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Lippincott, Carrie H. (1860–1941)

In 1887, Carrie H. Lippincott was a twenty-seven-year-old New Jersey native with an eighth-grade education. She moved to Minnesota, where she created a mail-order company focused on selling flower seeds to women. Lippincott established herself in her new home by practicing innovative marketing methods and developing what we might call today a personal brand, declaring herself “The Pioneer Seedswoman of America.”

Carrie H. Lippincott in her flower shop

Carrie H. Lippincott in her flower shop, 1922. Miss C. H. Lippincott seed company scrapbook, ca. 1893–ca. 1922, Sound and Visual Collection, Minnesota Historical Society.

Page from the 1906 Lippincott Seeds catalog featuring Lippincott’s home

Carrie H. Lippincott’s home (602–604 Tenth Street S., Minneapolis), ca. 1906. Lippincott is shown in the inset at the upper right. The image was printed in the 1906 Lippincott Seeds catalog and in periodicals like the Citizen and Farmer. Miss C.H. Lippincott seed company scrapbook, ca. 1893–ca. 1922, Sound and Visual Collection, Minnesota Historical Society.

Views of Lippincott’s Seed Store

Photos of Lippincott’s Seed Store in Hudson, Wisconsin, showing plants and cut flowers. From the 1914 Lippincott Seeds catalog, page 50. Henry G. Gilbert Nursery and Seed Trade Catalog Collection, National Agricultural Library, US Department of Agriculture.

Carrie H. Lippincott seed catalog cover, 1897

Cover of the 1897 Carrie H. Lippincott seed catalog. National Agricultural Library, US Department of Agriculture.

Cover of a Northrup, Braslan, Goodwin Company seed catalog, 1895

The cover of a Northrup, Braslan, Goodwin Company seed catalog, 1895. The design represents the masculine style that dominated seed catalogs in the early 1890s, before Carrie H. Lippincott popularized a more feminine one. Andersen Horticultural Library, University of Minnesota.