Jay T. Last Collection of Horticulture Prints and Ephemera: Finding Aid

Finding aid prepared by Charla DelaCuadra.

The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.

Prints and Ephemera

The Huntington Library

1151 Oxford Road

San Marino, California 91108

Phone: (626) 405-2191

Email: reference@huntington.org

URL: http://www.huntington.org

Overview of the Collection

Title: Jay T. Last Collection of Horticulture Prints and Ephemera

Dates (inclusive): 1840-1933

Bulk dates: 1865-1920

Collection Number: priJLC_HORT

Collector: Last, Jay T.

Extent: approximately 1,425 items

Repository: The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Prints and Ephemera

1151 Oxford Road

San Marino, California 91108

Phone: (626) 405-2191

Email: reference@huntington.org

URL: http://www.huntington.org

Repository: The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Prints and Ephemera

Huntington Library

1151 Oxford Road

San Marino, California 91108

Phone: 626-405-2191

Email: reference@huntington.org

URL: http://www.huntington.org

Abstract: The Jay T. Last Collection of Horticulture Prints and Ephemera contains approximately 1,425 printed items from 1840 to 1933, with the majority of material dating from 1865 to 1920. The collection consists of advertising prints and ephemera promoting businesses whose products and services relate to growing flowers, fruits, and vegetables. This includes the tools, equipment, and supplies used for planting and cultivating gardens, orchards, and lawns for commercial and noncommercial purposes by nurseries, florists, fruit growers, and home gardeners. Seed companies are most prominently represented.

Language: English.

Note:

Finding aid last updated on August 9, 2016.

Access

Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.

Administrative Information

Publication Rights

The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.

Preferred Citation

[Item title, Call number]. Jay T. Last Collection of Horticulture Prints and Ephemera, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Provenance

This collection forms part of the Jay T. Last Collection of Graphic Arts and Social History, which was donated to the Huntington Library by Jay T. Last in 2005 as a gift in progress. The bulk of the horticulture prints and ephemera was transferred to the Library between 2010 and 2013.

Background

The Jay T. Last Collection is an unparalleled archive of printed paper artifacts that documents American lithographic, social, and business history. The collection began in the early 1970s when physicist and Silicon Valley pioneer Jay Last moved to Southern California and started collecting citrus box labels he found at local flea markets and rummage sales. As his collection grew, Last realized that these labels conveyed important information about commercial printing, graphic design, and social history, and he expanded his collection to include other forms of American visual culture. Today this collection contains more than 200,000 lithographic prints, posters, and ephemera of mostly nineteenth- and early twentieth- century American origin and represents works by more than five hundred lithographic companies.

Scope and Content

The Jay T. Last Collection of Horticulture Prints and Ephemera contains approximately 1,425 printed items from 1840 to 1933, with the majority of material dating from 1865 to 1920. The collection consists of advertising prints and ephemera promoting businesses whose products and services relate to growing flowers, fruits, and vegetables. This includes the tools, equipment, and supplies used for planting and cultivating gardens, orchards, and lawns for commercial and noncommercial purposes by nurseries, florists, fruit growers, and home gardeners. Seed companies are most prominently represented.

Materials are arranged in two series: small-size items (11 x 14 inches or less) and large-size items (bigger than 11 x 14 inches). Small-size items are described broadly at the series level; large-size items and selected small-size items between 8 x 10 inches and 11 x 14 inches are fully inventoried, and all printers, artists, and publishers are indexed by name. The collection has more than 50 large-size items comprised mainly of lithographs and engravings, including seed advertisements, decorative floral prints, and promotional materials related to fruit, vegetable, and floral products. Small-size items in the collection number almost 1,400 items and are comprised mainly of trade cards, stationery, handbills, and seed packets from various businesses. Approximately 285 ephemeral items featuring images of anthropomorphic fruit, vegetables, flowers, and other plants are also contained here, even though the products they promote do not always relate to horticulture.

