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The John Withee Exhibit :
Chapter One: The Legend of John Withee
“ Selecting seminal fluid beans is an exercise in anticipation ; in many way it is similar to bring out a beautiful picture in a camera – you must wait a while for the final result ” – John Withee , 1977
It ’s an singular pursuit , collecting older bean . And yet , if you knew him , it seems absolutely meet that John Withee became a legend defend bean biodiversity and seeking to protect heirloom bean from defunctness . It also seems fitting that John took his hobbyhorse to the extremum , building a interior web of bean aficionados , amassing a collection of 1,186 variety , and gaining national renown for his humble cause … that is , it seems meet , if you do it the human race .
John Withee ( 1910 - 1993 ) was an explorer , a photographer , a dedicated family man , and yes , a noggin gatherer . He dedicate almost two decade of his life to curating one of the largest personal collections of garden noodle in the United States . In the outgrowth he unionise same - minded seed savers and united a community of passionate gardeners under the Wanigan Associates .

Regional map identifying Gorham, Maine. John reminisced on his bean filled childhood in Gorham: “…on a farm, beans were a staple. You had baked beans every way you could fix them. I remember when my father bartered for a barrel of ‘Yellow Eye’ beans when I was a youngster. The barrel was a big wooden one something like a flour barrel, and we ate from it all winter long.”
His strange vision – that the beans he think of develop , eating , and see as a child would once again be abundant – struck a chord in the 1970s and LXXX , earning him kinsfolk hero status and internal pressure . But to John , it was just another adventure .
Chapter Two: Mainer
John Earl Withee , Jr. was born October 21 , 1910 in Portland , Maine to John Earl Withee ( 1887 - 1936 ) and Inez Maud ( Daly ) Withee ( 1886 - 1972 ) . He was one of six child raise during an economic recession in rural Gorham , Maine .
Since time were ruffianly and his home was enceinte , noggin were a household staple . Saturday dinner were always the same for the Withees : baked beans . Each Friday , John ’s task was to clean out the edible bean hole , a consecrate pit in the pace used as an earth oven , and to start a fire . When the coals got hot , a Dutch oven full of beans was post over the coals and the pickle was filled with shite . The beans would broil for an integral day and would be quick for the Saturday evening meal . Leftovers were reheat for Sunday meals and any that remained were service on lolly with mayo for shoal lunches throughout the week .
Even though edible bean were a near incessant repast , John “ never developed a disapproval for beans . ”Instead , these childhood memories fuel his fixation with collecting beans later on in life .

Regional map identifying Gorham, Maine. John reminisced on his bean filled childhood in Gorham: “…on a farm, beans were a staple. You had baked beans every way you could fix them. I remember when my father bartered for a barrel of ‘Yellow Eye’ beans when I was a youngster. The barrel was a big wooden one something like a flour barrel, and we ate from it all winter long.”
As a youngster , John ferment as a market nurseryman to serve patronage his menage . This was his first experience growing bean on a large ordered series . John prefer to grow varieties with attractive colouring material and patterns , and he attributed his sodbuster ’s mart success to the beauty of the beans .
He stated in a 1977 interview :
“ When I was a fry , we used to blast the attic and put them out in dry pint hoop . Most people prefer to buy them that way , and they looked a great deal honorable than the ordinary chocolate-brown or greyish beans in the seedcase . ”

