Original 1940 R. H. Shumway Seeds Catalog, Rockford Illinois, 96 Pages, Illustrated, Complete

Here's an original 1940 seed catalog from R. H. Shumway of Rockford Illinois. In good shape and complete, this catalog contains 96 illustrated pages of seeds, along with plants, bulbs, shrubs, and fruit trees. It is absolutely loaded with old-style lithograph-type images and photos. It has brightly colored covers and black and white content. It shows typical age with the usual stress lines on the cover and spine, but all the pages are there and intact. Lots of great content that will provide hours of great reading. Interestingly, Shumway died in 1925 after being hit by a car. His son ran the business until he too died in 1933. However, in this 1940 catalog, the introductory letter to customers in the front is still signed R H Shumway despite his passing 15 years earlier.

Established in 1870, Shumway was operated in Rockford up through the 1980s, when the business was purchased and moved several times, ending up in Randolph, WI. At one time, this company was the largest of all the mail order seed houses. It is now part of the Jung Seed Co., still doing business under the Shumway name today.