Scope and Contents Note

This series documents the various Flower Shows organized by the HSNY from 1916-1998. These include the International Flower Show, the New York Flower Show, the Bryant Park Flower Show and the HSNY Flower Show. The records are arranged into three subseries based on format: Meeting Minutes & Working Files; Print Matter and Ephemera; and Photographs and Scrapbooks. The subseries are arranged by event.

Meeting Minutes and Working Files primarily includes the minutes of the meetings related to the planning of the International Flower Shows and the New York Flower Shows. For the years 1942 to 1970 these records include the Board of Directors meeting minutes for International Flower Show, Inc., the corporate body created to organize and run the shows over that period. Prior to 1942, and for the New York Flower Shows, informal committees conducted the planning. These minutes provide insight into the strategic, financial, legal, and other issues surrounding the various Flower Shows.

This subseries also includes various working files and publicity files, especially for the New York Flower Shows. The files include floor plans for some of the International Flower Shows of the 1960s, held at the New York Coliseum building; a 1969 memo from Horticultural Society of New York Executive Director Alexander Allport titled "The Future of the International Flower Show," which expressed concerns that would eventually lead to the termination of those shows; publicity packets for the New York shows; sponsor lists; logistical notes; and other items.

Print Matter & Ephemera includes bound and loose copies of International Flower Show (IFS) official programs (1913-1970); IFS schedules (1913-1970); Horticultural Society of New York (HSNY) schedule of classes and premiums (1908-1935); HSNY programs/flower show books (1922-1965); HSNY Autumn exhibition programs (1946-1953); HSNY Narcissus & Spring show programs (1936-1958); HSNY Flower Show Schedules (1956-1973); New York Flower Show programs (1985-1996; note that there was no 1994 New York Flower Show); Rockefeller Center Flower Show program (1994); flower show promotional ephemera (1984-1996).

Photographs and Scrapbooks includes images (i.e., photographic prints, slide, glass lantern slides, negatives, and contact prints) of the International Flower Show (1916-1969), the New York Flower Show (1936-1996, with scrapbooks for the 1988, 1992, 1993, and 1995 shows), the Bryant Park Flower Show (1969-1978, with a scrapbook honoring the achievements of Henrietta Sedgwick Lockwood, creator of the Bryant Park Flower Show), and a handful of smaller shows, like the Rockefeller Center Flower Show (1994), Boston Flower Show (1995), and Philadelphia Flower Show (1981, 1998).