Sanders, Edgar

Edgar Sanders, born in 1827, was a prominent florist in Chicago from the mid- to late-nineteenth century.

From the guide to the Sanders, Edgar. Scrapbooks, 1884-1900, (Special Collections Research Center University of Chicago Library 1100 East 57th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637 U.S.A.)

Edgar Sanders was a horticulturist who opened Chicago's first permanent flower store in 1864.

Sanders was born on 10 October, 1827 in East Grinstead, Sussex, England. His father was also a gardener, and Sanders' early career was as head gardener for two Surrey estates. In 1853 he left England with his wife, where he established a nursery with a Mr. Rathbone in Albany, New York.

In 1857 Sanders moved to Chicago, building a fifty-foot greenhouse and organizing the Chicago Gardener's Club. His pioneering flower store was destroyed in the fire of 1871 but reopened in 1874. Sanders variously chief executive and treasurer of the Chicago Florist's Club, an active member of the Cook County and Northern Illinois Agricultural and Horticultural Societies, and president of the American Association of Nurserymen. He also wrote for The Country Gentleman, The Prairie Farmer, The Orange Judd Farmer, The Philadelphia Florist, The London Gardener's Chronicle, The American Gardener's Chronicle, and The Florist's Exchange.

Sanders died in 1907. He was remembered in The Florist's Exchange for his "rugged honesty," "unvarying amiability," and "complete unselfishness." The Illinois Horticultural Society called his life "a story of progressive achievement and kindly living in a world of the beautiful."

From the guide to the Sanders, Edgar. Papers, 1845-1898, (Special Collections Research Center University of Chicago Library 1100 East 57th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637 U.S.A.)