By: Gwen Miner, Supervisor of Domestic Arts
Last week I had a mission, a mission to locate some new images for our 4-H Heirloom Seed Project Exhibition Catalog. The old catalog was tired and in need of some revamping. Revamping means new images and new varieties. New varieties mean searching the seed catalogs; new images mean searching books and our special collections archives in the New York State Historical Association’s Library.
Over I went with flash drive in hand, ready to scan some fresh new images. Here is what I found:
A seed catalog from Fly Creek, which is 5 miles from here.
And the most fun find: a garden of vegetable people.
The vegetable people are trade cards that advertised seed and manures for the garden.
Rice's Seeds, Cambridge, NY was the 2nd largest seed house in the US in 1900 (D.M. Ferry was largest). The company had been packing under the Rice name since 1832. They produced some beautiful Victorian-era posters and art. Alas, it is no more, and Rice Seed and J.B. Rice, Jr. Seeds shut down in 2002.
ReplyDelete- Tim Kavanaugh