Description: "Twenty-Ounce Apple," from "The Specimen Book of Fruits, Flowers and Ornamental Trees: Carefully Drawn and Colored from Nature for the Use of Nurserymen" (Rochester: D.M. Dewey, 1872). The image is of a brightly colored apple with leaves and a broken stem set against an off-white background. The name "D.W. Sargent, Rochester, N.Y." is printed in the lower left corner; in the lower right corner is printed "Fruits and Flower Plates, 1000 Varieties." Dellon Marcus Dewey (1819-1889) was a bookseller and publisher in Rochester, New York. He recognized an opportunity in the booming horticulture industry of the mid- to late 1800s. Beginning in the late 1850s Dewey produced "plates," brightly colored illustrations of fruits, flowers, and ornamental trees. Traveling sales representatives from nurseries used these plates to market their company's products to consumers. By the 1870s Dewey began compiling portfolios and custom plate books and portfolios for customers. He employed a staff of artists and other workers to create the images. In 1888 Dewey merged his company with Rochester Lithographing and Printing Company, a firm noted for its expertise in chromolithography. Dewey died late the following year. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL05781
Subjects: Dewey, Dellon Marcus, 1819-1889; Trade catalogs--Ohio--1880-1900; Nurseries (Horticulture)--Catalogs; Botanical illustration; Ohio Economy--Agriculture
Places: Rochester (New York)
 

Description: "Choicest Varieties of Celery" is the headline next to a drawing of Kalamazoo celery, a new variety promoted on p. 11 of the trade catalog "Beautiful Flowers from the Calla Greenhouses, Calla, Ohio" (1899). The illustration shows a bunch of celery with the letters of the name "Kalamazoo" arranged in a vertical column. The catalog was published by Lewis Templin and Sons Seed Company (Calla, Ohio), which was among the largest mail-order seed houses in the United States during the mid- to late 1800s. Pennsylvania native Lewis Templin moved to Ohio in 1822 and started his nursery in 1845 in Canfield. In 1866 Templin and four sons built a greenhouse at Loveland Station (later renamed "Calla"). The business had a well-deserved reputation for quality products and for generating its financial success solely from small, individual orders. Templin's son Mark produced the firm's catalogs, including "Beautiful Flowers from the Calla Greenhouses." An estimated 300,000 catalogs were distributed annually. A fire destroyed the company's entire spring crop in January 1892, but afterwards the firm rebuilt on an even larger scale. Lewis Templin died in 1899. His sons continued operating the business until 1907, when increased competition and rising costs caused it to fail. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL05783
Subjects: Nurseries (Horticulture)--Catalogs; Seed products; Trade catalogs--Ohio--1880-1900; Botanical illustration; Ohio Economy--Agriculture
Places: Calla (Ohio); Mahoning County (Ohio)
 

Description: "King of Tompkins County Apple" is an illustration from "The Specimen Book of Fruits, Flowers and Ornamental Trees. Carefully Drawn and Colored from Nature for the Use of Nurserymen" (Rochester: D.M. Dewey, 1872). The image is of a bright red apple with leaves and a broken stem set against an off-white background. The words "M. Dewey's Series colored from nature" are printed in the lower left corner; in the lower right corner is printed "American Fruits and Flowers." Penciled notations include "1/4" "W" and "g." Dellon Marcus Dewey (1819-1889) was a bookseller and publisher in Rochester, New York. He recognized an opportunity in the booming horticulture industry of the mid- to late 1800s. Beginning in the late 1850s Dewey produced "plates," brightly colored illustrations of fruits, flowers, and ornamental trees. Traveling sales representatives from nurseries used these plates to market their company's products to consumers. By the 1870s Dewey began compiling portfolios and custom plate books and portfolios for customers. He employed a staff of artists and other workers to create the images. In 1888 Dewey merged his company with Rochester Lithographing and Printing Company, a firm noted for its expertise in chromolithography. Dewey died late the following year. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL05787
Subjects: Dewey, Dellon Marcus, 1819-1889; Nurseries (Horticulture)--Catalogs; Trade catalogs; Botanical illustration
Places: Rochester (New York)
 

