March, 1990 - New Yorker Cover

I knew I would forget to post this on time!!  

1888 - William Wilcox Barnard -Tested Seeds

William Wilcox Barnard appears to have a business minded man who found his way into the seed business through his office skills,  rather than his experience with plants or seeds.  He did like his cannas as an older man, so maybe he grew into the business.

 I like him for his choice in the catalog cover art for his 1892 catalog!  I wonder if he picked the style.  They never had another interesting cover as far as I am concerned.  He had boring ads, too.  Then again, I can't find much about him, so I may be wrong.

The first catalog I found online (the 1892) is very whimsical.  The rest from the prime period of lithographed covers are colorful and unexciting, the minimum of what I expect from an acceptable seed catalog cover. 

 

At the age of 18 he got a job as clerk for the D. S. Heffron Seed Company, on Clark Street, under  D. S. Heffron.  He later became bookkeeper and cashier for Hiram Sibley and Company, who were pioneer seedsmen and owners of a warehouse.  In 1888, under the firm name of W. W. Barnard & Company, he purchased the garden seed department of that business after Sibley died.   (Sibley was a very interesting guy!)

"In 1905, this business was consolidated with Goodwin, Harris and Company as The W. W. Barnard Company, dealers in seeds and stock food.  Mr. Barnard was made president and treasurer and continued as such until his death, March 10, 1921.  His connection with the seed business in Illinois covers about fifty years."

1892

"The year Nineteen Hundred and Twenty-One has marked the passing of many people who have been Chicogoans since the period preceding the Chicago Fire.  In thinking of them, and of the past years, we are reminded that Chicago has not long been at its present point of development.    The growth thus far attained has come, quite largely, through the combined efforts of the people who have lived here for the last fifty or more years.  Among those men recently deceased, whose names are especially worthy of mention in a record covering a long period of Chicago's industrial progress is the late William Wilcox Barnard.

William Wilcox Barnard was born on a farm in Chicago, very near the present site of his late home in Beverly Hills, on July 4, 1856.  His parents were William and Miranda (Wilcox) Barnard.  They are numbered among the earliest residents of that section of the city for the mother came here in 1844, and the father in 1846.  In more recent years their hoestead farm and is now subdivided and now forms a portion of Beverly Hills.  William W. Barnard, as a boy, attended the Englewood High School and Bryant and Stratton's Business College."

Excerpts from Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois, with commemorative biographies, Vol 2, 1926

Here is another obituary.  The company got slammed in 921 as the vice-president died a month before Barnard!

1899 - Unleash the Butterflies; W. W. Barnard & Co. Tested Seeds

This lithographed cover from W. W. Barnard & Co. caught my eye once before.  This time I want to share close-ups of the lithographic dots.  I love them! 

  

I'll post about the man and the company later.  Today is just eye bonbons.  

100 Years Ago - Planting the Seeds of Victory

World War I (The War to End All Wars) had stretched food supplies, especially in Europe.  By planting home gardens women were doing their part to help.  I can't believe it never occurred to me to ask my grandmother about that time as she would have been about 30.  

 

Source: Library of Congress

Source: LOC

1886 - Mr. Beyer's Cress

 Hugo Beyer of New London, Iowa is a hard man to track down using old advertisements.  He doesn't seem to have any! (That show up in the usual online search.) 
 I did find one or two articles referring to him and his Upland Cress.  These, and a few other sentences gathered here and there, give me the impression he puffed plants he liked without carefully researching them.  It wasn't flim-flam,  just "enthusiasm" :-)


The 1886 The American Garden: A Monthly Illustrated Journal Devoted to Garden Art reported on his new Upland Cress.

THE UPLAND CRESS.

About New Year's we received a package of leaves from Hugo Beyer of New London, Iowa, which were partly wilted, but still had the semblance of Cress leaves and answered the description sent by Mr. Beyer.  The leaves were unusually large, and of unmistakable Cress flavor. 

Mr. Beyer writes as follows:

“It is in reality a new class of vegetable.   I have named it ‘Upland Cress,‘ as it thrives on any soil, wet or dry, to distinguish it from the Water Cress. Undoubtedly it belongs to the Nasturtiums, as the Water Cress does, and seems to be related to that in shape of leaf and taste. I failed. it seemed new to all. I sent for that purpose a large plant to the American Agriculturist last spring, also seed to Vilmorin, Andrieux & Co., Paris. By a letter received about a month ago they inform me that this plant is new in France.

