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Visual Materials

Series I. Horticulture Prints and Ephemera (small size)


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    Series II. Horticulture Prints and Ephemera (large size)

    Visual Materials

    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.

    priJLC_HORT

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    Jay T. Last Collection of Horticulture Prints and Ephemera

    Visual Materials

    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.

    priJLC_HORT

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

    Visual Materials

    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. 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.

    priJLC_HORT

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    Series I. Agriculture Prints and Ephemera (small size)

    Visual Materials

    This series contains approximately 2,190 small-size printed items that pertain to or portray imagery of agriculture in the United States from approximately 1818 to 1915. The materials consist of advertising and promotional ephemera, illustrations, and business records related to agricultural industries. The agriculture-affiliated entities represented in this series include fertilizer companies, implement and machinery vendors and manufacturers, and fencing suppliers. Products advertised include harvesters, plows, reapers, rakes, hoes, tedders, pumps, windmills, fertilizer, and barb wire fencing for livestock. Item types include trade cards, leaflets, handbills, calendars, price lists, small catalogs, and printed billheads and letterheads with and without manuscript text.

    priJLC_AGR

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    Series I. Beverage Prints and Ephemera (small size)

    Visual Materials

    This series contains approximately 3,175 small-size printed items that pertain to the beverage industries and related products in the United States from approximately 1840-1930. The materials consist of advertising and promotional ephemera, illustrations, and business records related to beverage industries. The beverage-affiliated entities represented in this series include breweries, distilleries, liquor distributors, tea and coffee merchants, milk suppliers and dairies, and water and ice companies. Item types include trade cards, die-cut scraps, calendars, booklets, product labels, and printed billheads and letterheads with manuscript text. The materials in this series either promote or are broadly connected to beverage-related products, services, or sponsoring businesses. Many of the images depict bottles, barrels, and drinks, though the collection also has a wide variety of other images, including young women; animals; children and families; comic scenes and caricatures of ethnic groups such as Chinese, Native American Indians and African Americans; views of buildings and landscapes; and patriotic symbols and vignettes. Items are arranged mainly by product type and then alphabetically according to company name. Groupings include: Beer, Liquor, and Wine; Coffee and Tea; Juice (including ciders and cider vinegars), Soda, and Water (including ice); and Milk. Items smaller than 8 x 10 inches are housed in binders, while items that are between 8 x 10 inches and 11 x 14 inches in size are individually sleeved and arranged in folders in one box.

    priJLC_BEV

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    Series I. Transportation Prints and Ephemera (small size)

    Visual Materials

    This series contains more than 570 small-size printed items pertaining to land-based modes of transportation primarily in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century. The series consists of miscellaneous business records and advertising and promotional materials produced for or related to the bicycle, carriage and wagon, railroad, and freight and passenger transport industries. While most of the pieces date from the late 1870s through 1905, among the earliest items in the collection is an 1826 pamphlet printed for the American Tract Society entitled "All Right." A dialogue between a coach guard and a passenger. Items range in size from approximately 1 x 3 inches to 11 x 9 inches and though many of images depict transportation vehicles and related equipment, there is a wide variety of imagery including views of factories, buildings, and storefronts, images of children, young women, birds, animals, flowers, trees, and cartoons and caricatures. The transportation-affiliated entities represented in this series include vehicle, part, equipment, and accessory manufacturers, dealers, and retailers such as wheel works, carriage, sleigh, and wagon builders, bicycle manufacturers, and locomotive and car machine shops. Item types include printed booklets, business cards, calendars, catalogs, envelopes, handbills, labels, leaflets, postcards, trade cards, and separated book and periodical illustrations, as well as stationery with printed billheads and letterheads filled out with manuscript or typewritten correspondence.

    priJLC_TRAN