The collection's prints and ephemera are primarily promotional in nature and provide information about American fruit, vegetable, seed, and flower-related industries, as well as the evolution of advertising strategies employed by these businesses in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Materials in this collection also provide a perspective on American aesthetic sensibilities during this period, as many of these prints were offered as decorative items as well as advertisements. As graphic materials, the items offer evidence of printmaking techniques and trends, as well as information about the artists, engravers, lithographers, printers, and publishers involved in the creative process.

Alternative Form of Materials Available

Visit the Huntington Digital Library: Jay T. Last Collection to view digitized items from this collection.

Related materials in the Huntington Library

Jay T. Last Collection of Horticulture: Page Seed Company Business Correspondence

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in the following series and subseries:

Series I. Horticulture Prints and Ephemera (small size)
Series II. Horticulture Prints and Ephemera (large size)

Items are arranged numerically by call number and described in the following format:

Title of print. Date
Artist(s) (when known). Printer(s). Publisher(s)

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Huntington Library's Online Catalog.

Genres

Billheads.

Business cards.

Chromolithographs.

Contracts.

Ephemera.

Ephemera -- United States -- 19th century.

Ephemera -- United States -- 20th century.

Engravings.

Handbills.

Intaglio prints.

Leaflets (printed works).

Letterheads.

Lithographs.

Postcards.

Printed ephemera.

Promotional materials.

Relief prints.

Stationery.

Tickets.

Trade cards.

Subjects

Advertising -- Agriculture.

Advertising -- Floral products.

Advertising -- Seeds.

Flowers -- Pictorial works.

Fruit -- Pictorial works.

Gardens -- Pictorial works.

Girls -- Pictorial works.

Men -- Pictorial works.

Trees -- Pictorial works.

Vases -- Pictorial works.

Vegetables -- Pictorial works.

Women -- Pictorial works.

Printer, Publisher, Artist Index

The following is a complete list of printers, publishers, and artists represented in the individually cataloged items in this collection.

Adolph Nolte & Co.

American Lithographic Co.

Baudot, L.

Beatty & Co., Lith.

Brett Lithographing Co.

C.F. Muntz & Co.

Calvert Lithographing Co. (Detroit, Mich.)

Clay & Richmond.

Clay, Cosack & Co.

Coffin, Haskell, 1878-1941.

Cosack & Clark.

Cosack & Co.

Crump Label Co.

Currier & Ives.

Dewey, D. M. (Dellon Marcus), 1819-1889.

Editorial Seix Barral.

Ensigns & Thayer.

Forbes Lithograph Manufacturing Company.

Frauenberger, George F.

Goffart, J. L.

Hirschberg, Alice, 1856-1930.

J. Ottman Lithographic Company.

Kellogg & Comstock.

Kratzer, E.

Krebs Lithographing Company.

Lehman & Bolton.

Lith. & Chromo Co.

Lockhart, W. (William J.)

Lunzer, A.

Mensing & Stecher.

Peters, G. W.

Rahn, Anton.

Richmond & Co.

Stecher Litho. Co.

Strobridge & Co. Lith.

W.F. Humphrey Press.

Wall, H. M.

Walton, J. (Artist)

Series I. Horticulture Prints and Ephemera (small size) 1840-1933 (bulk 1870-1910)

Physical Description: approximately 1,375 items in 9 binders and 1 flat-top box

Scope and Content

This series contains approximately 1,375 small-size printed items that pertain to or portray imagery of horticulture in the United States from 1840 to 1933. The materials consist of advertising and promotional ephemera, illustrations, and business records related to horticultural industries. The horticulture-affiliated entities represented in this series include nurseries, florists, seed companies and lawn mower manufacturers. Item types include trade cards, catalogs, catalog covers, booklets, seed packets, price lists, and printed billheads and letterheads with and without manuscript text. The materials in this series either promote or are connected to horticulture-related products, services, or sponsoring businesses. Binder 1 is the exception, containing promotional ephemera featuring images of anthropomorphic fruits, vegetables, flowers, and other plants promoting hoticulture-affiliated businesses as well as companies in unrelated industries.