Photograph of John Withee as a young man, circa 1930. Photo provided by John Withee’s grandson, Russell Bradbury-Carlin.
“ [ John Withee ’s ] love story with [ beans ] , he will say you , goes back fifty years , to the clip he work on a truck farm in Maine , sold vegetable in Portland , and learned how to broil enough bean - pickle attic … to feed hundreds of athirst masses at a single seance . ” ( Jack Cook , “ snipe Up ‘ Jacob ’s Cattle . ’ ” Horticulture , July 1982 , p. 11 . )
Chapter Three: Adventurer
John Withee ’s adventures began long before his bean collection . As a young man during the Great Depression , he and a supporter attempted to jaunt from Maine to Alaska attend for oeuvre and risky venture . Being resourceful they take advantage of the runway system , stowing away on geartrain car all the fashion to the Alaskan boundary line . For unknown reasons they were not granted entry into the U.S. territory so they rode the rails back to Maine .
This one miscarry trip did not deter John ’s itchy feet or his sexual love of cross - continental locomotion . He take aim many retentive excursions , admit a fondly remember six week trip with his grandchild in a van retro - match with a couch and two desk for the kidskin .
These grouchy - country trips seem mundane in comparability to some of his other feats . John Withee befriended explorers and doctors who present him with new and perilous adventures . He was acquaint with Vilhjalmur Stefansson , an Arctic explorer , ethnographer , and finally the Director of Polar Studies at Dartmouth College , who once taught John how to right build an igloo .

Photograph of John Withee as a young man, pictured here using a large piece of lake ice as a raft, circa 1925. Photo provided by John Withee’s grandson, Russell Bradbury-Carlin.
John flew a small Piper Cub plane to the Arctic , twice , with a friend . He flourish his hobby of wintertime mountain climbing that began in Maine with Mt. Katahdin and finally admit scaling the Grand Tetons .
His love of adventure often had him take care Dame Rebecca West and he spent time explore the Rocky Mountains as well . But each year , he still made it home to plant a garden .
Chapter Four: A Pioneer in the Field of Medical Photography
John ’s enthusiasm for trying new thing , his good-humored personality , and his drive to plump for his family allowed him to hold many unique jobs . He worked as a banking company messenger , a night janitor , a weather perceiver , and a door - to - door bakery salesman . Each of these jobs added to his dynamic sketch and gift their own small adventures .
John ’s daughter , Lianne Carlin , report his professional life ,
“ [ John Withee ] play for a prison term … as a salesman / delivery man for Cushman bakery , which was ground in Portland . His territory was several states in New England , and , since my male parent was very gregarious , he got to know many of his customers personally . One such was Dr. Ralph Miller and his wife in Hanover , NH . Somehow Dr. Miller ended up offer dad the position of aesculapian lensman at Mary Hitchcock Hospital in Hanover , and that ’s how he found his life ’s profession . ”

Regional map identifying Hanover, New Hampshire. John worked and lived here from the late 1930s until 1960.
In 1935 , John married the love of his life , Ruth Sawyer . A few years later , he and Ruth leave Maine and descend in New Hampshire , where John take advantage of a life - changing chance . A job opened at the Mary Hitchcock Hospital in Hanover , New Hampshire for a medical lensman . John ’s good booster , Dr. Ralph Miller , who work at the hospital and could guarantee for John Withee ’s work ethic and experience with picture taking , offered him the position . And John found a new passionateness to pursue in a developing newfangled playing area .
“ So , here was my grandfather , not officially educated and brought up on farms and in comparative impoverishment , work closely with medical Doctor of the Church . I can imagine that my granddaddy ’s friendliness and ecumenical thirstiness to learn about things that matter to him ( in this subject photography and medical science ) made him democratic and admired by the doctors he interact with . ” – Russell Bradbury - Carlin ( Grandson to John Withee )
John held this billet for nearly 20 age until 1960 when another vacuum presented an opportunity at one of the most magisterial hospitals in the reality . John was offer the position as Chief of the Photographic Laboratory at what is now Brigham and Women ’s Hospital in Boston , Massachusetts .

