At Large in the Library: Reinhardt Maitre

The Garden Library of the New Orleans Town Gardeners recently received a gift of Reinhardt Maitre's Illustrated and Descriptive Catalogue of Vegetable and Flower Seeds, Holland or Dutch Bulbs, Tuberous and Perennial Plants, Green-house Hot-house and Bedding Plants. . . (1875). Printed in Philadelphia, the work is known in two extant copies, one at Tulane University and the other at the Kentucky Historical Society Library.

Maitre was a German-born seedsman who immigrated to New Orleans in 1853. He began his career as a vegetable farmer, selling his cauliflower, celery and “ruta bagas” at the Magazine Market. By 1875 his business was so lucrative that he owned a Magazine Street seed store,(*) and operated expansive nurseries and greenhouses along Magazine Street beyond Louisiana.

He encouraged the public to visit:

“The Magazine, or St. Charles and Jackson Street Cars, leaving their depots on Canal between Camp and St. Charles Street, every three minutes will bring STRANGERS and VISITORS from the lower parts of the city, after a most pleasant ride, to the Store, and affording the same convenience to return – both lines having double tracks just before and near the Store. The Nurseries and Greenhouses are only three squares above the Magazine Car Station on Toledano Street, from whence a five minutes’ walk, on a most spacious side-walk brings Visitors to No. 976 Magazine Street.”


(*) 631 Magazine Street in 1875 (lakeside corner of Magazine at Jackson).

Images above:  Title Page. R. MAITRE’S Illustrated and Descriptive Catalogue of Vegetable and Flower Seeds, Holland or Dutch Bulbs, Tuberous and Perennial Plants, Green-House Hot-House and Bedding Plants, Ornamental and Evergreen Trees, Flowering Shrubbery, Camellias and Roses….  Philadelphia: Spangler & Davis, 1875. Garden Library of the New Orleans Town Gardeners, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Sanborn Insurance Company. Insurance Map of New Orleans, Louisiana, Vol. 1. New York: 1876. Sheet 4. Fire Insurance Atlases, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.