The following are digitized covers from Special Collections' Henry G. Gilbert Nursery and Seed Catalog Collection. The collection consists of over 200,000 American and foreign catalogs. The earliest catalogs date from the late 1700s, but the collection is strongest from the 1890s to the present. Each image is a digital reproduction of the original artwork. Click on each image below to view a larger image of that seed catalog cover. Researchers may e-mail Special Collections to order higher resolution digital or print images as copyright laws allow.
Click on an image to view the complete citation and an enlargement of the image.
U.S. 1750-1875
U.S. 1876-1900
U.S. 1901-1925
Japanese Nursery and Seed Trade Catalogs
Special Collections of the National Agricultural Library houses a wide variety of seed catalogs from Japan from 1892-1955. Many of the Japanese seed catalogs in the collection were produced by the Yokohama Seed Company, Ltd., which was a consortium of Japanese nursery owners who worked together to export seeds and plants from the 1890s through the early 1920s. The catalogs are treasured for their artistic beauty and are still used by researchers today as evidence of the Japanese seed trade at the turn of the last century. The following catalogs have been digitized in their entirety. Click on a thumbnail to view the englarged image and navigate through each page of the catalog.
Iris Kaempferi 18 Best Var. The Yokohama Nursery Co., Ltd.
Published: Japan
Date: n.d.
Iris Kaempferi 25 Choice Var. The Yokohama Nursery Co., Ltd.
Published: Japan
Date: n.d.
Lilies of Japan
The Yokohama Nursery Co., Ltd.
Published: Japan
Date: 1899
Paeonia Moutan, a Collection of 50 Choice Varieties The Yokohama Nursery Co., Ltd.
Published: Japan
Date: ca. 1900 This rare catalogue measures 300 x 410 mm and contains 25 full-page chromolithographs and original blue Japanese ripple-grained paper covers, which are stitched with yarn ties.
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