Saturday, August 9, 2014

Hiram Sibley Builds A Town

OK...Sibley is too interesting to do quickly.  I am not done the first of the posts of amazing stuff, which, while not horticultural, are too cool not to follow!  So, to buy more time, here are sample pages from his 1883 catalog and a fascinating glimpse into the mind of the man.  Read the pages at the end about his Burr Oak Farm and you will see what I mean.  Another seedsman who grows a town! 
Remember, he started all this seed stuff after he contributed to changing the world in other ways.   

Odd illustrations below...remind me of simple illustrations in a early child's alphabet book.













(Sorry about the size issue, but it is time for bed and this one escaped my attentions before.  It gets better after this one page. )



Reminds one of Floral Park, doesn't it?


Friday, August 8, 2014

Hiram Sibley

Over the last year and a half I have found these trade cards on eBay.  Except for the backside illustration of the seed house and farming equipment I think they are really rather boring.  They are the stock trade card that could have been used by any business, underwear to undertaker! 

Because of my impression of the company formed by their trade card I hadn't looked into Hiram Sibley and his business.   Silly me!!

Hiram Sibley is a fascinating man.  He was from the same mold that many entrepreneurs come from...a super smart dude who gets bored with school and goes out and pursues several successful careers.  The game is the thing.  

Look at these cards.  I'll start posting on Sibley tomorrow.  It is summer...lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer...when blogs take second place to gardening.









Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Vegetable Cards, The Bufford Family, and History of Lithography in the United States

Of course, I have to start with the "1st Premium Cabbage Head"! 


This is the work submitted for the copyright filing, and, perhaps, it was also intended to be later used as a salesman's sample book page for the card.  These are chromolithographs, with the card 13.1 x 7.9 cm and the page it is printed on 21.6 x 13.8 cm.  These are Library of Congress images.




"A S'wheat Girl"


"A Corn-et Dance"


 "King Cotton"


 "Potato Bug"













"An Orange Man" was one of another set of 12 cards from Bufford's around 1887.










A bit of lithography history...


This article from Schools and Schoolboys of Old Boston,1894, has the longest darn sentences and no paragraphs!  

I threw in a few commas, and cut out a few really boring bits, and tossed in some paragraphs when I couldn't stand it.  



FRANK GALE BUFFORD
Was born in New York city May 20 1837.  His father JH Bufford the celebrated lithographer was born in Portsmouth NH in 1810 and became apprenticed in 1824 to John Pcndleton who introduced lithography into America about 1822.  Mr JH Bufford was the first artist to draw on stone in this country and started business in New York city in 1830 but returned to Boston in 1838 residing on Warren street Roxbury.  ... ( he finished his schooling at) Shephard's Academy at Plymouth NH.

Mr. Bufford at the age of sixteen years secured a position with Peters Chase & Co wholesale grocers on T wharf but soon changed his employment and entered the dry goods house of James M Beebe Morgan & Co on Kilby street back of the old Exchange building and later that of W Bailey Lang & Co Liberty Square with whom he remained until his majority. He now in 1858 entered the lithographic business in company with his father at 313 Washington street corner of Temple place, this being the house which under the names of JH Bufford, JH Bufford & Co and JH Bufford & Sons has for nearly three quarters of a century held a leading position as art publishers, the first house in America to print chromos on paper silk satin and the first to publish campaign portraits they having published portraits of every president of the United States having commenced this feature about 1857. Mr Bufford now carries on a very successful business alone at 67 Federal Street.

 He is the eldest child and only survivor of a family of five four brothers and one sister.  In 1862 he married the daughter of Alfred A Andrews a dry goods merchant of Boston and has had two sons and a daughter a married daughter and one son are now living Mr Bufford was for eighteen years connected with the New England Guards and was for five years a member of Company C Seventh Regiment of New York.  He joined the Old School Boys Association two years ago and is also a member of several Masonic organizations. 

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Proud Man and His Cabbage


Makes you feel great just to look at Howard Crowder.  
Here he is with some of the vegetables produced in his garden
 on San Luis Valley Farms, Alamosa, Colorado

Library of Congress image

Monday, August 4, 2014

1908 Vegetable Wagon Photo; 1913 Satellite Photos

I'm in Ohio today, traveling home from Wisconsin.  That made this traveling vegetable seller from 1908 catch my eye when I was trying to find something to post.  

A little while ago I passed a seed farm.  Let's see what I can find online. (I love my data plan! :-)

So here I am, blasting down the Ohio Turnpike researching the Wensick Seed Farm!  It is like science fiction from when I was a kid.  When color TVs were developed I thought that was the most amazing thing I'd ever see.  Sheesh.