Seed & Nursery Catalog Collection
This collection includes works issued as seed and nursery catalogs, originally published for the purposes of documenting trends, products, and expert advice related to botany, horticulture, and commercial agriculture. View the books
About the Collection
These seed and nursery catalogs were digitized from the significant collections of BHL participating institutions, namely from the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG), Cornell University, the Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG) and the National Agriculture Library (NAL). NYBG has digitized catalogs from their collection with support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Cornell has received partial support from IMLS to digitize selected items from the Ethel Z. Bailey Horticultural Catalog Collection. National Agricultural Library digitized from their extensive collection of catalogs with internally allocated funds. The collection will continue to grow and suggestions of catalogs to consider for digitizing and adding to the collection are welcome using the BHL Feedback form.
Seeds in the Stacks
Go behind-the-scenes at the USDA National Agricultural Library to explore vintage seed and nursery catalogs from the Library's collection of over 200,000 catalogs. This video originally aired as a Facebook Live broadcast on 3 November 2017. All catalogs featured in the broadcast have been digitized in BHL. Visit Facebook to find links to all of the catalogs featured in the show.
Garden Stories
"Garden Stories" is a social media event for garden lovers. It explores the fascinating world of gardening, from the rise of agriculture to the home garden and the mail order gardening phenomenon. Content for the campaign includes gardening tips, history, and plant factoids, using the over 20,000 seed and nursery catalogs in BHL to help tell these stories and provide this information. Follow #BHLinbloom on the BHL Blog, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Pinterest, and Tumblr to join the fun!
#BHLinbloom TwitterChat
On March 20 at 1-2pm EST, BHL hosted a TwitterChat where we invited the public to submit gardening questions for experts to answer. Botanists and horticulturalists at BHL partner institutions, including Smithsonian Gardens, Smithsonian Libraries, National Museum of Natural History, Missouri Botanical Garden, Chicago Botanic Garden, and Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences participated to answer questions and provide gardening tips and resources. Explore highlights from the Chat and get great information here!
Flickr Stream
Browse thousands of seed and nursery catalog images in our Garden Stories Flickr Collection