The years between 1880 and 1910 are referred to as the "Golden Age of Seed Catalogs," the era of brightly colored lithographs that depicted the latest hybrids and imported plants in the pages of nurse1y and seed catalogs.

This cover illustration is from the 1898 Vaughan's Seed Store catalog, Vaughan '.s Autumn Bulbs and Plants. Established in 1876, Vaughan's of both Chicago and New York issued eight sepa­rate catalogs to attract business in different mar­kets. This catalog is part of the collections of the Horticulture Branch, Smithsonian Institution Li­braiies, a 19-branch system based in Washington, D.C. with over 1.2 million books and 285,000 trade catalogs, including 13,000 seed and nmsery catalogs.

The Smithsonian Institution Libraries with their digital publications and other electronic resources online (www.sil.si.edu) play an es­sential role in the research conducted in the institution and in its exhibition and educa­tion programs. The libraries' collections are used by scholars in many disciplines.