Did you know that seeds are intellectual property?  That you are breaking the law if you harvest them to use again? Don’t even bother, because seed companies today are making sure you won’t get the same plant.  It is time to start thinking seriously about open source seeds and only getting seeds from places like the Seed Savers Exchange. Long before we had to worry about genetically modified food and going to the Supreme Court for reusing seeds, it looks like a tough decision was choosing which seed catalog to buy seeds from. The competition was big, so the angles are varied; cherubs, children, beautiful women, orientalism, patriotism, and of course, early-blooming.  These catalogs are all archived at the Smithsonian Digital Library.

Seed Catalogs from Smithsonian Institution Libraries.