Photograph of John Withee taken while working as a medical photographer at Mary Hitchcock Hospital in Hanover, New Hampshire, circa 1950. Photo provided by John Withee’s grandson, Russell Bradbury-Carlin.
John ’s passion for learning , his congenial personality , and his power to produce ripe work made him extremely successful in the medical photography field . His career culminate in his designation as the headway of the expanding medical picture taking section at Brigham and Women ’s hospital in Boston , Massachusetts in 1960 .
Russell described John ,
“ My granddaddy was very amiable and someone who pursued what interested him . And he pursued these thing without any sensation of self - consciousness or concern about how successful he would be . I conceive that is why he ended up being so successful at the things he did . ”

Photograph of John Withee after he received the National Award from the Professional Photographers of America in 1977. It was awarded to recognize John for his work as a medical photographer for over 25 years. Photo provided by John Withee’s grandson, Russell Bradbury-Carlin.
Chapter Five: Bean Hole Revival
John and Ruth ’s girl , Lianne Carlin , speculated the kinfolk ’s move to Lynnfield was spurred by the want of horticulture space offered by the apartments in Boston . But even after buy a menage with a large yard , it was not large enough to satisfy his light-green pollex and he expanded into a plot he hire from a neighbour .
“ Born and raised in Maine , with folk roots in the lumbering country , I have inherited deep feelings about beans as being synonymous with lumber camps . My removal to the Boston suburb years ago caused a variety of noggin trauma . peculiarly severe was the irregular loss of the bonce cakehole … ” – John Withee , 1976
With his novel garden , it became exonerated to John Withee that he needed to build a bean hole to repair that lovingly remembered Maine tradition . This decision , to hold a childlike assemblage and resuscitate the bean kettle of fish tradition with his friends and neighbour would have an unanticipated shock on the next 20 years of his life .

Regional map identifying Lynnfield, Massachusetts. John eventually moved here after accepting a position as Chief of the photographic laboratory at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
“ His passion for beans took a raw good turn … when he decide to throw a dome - hole do for a few dozen friends at his home in Massachusetts . Now the tastiest cultivar you may use for noggin - hole beans , he maintains is ‘ Jacob ’s cows ’ … . But when he pass hunt for the beans for his bean - hole smash , not a exclusive ‘ Jacob ’s Cattle ’ could he find within fifty mile . ”
After substitute with less than desirable mixture , John set out back to his stem . He believed that in Maine , he would easily locate a ‘ Jacob ’s cows ’ bean or , at the very least , ‘ Yellow Eye ’ or ‘ Soldier ’ beans . He stated in one interview :
“ ‘ Jacob ’s Cattle ’ used to be a very unwashed variety … I figured if that one was hard to find , what must be chance to some of the other less vulgar sort ? ”

Photograph of John Withee building a traditional Bean Hole in Lynnfield, Massachusetts. Photo provided by his grandson, Russell Bradbury-Carlin. John often described his baked bean convictions and provided suggestions to get the best out of your bean baking. He once said: “I don’t use onions, period. I want to taste the beans, not the onion.”
John set out on a new escapade , to see the varieties he remember from his day keeping the family ’s bean gob and market horticulture . But it was n’t ‘ Jacob ’s cows ’ bean that he found . Rather he uncovered a whole raw cornucopia of variety he never knew existed . John realise that there were probably many other menage - saved beans that he had never heard of before that were kept by a few old timers or held by a few close rumple house . John thought these diversity were worth deliver and sharing .
Explore the varieties John bring out .
John was cheer by those family variety that he did find . He decided that collecting unusual home - saved noodle would make a fantastic hobby . This new venture combined a little mo of all the thing John loved : adventure , machination , find , traveling , and the opportunity to receive new masses .

Photograph of John Withee as he is shelling dried beans in his home in Lynnfield, Massachusetts, circa 1980. Photo provided by his grandson, Russell Bradbury-Carlin.
Chapter Six: A New Adventure
“ [ John Withee ] tell his many relatives in Maine that he was interested in preserve “ Heirloom ” beans . The relatives told their supporter . It was all quite casual . Every now and then a few attic – admit some cultivars Withee had never heard of before – go far in the mail . ”
John get hold of his collecting on the route . When he was n’t work or in his garden , he was regularly take trip in lookup of draw a blank varieties . He trek around Maine and New Hampshire , stopping in every food computer storage along the elbow room and placard notices in liberal publications throughout New England .
As John observe beans he had never seen before , recipes he had never try , and heard stories of unique varieties closely lose forever , he added them to the growing collecting of varieties he originate , shared , and defend . The diversity of beans , their unequalled seed pelage , and their many preparation ( from bake to candied ! ) had ignited his interestingness in call for them .

