Dewey, Dellon Marcus.
“Belle de Thours” [Chromolithograph]

In the latter half of the nineteenth century Rochester was a leading American nursery and seed center. The Ellwanger and Barry, James Vick and Joseph Harris companies were but three of the firms that established Rochester's reputation as the “Flower City.” Auxiliary to the nursery businesses allied enterprises developed, one of which was the production of colored fruit and flower prints designed to aid nurserymen and their travelling salesmen sell plants. D. M. Dewey (1819-1889) founded his business in the mid 1850s and it became one of the major companies producing nurserymen's color plates of thousands of varieties of fruits, flowers, shrubs, and ornamental trees.