Shaker Seed Company
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Agriculture, Seed distribution |
| Founded | 1794 |
| Fate | Ceased operations around 1890 |
| Headquarters | New Lebanon, New York , United States |
Area served | Northeastern United States, North America |
| Products | Vegetable seeds, flower seeds, herb seeds, grass seeds |
The Shaker Seed Company was a United States-based seed company managed and owned by the Shakers during the 18th and 19th centuries. Numerous Shaker communities cultivated and sold various vegetable seed types. This company revolutionized seed commerce by enhancing methods of distribution, packaging, and catalog creation, thereby reshaping the horticultural industry’s approach.
The Mount Lebanon Shaker Village located in New Lebanon, New York stood out as the most prosperous and was the first to promote the Shaker Seed Company brand in its advertisements. Their letterhead featured the slogan "Experto crede" and highlighted its founding year of 1794.
Background
In August 1774, a group of nine Shakers arrived from England to New York City. By 1776, they had established a settlement in Watervliet, New York, where they expanded their religious influence throughout the Northeastern region. Around 1787, their central headquarters was set up at New Lebanon, New York. By the middle of the 19th century, eighteen prominent Shaker settlements had been established.
Known for their dedication to gardening, the Shakers preserved superior seeds for future planting. Historian D.A. Buckingham records that Joseph Turner of Watervliet allocated two acres in 1790 specifically for growing vegetable seeds intended for sale, marking him as America’s earliest seed merchant. The Watervliet Shakers were trailblazers in commercial seed distribution within the United States. Around this period, the New Lebanon Shakers began marketing excess seeds but only designated specific land for seed cultivation starting in 1795. Comparable initiatives were also underway at Canterbury, New Hampshire and Hancock, Massachusetts.
Sales
At the dawn of the 19th century, Shaker seed distributors were among a limited number of suppliers serving American gardeners. Selling seeds became an important source of income for the Shakers, focusing primarily on small rural towns and farming areas throughout the Northeastern United States. Their marketing strategies were notably sophisticated for that era, earning them a reputation for reliability and reasonable prices. The Shaker Seed Company played a vital role in providing essential garden seeds during America’s pioneering period.
Garden seeds were sold by the New Lebanon Shakers beginning in 1794; however, commercial sales as a significant enterprise took off by 1800. At its height during the mid-1800s, New Lebanon moved more than 37,000 pounds of seeds valued close to $34,000 over a span of 25 years. Meanwhile, both Canterbury Shaker Village (NH) and Enfield Shakers (CT) devoted over 100 acres to seed cultivation. Mount Lebanon emerged as the leading community in seed commerce; between 1800 and 1880 their seeds reached customers across North America and were esteemed as top quality—frequently serving as the only available source for those living in rural areas.
Historical data highlights onion seed as their best-selling product before and after 1800; Artemas Markham alone sold upwards of 200 pounds in 1795. In 1800, sales of over 44 pounds comprising various vegetable seeds—such as mangelwurzel blood beet, carrot, cucumber, and summer squash—brought in $406. Although vegetables formed the bulk of their inventory, they also marketed flowers, herbs, and grasses. By 1840, seed sales had become their primary business focus.
Initial catalogs featured around twelve seed varieties; by 1873 selections had grown to include eight types of tomato, seven varieties of turnip, six lettuces, nine squashes, eleven cabbages, sixteen peas, and fifteen beans. Catalogs from 1890 listed more than one hundred different seed kinds.
Paper envelope packaging
The Shakers were the first to introduce the idea of packaging seeds in small paper envelope-style packets, marking a major advancement in seed marketing and distribution. These envelopes included printed instructions for planting and occasionally advice on storage or cooking, representing an early strategic use of packaging to add value and convenience for customers.
This breakthrough is attributed to Shakers Josiah Holmes and Jonathan Holmes from the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village. Prior to this, seeds were sold exclusively in bulk fabric sacks. The earliest envelopes were crafted by hand from simple brown paper, labeled with the seed type, origin, and sometimes the name of the grower. Ebenezer Alden invented a printing block tool to manually print on these envelopes, which was later enhanced by early nineteenth-century machinery designed to speed up the cutting and printing process.
Records from Shaker journals at New Lebanon specify packet dimensions customized for various seeds, including sizes for pound-bags, beans, beets, onions, cucumbers, radishes, and lettuce. These seed packets were organized in vibrant wooden display boxes made by the Shakers and marketed widely across the United States throughout the 1800s.
Across general stores nationwide, these wooden boxes held roughly 200 packets each, with individual packets retailing for five or six cents. Shaker sales representatives maintained extensive routes primarily throughout the northeastern U.S., delivering seed packets on consignment during spring and collecting payments in autumn. Their distribution network also included mail-order sales.
The New Lebanon-based Shaker Seed Company was particularly prolific, manufacturing more than 100,000 seed packets annually between 1846 and 1870, demonstrating considerable expansion and influence within the seed market.
Demise
While the Shakers’ commitment to quality was central to their achievements, it also imposed limitations on their business growth. They declined to compete on price with commercial seed sellers who benefited from lower transportation costs and access to urban markets. This reluctance to reduce prices contributed to the gradual decline of their seed enterprise.
When the New Lebanon Shaker community initiated their seed business in 1790, the U.S. population was below four million. By around 1890, when the Shaker Seed Company ceased operations, the population had surged to nearly fifty-two million—indicating significant opportunities for expansion that were not fully realized.
External links
- New Shaker Seed Boxes – Ruby Lane, 2015
- Edward Deming Andrews Memorial Shaker Collection – Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library
- Postcard from the Shaker Seed Company, Mount Lebanon, New York
- Shaker Seed Company Bill of Sale
- Shaker Seed Boxes (Reproduction)