Blanc, Albert A.–(1850-1928)–Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania–was born in Belgium in 1850, and came to the United States
in the early 1870s. He began as a cactus dealer and illustrated
plant lists with his own woodcuts. His Hints on Cacti, a combination
cultural guide and trade catalog, was published in 1886. It was the
first cactus catalog published in the United States. He expanded
a hobby into the world’s largest cactus nursery, and was considered to
be the person responsible for starting the cactus craze of the 1890s.
Other dealers were impressed with his illustrations, and by the 1890s he
was selling thousands of illustrations to American and European companies.
Sources: CP; Mitich;
Mitich2;
Mitich3