The Wanigan: A Newsletter – All about Beans was researched, compiled, written, and edited by John Withee with typing assistance from his daughter, Lianne Carlin. It was filled with current bean events, fun bean facts, interesting bean acquisitions, bean recipes, summaries of scientific papers; any and all things related to beans.View Full PDF.
At the time he noted that semen companies offered very few varieties for sale and that varieties sometimes pretermit out of Commerce Department unexpectedly . If no one saved seeds of these household heirlooms , they could vanish incessantly .
After several year of pull together bean and story , John ’s attic collecting had taken off . He had over 200 bean varieties by 1975 . His collection had grow beyond a part fourth dimension hobby and its maintenance verged on unimaginable for one person . Every motley had to be grown periodically to produce novel healthy seeds . And every fresh motley was a new commitment to the bike of growing , harvesting , cleaning , storing , and develop . His piffling hobby was require more clip , space , and money to asseverate .
John Withee described the focus of his collecting in 1976 :
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The Heirloom Beans catalog was a comprehensive list of John Withee’s available collection. The catalog provided the name, growth habit, and a short description of the variety that may have included history, seed coat pattern description, and/or a description of the pod. This catalog, which dates to about 1979, offered 491 varieties.View Full PDF.
“ Many gardeners can readily name varieties of beans which are not in the catalogs , and many enquire what bechance to Coach Dog , Wild Goose , Canada and China Red Eye . These , and many dozens more , are now heirloom beans , meaning that they have been local or kinsfolk favorites , but are by and large not of pastime to commercial growers . They are , however , of great interest to me . ”
Chapter Seven: The Wanigan Associates
As in the past , a solution presented itself . John ’s clock time restraint was resolve when he take to retire from Brigham and Women ’s Hospital in December 1976 . This meant he could now devote himself full time to his precious dome . But he was still inadequate on quad and resources and he went looking for help .
“ Lack of place for a healthy rotation ( three years ) has made the cooperation of other growers most welcome . ” – John Withee , 1976
As beans , recipes , stories , facts , statistics , and all edible bean - have-to doe with data poured in . John found the response to his imagination limitation . Through his collection expeditions , he had discovered a residential district of like - minded seed savers who were also concerned that beans were go away ; he just needed to play them all together .
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John Withee, “Heirloom Beans” Farmstead Magazine, 1976.View full PDF.
In 1976 , he forge a program to help with space and financial backing by base a non - profit establishment he named Wanigan Associates . John had many goals for the Wanigan Associates , but he draw his non - profit briefly :
“ Wanigan Associates Inc. is the legal name for a one man bean hobby – compile , propagating and distributing seed of heirloom beans . ”
The term “ Wanigan ” was taken from John ’s Maine inheritance . During early logging operations in Maine , log were floated down streams and rivers by log fellowship in the spring . Moving along the drive , on a hoy or raft , was a cook shack , call in a Wanigan , an Abenaki Bible meaning “ that into which something roam . ” In those day of logarithm drive , a Wanigan undoubtedly provided hungry loggers with a bounty of solid bonce ravisher .
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Reprinted with permission from Yankee Magazine. Lawrence F. Willard, “The Bean Man” Yankee Magazine, June 1977 pp. 64-69 and 155-157.View Full PDF.
The Wanigan Associates project was a membership formation that John fancy would grow and partake in seeds of home grown bean varieties . Membership cost $ 5 a year , the equivalent of $ 22 in 2016 .
John ’s selections go out with a promise that member would broadcast him back a bit of the harvest and cut down on the number of change John needed to grow himself . He submit in 1976 that he had sent out over 90 edible bean varieties to 132 Maine gardeners . This was how he desire to continue this huge preservation drive , by involving interested gardeners and spreading the workload of this vast project between them .
Wanigan Associates was a hit ! Its near - quick achiever meant that more and more people knew about John ’s little hobby . The more people learned about the labor , the more varieties were discovered . And the more John ’s celebrity arise .
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No part of this article may be reprinted or repurposed without permission of Horticulture magazine, Cincinnati, Ohio. Jack Cook, “Rounding Up ‘Jacob’s Cattle.’” Horticulture, July 1982 pp. 10-17.View Full PDF.
Chapter Eight: Fame
“ As it was with his becoming a medical lensman , I am indisputable he had no plans to become The Bean Man . He just surveil a passion and it lead him in that focussing … ” – Russell Bradbury - Carlin ( John Withee ’s grandson )
John ’s elbow grease to unveil older bean varieties by utter to supporter , canvassing region , place throwaway in grocery depot , and advertising in local newspaper was earn him local notoriety . However , his phonation reached a national audience with the issue of an clause that he wrote forFarmstead Magazinein 1976 send for “ Heirloom Beans . ” Here , he recruited raw Wanigan Associates members and demand for aid in finding old bean diversity .
Yet the clause that truly get up John ’s project was release in a 1977 edition ofYankee Magazine . The clause entitle , “ The Bean Man ” , bestow John with his nickname . Tales of the Bean Man circularise as other venues picked up on the story and as John continued to author more articles himself .

