C. Eisele, Florist, Philadelphia, Pa.

Sign on the side of the building in the photo: "Floricultural Establishment. C. Eisele, N.W. cor. 11th and Jefferson Streets."

"C. Eisele, florist, 1500 & 1502 N. Eleventh St., Philadelphia."

A remarkable nineteenth-century business card with a photo of the Eisele greenhouse and shop on one side and the florist's name and address in ornate Victorian typefaces on the other (mouse over the image above to see enlargements of the front and back).

The florist's greenhouse is attached to the side of a row house, and various plants, trees, planters, urns, and a handcart are on display on the sidewalk around it. A man (C. Eisele himself?) is visible in the lower right-hand corner of the photo, and someone else (possibly a woman--Mrs. Eisele, perhaps?) is looking out of one of the second-floor windows.

C. Eisele was Christian (Johann Christian) Eisele. He operated this "Floricultural Establishment" with his brother, John G. (Johann Gottlieb) Eisele, at this location until about 1880, after which John started his own business elsewhere in Philadelphia. For more information about the brothers, see the description of John G. Eisele's "Landscape Plan and Family Documents, ca. 1840-ca. 1890," which are part of the holdings of the Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library in Winterthur, Delaware.