Fresh From The Garden: Seed Catalogs In Special Collections (Archived)

About This Exhibit:

This site has been archived. By clicking the exhibition link below, you are leaving the University of Delaware Library's website. Pages in this exhibition may be out of date, and links may be broken and/or no longer maintained.

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American nursery businesses began using illustrations in their sales catalogs or seed catalogs in the late 1840s. As illustration processes developed the images in the catalogs became more exquisite and colorful.  Seed catalogs provide valuable information about the history of horticulture, botany, agribusiness, gardening, and advertising, as well as graphic design. Additionally seed catalogs document the social history of the changing trends in gardening and farming.

Special Collections’ holdings in seed catalogs comprise the serial publications of over 700 American and European seed houses and nurseries from the late eighteenth century to the present, with a concentration in the years between 1870 and 1930. These catalogs are just one part of Special Collections outstanding historical horticulture collection.

This single case exhibition was originally on display in the Morris Library Information Room from August 1-31, 2011.

Tags: Botany; Seeds–Catalogs