Helena Hackman and Baptist John Ott, Diane Ott Whealy’s grandparents andlongtime stewardsof the‘German Pink’ tomatoand‘Grandpa Ott’s’ morning glory.
“ My main cognisance of his attic collecting actually come when he became a bit more “ famous ” about it … I think of when he was on the secret plan show To Tell the Truth . We all went to New York and was [ sic ] there when they taped the show . Three men came out , let in my grandad and each declare , “ I am John Withee ” . The show host described who The Bean Man was . Then a radical of celebrity each involve [ one ] interrogation of the three men and had to guess which one was John Withee . ” – Russell Bradbury - Carlin ( John Withee ’s grandson)xix
John Withee wrote in his 1976 Farmstead Magazine article that his collection consisted of 210 varieties , and John ’s hobby was only profit momentum . In 1979 , when he was tell apart in a Seed Savers Exchange publication , John ’s accumulation had more than tripled in size to680 varieties . In the next two age , it would near double again to 1,186 varieties .
“ Because of the national pic which has favored this strange spare-time activity , my retreat arithmetic mean , shop workplace , vacation misstep , house picture , and even other garden piece of work , has been prorogue in favor of bean , beans , beans . I love it even with the Pandora ’s box effect . ” – John Withee , 1979
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Photograph of John Withee with his bean case taken at the Seed Banks Serving People Workshop in Tucson, Arizona, 1981.
Chapter Nine: Too Many Beans, Too Many Letters, Too Little Time
The Wanigan Associates was in the beginning founded by John to solve two problems : the problem of preserve all the beans alive and the problem of finding more variety that needed saving . It was a rousing winner and John was now drowning in his own effective lot . But he also found that his membership fees were not pass over his cost .
The home attention John had received attracted many people – who charge letters , some with seeds and some with question or leads on edible bean varieties . But this was always mean to be a hobby for John . Over the years he had repeatedly stated that he was not a professional and that he was only one man facilitating the work of a larger meshwork of gardener .
However , the rest of the humanity see to it it differently . John was the Bean Man , a champion of seed saving and dwelling - save seeds , and an say-so on the subject . And this weigh on John ’s declaration .

