Collaborative digitization of seed and nursery catalogs by Cornell University, New York Botanical Garden, National Agriculture Library and Missouri Botanical Garden, and crowdsourcing the correction of OCRed text in Biodiversity Heritage Library.

1. Free Online Historical
Seed & Nursery Catalog
Collection
Marty Schlabach
Food & Agriculture Librarian
Mann Library
Cornell University
Heirloom Gardening Seminar
Genesee Country Village & Museum
February 21, 2015

3. Listings of fruit and vegetables
with descriptions
Amateur's Fruit and Ornamental Trees, York, PA 1867

6. Postcard of
Exaggerated Fruit

7. Collaborative Digitization Effort
• New York Botanical Garden
• LuEsther T. Mertz Library
• 50,000+ catalogs
• National Agriculture Library, USDA
• Henry G. Gilbert Nursery & Seed Trade Catalog Collection
• 200,000+ catalogs
• Cornell University Library
• Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium (Plant Specimen Collection)
• Ethel Zoe Bailey Horticultural Catalog Collection
• 130,000+ catalogs

10. http://specialcollections.nal.usda.gov/guide-collections/henry-g-gilbert-nursery-and-seed-trade-catalog-collection

11. https://archive.org/details/usda-nurseryandseedcatalog

12. http://bhort.bh.cornell.edu/catalogs.htm

13. Ethel Zoe Bailey
1889-1983
• Curated the seed & nursery collection for 4+
decades, 1930s-1980s
• Daughter of Liberty Hyde Bailey
• Graduated from Smith College 1911
• Assisted her father with many of his plant
collection trips around the world
• Assisted and coauthored with her father many
of his botany and horticultural publications
• Awarded the George Robert White Medal in
1967 from the Massachusetts Horticultural
Society
• Awarded the Smith College Medal in 1970
• Continued curating the seed & nursery catalog
collection until her death in 1983 at the age of
93
• Lived a long and distinguished career in botany
and horticulture

14. How was it used?
1889 Introduction of
Vick’s Irondequoit Melon,
as found in
Annals of Horticulture, by LH Bailey

15. Image of collection in Mann Vault

16. Cornell’s Digitization
• Public Domain items only
• i.e. no longer under copyright
• Pre-1923 American, public domain
• Post-1922 American, need research to determine
• Non-US catalogs
• different copyright laws apply
• Began scanning firms that carried grapevines
• Ethel Bailey indexed catalogs by specie & cultivated variety
(cultivar)
• Then scanned other firms not held by partners
• Funding in part provided by
• Institute for Museum & Library Services (IMLS)

17. Seed & Nursery Catalog
Digital Collection
• Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL)
• http://biodiversitylibrary.org
• Collaboration among 20 botanical & natural history libraries
• 157,532 volumes
• 45,568,082 pages
• Seed & Nursery Catalog Collection
• http://biodiversitylibrary.org/browse/collection/seedcatalogs
• A subcollection in BHL
• Currently 13,601 volumes and growing
• 679,776 pages
• Combining NAL, NYBG, and Cornell digitized catalogs

25. Historical Development of
American Seed & Nursery Catalogs
• Broadside
• Multi-page, text only
• Engraved images added to text
• Hand-colored engravings
• Lithography
• Chromolithography
• Black & White photography
• Color photography
• Today: websites

26. Broadside
One sheet only
Approx 12”x18”
(Prince Nursery, 1793)

27. Text only, multi-page (J. B. Russel’s Catalog of Garden Seeds, 1827)

28. Text with added engraving (James Vick, 1868)

29. Hand-colored engravings
(D. M. Dewey, Rochester, NY, n.d.)

30. B & W Lithography, followed by chromolithography

31. Black & White Photography
(A. Currie & Co, 1923)
Color Photography
(Miss Ella V. Baines, 1928)

32. Garden & Farm
Tools & Equipment
(Mann’s Superior Seeds, 1934)

33. Beekeeping and Dairy Supplies (Mann’s Superior Seeds, 1934)

34. Poultry,
Supplies and Equipment
(Mann’s Superior Seeds, 1934)

37. 50+ Rochester Seed & Nursery Firms
• Allen Nursery Co.
• Briggs Bros. & Co.
• Brown Brothers Co.
• Chase Bros. Co.
• Crosman Bros.
• Diamond White Grape Co.
• Ellwanger & Barry
• Green's Nursery Co.
• Hiram Sibley & Co.
• James Vick's Sons
• Joseph Harris Company

38. Thanks to my colleagues at:
Mann Library, Cornell University
(especially Carol Lowe)
Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium, Cornell University
Biodiversity Heritage Library
Mertz Library, New York Botanical Garden
National Agriculture Library, USDA
Institute for Museum and Library Services

39. Questions??