People have saved and swapped seed for as long as they have farmed. The modern seed library grew out of the 1970s seed-saving movement, took its lending form in Berkeley around 2000 and in a New York public library in 2004, and spread nationwide after Richmond, California gave away its how-to in 2010. Our directory now counts more than a thousand verified seed libraries in the United States.
Older than farming books.
For most of history, growers kept back part of every harvest to plant the next year and traded seed with neighbors. Over generations that local swapping produced varieties fitted to particular soils, climates and kitchens. The twentieth century broke much of the chain. Hybrid seed, which does not breed true, became standard; gardeners and farmers learned to buy fresh seed every season; the seed trade consolidated; and many regional and family varieties quietly disappeared.
The seed savers, 1975.
In England, Lawrence Hills and the Henry Doubleday Research Association began collecting old vegetable varieties in 1975, after European rules made it illegal to sell seed of varieties not on the official lists. The work, begun as a genetic resources unit while the association was based in Bocking, Essex, became the Heritage Seed Library, now run by Garden Organic, which keeps about 800 varieties and sends out more than 30,000 packets a year.
The same year in the United States, Kent Whealy and Diane Ott Whealy inherited two varieties from Diane's grandfather, Baptist John Ott: 'Grandpa Ott's' morning glory and the 'German Pink' tomato, which his parents had brought from Bavaria. They wrote to gardening and homesteading magazines looking for other people keeping family seed, and the True Seed Exchange began in Missouri with 29 members. It renamed itself Seed Savers Exchange in 1979 and moved to Decorah, Iowa in 1985. It now keeps some 20,000 varieties.
Seed libraries arrive.
Seed Savers Exchange worked by mail and membership. The seed library, a local place to borrow seed and bring it back, came next. BASIL, the Bay Area Seed Interchange Library, began in Berkeley around 1999 and 2000, started by Sascha DuBrul and friends and housed at the Ecology Center. It is generally called the oldest seed library in the modern sense.
In 2004 Ken Greene, a librarian at the Gardiner Public Library in New York, added seed varieties to the library's catalog so patrons could check them out, inspired by BASIL. It is widely cited as the first seed library in a US public library. In 2008 Greene and his partner Doug Muller moved the work to a farm in Accord, New York; it is now the Hudson Valley Seed Company.
The model that spread came from Richmond, California. Rebecca Newburn, a science teacher, approached the Richmond Public Library in January 2010, and the Richmond Grows Seed Lending Library opened that May. From the start it gave away its setup materials so other towns could copy it. Newburn went on to found the Seed Library Network, whose census and map most seed libraries use today.
The movement spreads.
Growth came fast. Newburn counted more than 90 seed libraries in 2013. In May 2015 Tucson hosted the first International Seed Library Forum, co-hosted by the Pima County Public Library and Native Seeds/SEARCH, with more than 100 seed librarians attending. Estimates by 2021 put the number worldwide at about 700, most of them self-reported.
The same years brought the legal scare of 2014, when agriculture departments in Pennsylvania and Minnesota questioned seed libraries under state seed law, and the fixes that followed (the story is in seed libraries and the law).
The pandemic brought another surge. When Richmond's library closed, Richmond Grows and 60 volunteers packed 20,000 seed packets for 13 little seed libraries around the city. Among the seed libraries in our directory that give a start year, the busiest years were 2021 through 2023.
Milestones.
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1821 | Connecticut passes the first state seed law, aimed at weedy seed. |
| 1975 | The Henry Doubleday Research Association in England starts the collection that becomes the Heritage Seed Library. |
| 1975 | Kent and Diane Ott Whealy start the True Seed Exchange in Missouri with 29 members; it becomes Seed Savers Exchange in 1979. |
| 1999 to 2000 | BASIL, the Bay Area Seed Interchange Library, begins in Berkeley and settles at the Ecology Center. |
| 2004 | Ken Greene starts a seed library in the Gardiner (NY) Public Library catalog, widely cited as the first in a US public library. |
| 2010 | Richmond Grows opens in the Richmond (CA) Public Library and shares its setup materials free. |
| 2014 | Pennsylvania and Minnesota agriculture departments question seed libraries under state seed law. |
| 2015 | Minnesota passes the first state exemption for seed sharing; the first International Seed Library Forum meets in Tucson. |
| 2016 | California's Seed Exchange Democracy Act; seed control officials add seed-sharing rules to their model state law. |
| 2020 | Pandemic gardening: Richmond Grows packs 20,000 packets for 13 little seed libraries. |
| 2021 to 2023 | The busiest years for new seed libraries in our directory. |
Frequently asked questions.
What was the first seed library?
BASIL, the Bay Area Seed Interchange Library in Berkeley, begun around 1999 and 2000, is generally called the oldest seed library in the modern sense. The first in a US public library is widely credited to Ken Greene at the Gardiner Public Library in New York in 2004.
When did seed libraries start?
The seed-saving movement they grew from dates to 1975, with the Heritage Seed Library in England and the True Seed Exchange (now Seed Savers Exchange) in the United States. Lending seed libraries began around 2000 and spread after 2010.
Who started Seed Savers Exchange?
Kent Whealy and Diane Ott Whealy, in Missouri in 1975, as the True Seed Exchange with 29 members. It took the name Seed Savers Exchange in 1979 and moved to Decorah, Iowa in 1985.
How many seed libraries are there?
More than 1,000 in the United States that we have verified from their own web pages, out of more than 2,100 listed across the sources we searched. Worldwide estimates were about 700 in 2021, most self-reported.