Entitled: "John Lewis Childs, fall catalog, Floral Park, N.Y., 1923." John Lewis Childs (May 13, 1856 - March 6, 1921) was a horticultural businessman and politician who founded who founded Floral Park, New York. Within five years of building his own seed and bulb business and starting America's first seed catalog business, he established a bustling business. The volume of his business is attributed with the expansion of the Floral Park Post Office and nearby village businesses. Childs was responsible for building more than 20 buildings in Floral Park, including hotels, lumber mills and his own printing press. He also provided a public park for the community,built the first school in town, and served as the first village president, which later became the office of mayor. Childs maintained one of the largest private ornithology libraries in the United States, and had more than 700 personally collected specimens in his collection. He died unexpectedly aboard a New York Central train in 1921 at the age of 64.