Arrangement

Items smaller than 8 x 10 inches are housed in binders. These items are grouped by business type and/or subject as indicated by the binder names, and are generally arranged alphabetically by merchant.

Items that are between 8 x 10 inches and 11 x 14 inches in size are individually sleeved and arranged numerically by call number in one box, and select items have been fully cataloged. These items are described in the following format:

Title of print. Date
Artist(s) (when known). Printer(s). Publisher(s).

Binder 1

Anthropomorphic Images (8 x 10 inches or smaller in size)

Physical Description: approximately 285 items

Binder 2

Mowers and Implements, A-Z by company (8 x 10 inches or smaller in size)

Physical Description: approximately 120 items

Binder 3

Seeds, Nurseries, and Florists, A-B by company (8 x 10 inches or smaller in size)

Physical Description: approximately 130 items

Binder 4

Seeds, Nurseries, and Florists, C by company (8 x 10 inches or smaller in size)

Physical Description: approximately 160 items

Binder 5

Seeds, Nurseries, and Florists, D-G by company (8 x 10 inches or smaller in size)

Physical Description: approximately 150 items

Binder 6

Seeds, Nurseries, and Florists, H-J by company (8 x 10 inches or smaller in size)

Physical Description: approximately 125 items

Binder 7

Seeds, Nurseries, and Florists, K-O by company (8 x 10 inches or smaller in size)

Physical Description: approximately 140 items

Binder 8

Seeds, Nurseries, and Florists, P-S by company (8 x 10 inches or smaller in size)

Physical Description: approximately 135 items

Binder 9

Seeds, Nurseries, and Florists, T-Z by company (8 x 10 inches or smaller in size)

Physical Description: approximately 110 items

Box 1

Horticulture Prints and Ephemera (between 8 x 10 inches and 11 x 14 inches in size)

Physical Description: approximately 20 items

Note

Select items in this box have been fully cataloged and are listed below.

priJLC_HORT_001767 Shakers' dried green sweet corn. 1879-1882

Printers: Crump Label Co.

priJLC_HORT_002471 Roses hare bell and sweet pea. 1848-1850

Printers: Kellogg & Comstock Publishers: Ensigns & Thayer

priJLC_HORT_003546 The specimen book of fruits, flowers and ornamental trees. 1870s

Publishers: Dewey, D. M. (Dellon Marcus), 1819-1889

priJLC_HORT_003547 Choice flower seeds from D. M. Ferry & Co, Detroit, Mich. after 1867

Printers: Calvert Lithographing Co. (Detroit, Mich.)

priJLC_HORT_003549 J. Leverone & Co. wholesale fruit dealers Cincinnati, O. approximately 1880s

Printers: Richmond & Co.

priJLC_HORT_003550 Wm. Henry Maule, Philadelphia, U.S.A. : A hard times fruit tree offer... after 1877

priJLC_HORT_003557 Men wanted by Sears, Henry & Co., nurserymen, Geneva, N.Y. after 1869

Printers: W.F. Humphrey Press

Series II. Horticulture Prints and Ephemera (large size) approximately 1846-1921 (bulk 1865-1910)

Physical Description: 56 items

Scope and Content

This series contains over 50 large-size printed items related to horticulture in the United States from approximately 1846 to 1921, with the majority of items dating from 1865 to 1910. The series is comprised mainly of lithographed advertising and documentary prints depicting flowers, fruits, vegetables, and trees offered by various seed suppliers.

These materials consist of color-printed, hand-colored, and uncolored images that range in size from approximately 11 x 14 inches to 25 x 35 inches. Notable holdings include prints from seed merchants Briggs & Bro., Crosman Bros., and James Vick of Rochester, New York; D.M. Ferry & Co. of Detroit, Michigan; and Jerome B. Rice & Co. of Cambridge, New York.

Arrangement

Items are arranged numerically by call number and described in the following format:

Title of print. Date
Artist(s) (when known). Printer(s). Publisher(s).

priJLC_HORT_002420

For 1891 Rice's novelties in vegetables. Marblehead mammoth cabbage. 1891