Seed and Nursery Catalogs
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 The real gems of the collection date from 1830 to the 1930s and are both beautiful and important multidisciplinary historical documents.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.
This legacy exhibition contains a browse-able selection of seed catalog covers, as well as a bibliography for research and an additional site with brief biographies of some of the prominent seed and nurserymen in the United States from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
A new presentation of the seed and nursery catalog covers can be found in our Image Gallery at https://library.si.edu/image-gallery/collection/seed-and-nursery-catalogs