Description: An illustration of the Duchess d Anjouleme pear, from "The Specimen Book of Fruits, Flowers and Ornamental Trees: Carefully Drawn and Colored from Nature for the Use of Nurserymen" (Rochester: D.M. Dewey, 1872). The image is of a brightly colored yellow-gold pear with leaves and a broken stem set against an off-white background. The words "D.M. Dewey's Series Colored from Nature" appear in the lower left corner; "American Fruits and Flowers" appears in the lower right corner. The penciled notation "0.75" is written at the bottom. Dellon Marcus Dewey (1819-1889) was a bookseller and publisher in Rochester, New York. He recognized an opportunity in the booming horticulture industry of the mid- to late 1800s. Beginning in the late 1850s Dewey produced "plates," brightly colored illustrations of fruits, flowers, and ornamental trees. Traveling sales representatives from nurseries used these plates to market their company's products to consumers. By the 1870s Dewey began compiling portfolios and custom plate books and portfolios for customers. He employed a staff of artists and other workers to create the images. In 1888 Dewey merged his company with Rochester Lithographing and Printing Company, a firm noted for its expertise in chromolithography. Dewey died late the following year. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL05788
Subjects: Dewey, Dellon Marcus, 1819-1889; Nurseries (Horticulture)--Catalogs; Botanical illustration; Trade catalogs
Places: Rochester (New York)
 

Description: "Old Mixon Free Peaches" is an illustration from the trade catalog "The Specimen Book of Fruits, Flowers and Ornamental Trees: Carefully Drawn and Colored from Nature for the Use of Nurserymen" (Rochester: D.M. Dewey, 1872). The image is of a pale-gold peach with a rosy blush (and green leaves) set against an off-white background. The words "D.M. Dewey's Series Colored from Nature" is printed in the lower left corner; in the lower right corner is printed "American Fruits and Flowers." Handwritten notations at the bottom edge read "25 cts." and "Pineapple & Sweet Water." Dellon Marcus Dewey (1819-1889) was a bookseller and publisher in Rochester, New York. He recognized an opportunity in the booming horticulture industry of the mid- to late 1800s. Beginning in the late 1850s Dewey produced "plates," brightly colored illustrations of fruits, flowers, and ornamental trees. Traveling sales representatives from nurseries used these plates to market their company's products to consumers. By the 1870s Dewey began compiling portfolios and custom plate books and portfolios for customers. He employed a staff of artists and other workers to create the images. In 1888 Dewey merged his company with Rochester Lithographing and Printing Company, a firm noted for its expertise in chromolithography. Dewey died late the following year. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL05789
Subjects: Dewey, Dellon Marcus, 1819-1889; Nurseries (Horticulture)--Catalogs; Botanical illustration; Trade catalogs
Places: Rochester (New York)
 

Description: A sketchbook titled "Plant Descriptions and Field-Notes. Season of '87," arranged by William Werthner of Central High School in Dayton, Ohio, and kept by Paul Laurence Dunbar. The volume contains forms for recording and sketching buds, trees, flowers, and field notes including experiments, distribution of seed, color and fragrance, cross-fertilization, etc. An introductory "Suggestions" section offers recommendations of how and why to study botany, and many pages include poems and quotes from notable figures about the value and beauty of nature. Notes are presumed to have been written by Dunbar while he was a high school student at Central High School. This item was part of Paul Laurence Dunbar's personal library at the time of his death in 1906. Paul Laurence Dunbar, the son of formerly enslaved parents, was one of the first African Americans in the United States to gain prominence as a poet. He was a prolific writer of dialect poems, standard English poems, short stories, novels, librettos, plays, songs and essays. A native of Dayton, Dunbar attended high school with Wilbur and Orville Wright. His early literary work won the praise of notable literary and cultural figures such as James Whitcomb Riley, Frederick Douglass, and William Dean Howells. Dunbar travelled in the United States and to Europe to give readings of his work, but a worsening case of tuberculosis eventually limited his travels. He spent his last years living with his mother in Dayton, where he died in 1906 at the age of 33. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: H89725_001
Subjects: Dunbar, Paul Laurence, 1872-1906; Botanical illustration; Plants; Ohio History--Natural and Native Ohio; Students -- Ohio;
Places: Dayton (Ohio); Montgomery County (Ohio)