“ ‘Upland Cress' can be used ten to eleven months out of the twelve, without protection, yielding an immense supply of leaves. It possesses hardiness not equaled by any other. We have had heavy frosts, for some time 5° below zero, then about eight inches of snow, and for about a week thawing in the day and freezing at

night, and how Upland Cress has stood all that, a sample taken from the patch yesterday (Dec. 30th) will best tell you." [Sample above mentioned. En. AM. G.] 

It cannot be expected to be of first quality now, for it is pungent and somewhat tough, yet is still eatable. Chopped fine (stems are good also) and eaten with bread and butter, it does not go so bad.     
Boiled, prepared same as Kale, it is fine, but the first water must be thrown away and the boiling finished in a second, otherwise it would taste bitter. 

The refuse foliage we give to the family cow, and she enjoys it as much as Clover in the summer. As it remains green all winter I don’t see why it might not prove also a valuable forage plant. Our chickens eat it whenever they can get to it, and we notice a large increase in eggs, at a time when our neighbors don't get any.

“When I noticed the valuable qualities of Upland Cress I thought, if generally used, it would prove of special benefit to the poor. Viewing it thus, I did not feel willing to monopolize it, and to give all an opportunity I sent out last spring all the surplus seed I had, gratis, to different seedsmen and customers to aid me in introducing it quickly."

This Cress is said to have originated in Tennessee. It furnishes “greens" two to three weeks earlier than any other outdoor vegetable in Iowa.

The American Garden: A Monthly Illustrated Journal of Horticulture, Sept. 1888

Stray facts and links:

• Land cress, also known as American cress, bank cress, black wood cress, Belle Isle cress, Bermuda cress, early yellowrocket, early wintercress, scurvy cress, creasy greens, and upland cress, is a biennial herb in the family Brassicaceae. Wikipedia
• 
  

Seeds in the Stacks: National Agricultural Library's Video Introduction to Vintage Seed Catalogs

The Biodiversity Heritage Library just sent out their newsletter and it contained a link to this tour behind-the-scenes at the National Agricultural Library.  

Enjoy Seeds in the Stacks!

The text below is supplied by the Biodiversity Heritage Library on their YouTube page.

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.

View all of the catalogs featured in Seeds in the Stacks on the Biodiversity Heritage Library at the links below: 

Introduction Catalogs: F.W. Bolgiano & Co., 1902: 

https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/i...Wm. Elliott & Sons, 1905: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/i...Currie Bros, Co., 1904: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/i...Portland Seed Co., 1901: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/i...Tuckers’ Seed House, 1923: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/it...J.M. Philips’ Sons, 1901:http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/it...Carpenter Seed Co., 1913: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/it...Samuel Wilson, 1889: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/i...Farmer Seed Co., 1905: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/it...Farmer Seed Co., 1908: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/it.. 

Broadcast Catalogs: William Prince, 1771: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/i...William Prince, 1830: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/i...William Robert Prince, 1844: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/i...Joseph Breck & Co., 1838: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/i...Joseph Breck & Sons, 1886: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/i...Joseph Breck & Co., 1840: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/it...James Vick, 1887: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/i...James Vick, 1894: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/i...James Vick, 1889: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/i...Peter Henderson & Co., 1885: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/it...Peter Henderson & Co., 1886: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/i...Peter Henderson & Co., 1892: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/i...Peter Henderson & Co., 1909: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/i... 

Finale Catalogs: J. Bolgiano & Son, 1908: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/it...W. Atlee Burpee & Co., 1896: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/it...George A. Weaver Company, 1897: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/it...Samuel Wilson, 1897: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/i...Johnson & Stokes, 1895: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/i... Explore More Seed Catalogs in BHL: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/b...

Old Photos to Make You Smile

I was just looking through some old digital photos, thinking I should delete them if I have shared them with you already.   But then I decided, no way!!  I really get pleasure from looking at them again!

Here are two that I like for their pride in the children and the plants.  I think its being -5F. outside now makes them even more attractive!