OR
97331-4501
Telephone: 5417372075
Fax: 5417378674
scarc@oregonstate.edu
Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research.

Languages
English, German, French, Russian, Italian
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Content Description

The Nursery and Seed Trade Catalogues Collection consists of more than 2200 flower and seed catalogues produced by nurseries and seed companies in the United States, Great Britain, Europe, and Asia from the mid-19th century through the 20th century.  The earliest catalogues are primarily from Great Britain and Europe with an increasing number of catalogues from the United States through the 20th century. Beginning in the mid-20th century, most of the catalogues in the collection are from United States nurseries.

The bulk of the collection consists of individual catalogues produced in Europe, the United States, Canada, and Asia (Series 1).  The collection also includes annual seed buyers' guides for 1944-1960 (Series 2) which provide information on sources for seeds and the equipment for seeding handling and processing as well as state seed laws and statistics on seed production in the United States. A small set of bound volumes of catalogues produced in the late 19th century were assembled by Benjamin M. Watson of Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts (Series 3). A comprehensive set of seed and plant catalogues for 1939-1940 produced by nurseries, gardens, and seed companies in the United States are bound in volumes by state (Series 4).

The catalogues include lists of seeds and plants for ornamental and vegetable gardening, landscape trees and shrubs, and fruit trees available for sale as well as descriptions and instructions for cultivation. The catalogues often include pre-selected assortments of plants, special offers, customer testimonials, and contact information for the nursery or seed company.  Many catalogues also offer garden and kitchen tools, gardening clothes, and outdoor furniture. The catalogues provide examples of botanical and commercial art and demonstrate changes in printing technology for ephemeral items during the 19th and 20th century.

The oldest American catalogue in the collection is an 1832 publication by G. Thorburn & Sons in New York City; other early prominent United States growers represented in the collection are Hovey & Co. (Cambridge, Massachusetts), Joseph Breck & Co. (Boston, Massachusetts), and James Vick (Rochester, New York).

The collection includes numerous catalogues published in England, France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands in addition to the United States.  Catalogs are also included from other European countries -- Hungary, Belgium, Russia, Scotland, Ukraine, and  the Czech Republic; Australia, New Zealand, and Japan; and Canada and Mexico. Most of the catalogues are written in English; however, catalogues in German, French, Russian, and Italian are also part of the collection.

While many of the catalogues include a broad selection of ornamental, landscape, vegetable, and fruit plants and seeds, others are from nurseries and gardens focused on a specific ornamental. Catalogues for roses, rhododendrons, gladiolus, camellias, lilies, daffodils, peonies, and tulips are a substantial component of the collection.

Oregon nurseries and gardens are strongly represented in the collection. The earliest Oregon catalog is from E.J. Bowen in Portland (1901); numerous catalogues for the Gill Brothers, Portland Seed Company, Conley’s Blossom Farm, and Chase Gardens are part of the collection. Most of the Oregon catalogs are from companies in Portland, Eugene, and the Willamette Valley; a few catalogues from Harbor, Scappoose, and Grants Pass are also included.

The seed and nursery trade catalogues may be of use in a variety of disciplines including botany, horticulture, landscape architecture, social and economic history, garden history, and art history. Historians of heirloom vegetables, fruits, and flowers can use the catalogues to ascertain the date and place of introduction of specific varieties, read early descriptions, and view illustrations. The catalogues demonstrate the way seed and nursery companies responded to historic events such as the World Wars and the Great Depression as well as changes in transportation and postal and shipping services.

In 2006-2007, Alice Krinsky Formiga – a graduate student in library science with extensive prior experience as a gardener and horticultural advisor for garden seed companies -- developed a website to provide images of selected catalogues from the collection and provided context for the collection within the history of seed and nursery catalogs. The original website was launched in 2007; it was updated in 2009 and subsequently migrated to the Omeka platform in January 2010: A Short History of the Seed & Nursery Catalogue in Europe and The U.S.

This guide includes an item-level list of the catalogues that includes an item number (beginning with publication date), catalogue title, year of publication, and the name and location of the nursery, garden, or seed company that produced the catalogue. Undated items are labeled with 4 leading zeros, but the item number in the finding aid only has one leading zero.  For example: 0000.017 on the item is represented as 0.017 in this finding aid.

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Use of the Collection

Preferred Citation

Nursery and Seed Trade Catalogues Collection (MSS Seed), Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

The Nursery and Seed Trade Catalogues Collection is arranged in 4 series: 1. Nursery and Seed Trade Catalogues, 1832-1999; 2. Seed Trade Buyers Guide, 1944-1960; 3. Bound 19th Century Nursery and Seed Trade Catalogues, 1874-1898; and 4. A Collection of Seed and Plant Catalogues for the United States, 1930-1940.

Acquisition Information

The bulk of the collection was compiled by Oregon State University Libraries agricultural librarian Laura Kelts from various sources in the 1960s and 1970s; it was transferred from the Libraries' general collection to the newly established Special Collections in 1986. An addition to the collection, with items from the 1930s-1990s, was donated by Venolia Pat Geer in 2012.

Custodial History

Some of the earliest catalogs (mid-19th century) were collected by Benjamin M. Watson of Jamaica Plains, Massachusetts.  He began the collection before the Civil War and his family continued it after his death.

Processing Note

Initial item arrangement by Raul Burriel.  An addition to the collection was incorporated in 2012-2013.  The collection was re-boxed and foldered in 2017-2018 and the finding aid was updated in 2018-2019 to reflect current descriptive practice and standards.

Related Materials

The Pacific Northwest Seed and Nursery Catalog Collection contains a number of catalogs published by nurseries and seed companies, primarily in Oregon and Washington, from the early 1990s through the 2000s.

A Short History of the Seed and Nursery Catalogue in Europe and the U.S., is an illustrated history of European and U.S. seed and nursery trade catalogues that features items from this collection.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Bulbs (Plants)--Varieties.
  • Carnations.
  • Chrysanthemums--Varieties.
  • Daffodils--Varieties.
  • Delphinium--Varieties.
  • Flowers--Varieties.
  • Gardens--Design.
  • Gladiolus--Varieties.
  • Horticultural crops--Seeds--Catalogs.
  • Hyacinths.
  • Landscape nurseries.
  • Nurseries (Horticulture)--Northwest, Pacific--Catalogs.
  • Nursery stock--Catalogs.
  • Nursery stock--United States--Catalogs.
  • Peonies--Varieties.
  • Rhododendrons--Oregon.
  • Roses--Varieties.
  • Seed industry and trade.
  • Seeds--Catalogs.
  • Tulips--Varieties.
  • Vegetable gardening.
  • Vegetables--Varieties.

Personal Names

  • Breck, Joseph, 1794-1873.
  • Hovey, C. M. (Charles Mason), 1810-1887.
  • Thorburn, Grant, 1773-1863.
  • Vick, James, 1818-1882.

Finding Aid Authors: Raul Burriel, John Ngo, Sylvia Podwika, Maya Bergmann, and Elizabeth Nielsen.
2019

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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