Then , at the height of his fame , John was hospitalized with an unwellness for several calendar week … but the letters and beans carry on to arrive in his postbox .
Chapter Ten: The Next Generation
After several year of pull in beans and stories , John began to worry about the stewardship of his collection . Around this time , he had begin corresponding with a promising seeded player saving group called Seed Savers Exchange , which was established in 1975 . John felt that the organization ’s founders , Kent and Diane Whealy , shared his values and his mission . They were kindred spirits .
The Whealy ’s began their own seed - saving journey after the death of Diane ’s grandfather , Baptist John Ott , who had shared his ownBavarian family heirloom seedswith Diane only months before his passing in 1974 .
“ He give way us a few of the midget black seeds in a ashen pillbox and name that his aurora glories came from St. Lucas when my bang-up - grandparents emigrate from Bavaria . I could finger my imagination simmer , and soon I could see my distant relatives in Germany . They were awake up as these same purple morn glories open to the sun … Now we would become part of that family tradition . ”

Photograph of John Withee taken during his employment at the Mary Hitchcock Hospital in Hanover, New Hampshire, circa 1950. Photo provided by John Withee’s grandson, Russell Bradbury-Carlin.
Had these seeds and their account not been passed on to the Whealys , they would have been drop off forever . The Whealys then contemplate how many other seeds had a exchangeable tarradiddle – immigrants carrying seeds in their aprons and baggage to a strange new body politic , only to be abandoned by later generations . Were these multifariousness also in danger of being lost?(Read more seed stewardship stories here ! )
John Withee requested Kent and Diane ’s assistant and ask that Seed Savers Exchange take over the Wanigan Associates and John ’s bean collection . It was a transformative minute for both organisation . It distinguish the end of the Wanigan Associates and a novel instruction for Seed Savers Exchange . At the time , Seed Savers Exchange was not a central repository for heirloom varieties . John ’s request became the catalyst that led Seed Savers Exchange to become the largest non - governmental ejaculate bank in the United States . watch more about the Seed Savers Exchange seed bank building accumulation .
Kent and Diane Whealy , Centennial State - founder of Seed Savers Exchange , met John Withee in 1981 at the Seed Banks serve People Workshop in Tucson , Arizona . To express their appreciation of his immense contribution , they commissioned a local woodsman to build a typesetter’s case to display the visual diversity of his collection all in one place .
Diane described their gift in the Spring 2016Heritage Farm Companion , “ He was intrust our organization with a valuable part of his life . I wanted to reassure him that we would provide a good home plate . We decided to give John a gift that would show our gratitude for his contribution and also be meaningful … ” She continued “ The font assured him that this compendium would not be stow out in an institutional seed bank , but cared for by an organization of people , who valued what he had carry through , who understood the importance of the stories and the beauty bump in his lifelong workplace . ”
Chapter Eleven: The Collection
In 1981 , John donated samples of his entire dome collection , all 1,186 form , to Seed Savers Exchange . He take in in Seed Savers Exchange an organization that share his idea about the importance of diversity , seeded player communion , and preserving old abode - saved garden change .
Now relinquish from a hobby that had become a labour , and confident that his assemblage would be preserved by similar - minded people , gardening and share seeds became gratifying again . John Withee ’s collection of 1,186 varieties had been collect over 14 years with most of the compendium , 900 varieties , arriving in the last six year of his pursuit .
While he was known as the Bean Man , his collection actually contained several dissimilar types of legumes including vulgar beans , cowpeas , lima beans , runner beans , and the arid conform tepary bean . The diversity of this accumulation was made possible because of the interior fame the project received .
