Seidewitz, Edwin A.

[PROGRAM] The Gardeners' Club... Annual Chrysanthemum Show; Music Hall - Baltimore, November 16th to 21st, 1896

Baltimore: Thos. J Sheubrooks, 1896. Staplebound. 30 pages. 22 x 14 cm. Featuring illustrated local Baltimore advertising throughout. Introduction by Mr. Seidewitz, followed by six days of concerts by the 5th Regiment Orchestra, with Charles Weber - Musical Director. Rules of Governing the competition, award amounts and a full page listing the Patrons and Patronesses of the show. Covers rubbed at edges and lightly toned.

Mr. Seidewitz was one of the foremost florists in Maryland, ex-Mayor of Annapolis (1899-1901), former president of the Rotary Club and the President of the Baltimore Florists' Exchange. This Exchange was said to be the first organization in America dedicated to the exchange of trees, plants, flowers, and seeds in addition to the general sharing of horticultural knowledge among horticulturists and tradesmen who bought and sold flowers. Oddly enough, after Mr. Seidewitz was successful in ushering this Exchange into fruition, even propelling the construction of a new building to house this mutual florists' association, Mr. Seidewitz became a cruel victim of bullying by Baltimore Society during the first World War.

According to the book The Illusion of Victory: America in W.W.I by Thomas J. Fleming, "shortly after war was declared, the florist met some officers from several German ships that had been trapped in Baltimore's harbor since 1914. They were in a gloomy mood, lamenting their long separation from friends and family and the prospect of internment as enemy aliens until the war ended. Seidewitz bought them beer, and they drank together. Touched by their plight, the florist kissed one of them on the forehead in an attempt to comfort the man. Word soon swept Baltimore that Seidewitz had 'kissed a German.' His floral business collapsed. He was expelled from the Rotary Club, after directors refused to let him speak to the members in his own defense." On August 24, 1918 Seidewitz committed suicide by revolver while his family was downstairs in their home on Old Pimlico Road. Illustrated wraps. Good. Item #2478

Price: $150.00