Trailblazer Thursday
Miss C. H. Lippincott
"Pioneer Seedswoman of America"
1863-1941
Carrie H. Lippincott aka Miss C.H. Lippincott was a young woman with a big dream. 28 year old Carrie needed to find a way to bring extra income into her household so in 1891 she started a flower seed catalog company. Carrie collected the seed-both flower and vegetable-from her own vast gardens and then repackaged the seed for sale. Carrie designed her marketing strategy to appeal to female customers and went from a distribution of 6,000 catalogs in her first year (1891) to 250,000 catalogs by 1898. Approximately one out of every six households in the U.S. had a copy of Carrie's 1898 catalog.
Carrie's seed catalogs featured beautiful artwork like this lithograph from the cover of the 1905 edition.
Inside Carrie often took the opportunity to write a message to her customers that she would then sign personally expressing her gratitude for their patronage as seen here in a page from her 1913 edition:
Carrie's seed income supported herself and her widowed mother, sister and her sister's family. Carrie was listed as Head of Household in the Federal Census of 1910 and she provided the only income for the family of five.
Carrie never married or had children. She lived a long life and passed away at the age of 78.
Miss Carrie H. Lippincott is my maternal 6th Cousin 4 times removed.
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