People with an interest in beans from all across the United States donated varieties to the Wanigan Associates project . Many of these folks were dwelling house gardener and seed savers , while others were plant breeders and horticultural professionals . Sometimes a mortal donate just one variety . Other times John would gain a nurseryman ’s entire collection . Other varieties were purchase from seed companies , farmer ’s markets , and country shop , or obtain from the USDA ’s National Seed Storage Lab .
In total , John ’s collection was hoard from over 200 unique seeded player sources and around 20 commercial seed company . The story of these beans accompany mob trees , local fable , and diachronic events . Over clock time , these variety show have hold up the seasons , the soil , pestis and diseases , and the waxing and waning interests of contemporaries of gardener . They have prevailed so far , and with a little assistance , they will continue .
Chapter Twelve: “What Else?”
“ What else ? My grandfather always had a garden . He preferred tenting to staying in hotel . He was eager to talk to anyone . He was eager to learn about just about anything . We had passionate discussions about societal issues and politics at the dinner table . He run to seam early on and awaken before first light ( at least toward the death of his life ) . He always had a undertaking going . He did n’t seem to have any actual regrets in life ( except , possibly , [ never ] making it to Alaska ) . He love his family , especially his wife , deeply . ” – Russell Bradbury - Carlin ( John Withee ’s grandson )
To say John Withee ’s offbeat retirement hobby resonated with people is an understatement . Varieties from his collection have been disseminated across the country since the 1970s , and John ’s slight sideline inspired the creation of the largest non - governmental seed money box in the United States at Seed Savers Exchange .
John ’s legacy lives on in his family unit ’s memory of him as well as each prison term semen of some old dome form are planted , shared , and spill the beans about . have it off the whole story , it seems inevitable that John Withee would become what he became , a virtuoso of heirloom seeds , a horticultural treasure Orion , a soil covered documentarian . He was the Bean Man , entrench in history and saving with the veneration and the prospicience to be after for the future . And certainly , it was an unexpended by-line , collecting old beans . But if you knew the human race … you’d understand .
In Memory of John Withee
2025-05-23 – 2025-03-01
The Bean Man, but also much more
Keep search the John Withee Exhibit
Presented by Seed Savers Exchange and fund in part by a grant from the 1772 Foundation .
Sources
Cynthia B. Hanson , “ An hearing With the ‘ Bean King . ’ ” Christian Science Monitor , May 23 , 2016 .
Diane Ott - Whealy , “ Gardening in Iowa ” In Gathering : Memoir of a Seed Saver , 23 - 28 . Iowa : Seed Savers Exchange , 2011 .
Geological Survey , U.S. States of New Hampshire and Vermont : base single-valued function with highways and contours , 1972 . Reston , Va. : Interior – geologic Survey , 1972 . Map . Retrieved from the Library of Congress ( accessed October 17 , 2016 ) .
Jack Cook , “ Rounding Up ‘ Jacob ’s Cattle . ’ ” Horticulture , July 1982 .
John Withee , “ Heirloom Beans ” Farmstead Magazine , [ 1976 ] .
John Withee , “ Heirloom Beans . ” Third Edition . Lynnfield : John Withee , [ 1979 ] .
John Withee , “ Untitled . ” The Wanigan : A newssheet – All About Beans , Sept. 1977 . 1 , no . 3 . 4 .
Kent Whealy , “ Hodgepodge ” In The 1979 Seed Savers Exchange , Feb. 1979 .
Lawrence F Willard , “ The Bean Man ” Yankee Magazine , June 1977 .
Lianne Carlin “ Re : Continuing Dad ’s Story ” Received by Katie Gove , Oct. 7 2016 .
“ Lynnfield , MA . ” Map . Google Maps . ( accessed October 17 , 2016 ) .
Rosalind Creasy , “ Baked Bean Gardens . ” In Cooking from the Garden , pp . 48 - 49 . San Francisco : Sierra Club Books , 1988 .
Russell Bradbury - Carlin , “ Re : John Withee ” receive by Katie Gove , Feb. 28 2016 .
Samuel Augustus Mitchell . County Map of the State of Maine . 1:1,650,000 . Philadelphia : S. A. Mitchell , 1880 . Map . find from the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection ( accessed October 17 , 2016 ) .
Steve Smyser , “ Reviving the Beans of America ’s Past ” Organic Gardening and Farming , January 1978 , pp 61 .
The John Withee Exhibit
Presented by Seed Savers Exchange and fund in part by a grant from the1772 Foundation .
3094 North Winn RoadDecorah , Iowa 52101(563 ) 382 - 5990
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Seed Savers Exchange is a revenue enhancement - nontaxable 501(c)3 nonprofit organization devote to the preservation of heirloom seminal fluid .