Bartram Botanic Garden and Nursery

Overview

Alternate Names: Bartram's Garden, Bartram House and Garden

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Location:
Philadelphia, PA
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Images

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  John or William Bartram, "A Draught of John Bartram's House and Garden as it appears from the River," 1758.

Texts

• Garden, Dr. Alexander, 1754, in a letter to Cadwallader Colden, describing Bartram Botanic Garden and Nursery, vicinity of Philadelphia, Pa. (Colden 1920: 472)

“he disdains to have a garden less than Pensylvania & Every den is an Arbour, Every run of water, a Canal, & every small level Spot a Parterre.”

• Bartram, John, 24 June 1760, in a letter to Peter Collinson, describing his plans for the Bartram Botanic Garden and Nursery, vicinity of Philadelphia, Pa. (quoted in Darlington 1849: 224)

“Dear friend, I am going to build a greenhouse. Stone is got; and hope as soon as harvest is over to begin to build it, to put some pretty flowering winter shrubs, and plants for winter’s diversion; not to be crowded with orange trees, or those natural to the Torrid Zone, but such as will do, being protected from frost.”

• Alexiowitz, Iwan, 1769, in a letter describing Bartram Botanic Garden and Nursery, vicinity of Philadelphia, Pa. (quoted in Darlington 1849: 50)

“Thence we rambled through his fields, where the rightangular fences, the heaps of pitched stones, the flourishing clover, announced the best husbandry, as well as the most assiduous attention.”

• Cutler, Rev. Manasseh, 14 July 1787, describing the Bartram Botanic Garden and Nursery, vicinity of Philadelphia, Pa. (1987: 1:277)

“There were several other hermitages, constructed in different forms; but the Grottoes and Hermitages were not yet completed, and some space of time will be necessary to give them that highly romantic air which they are capable of attaining.”

• Wilson, Alexander, before 1813, describing Gray’s Garden, Philadelphia, Pa. (quoted in Adams 1976: 339)

“There market-maids in lovely row,

With wallets white, were riding

home,

“And thund’ring gigs, with powdered

beaux,

Through Gray’s green festive

shade to roam.

“Sweet flows the Schuylkill’s winding

tide

By Bartram’s emblossomed

bowers.

“Where nature sports in all her pride

Of choicest plants and fruits and

flowers.”

• Wynne, William, 1832, “Some Account of the Nursery Gardens and the State of Horticulture in the Neighbourhood of Philadelphia,” describing the Bartram Botanic Garden and Nursery, vicinity of Philadelphia, Pa. (Gardener’s Magazine 8: 272–73)

“I shall begin with Bartram’s Botanic Garden; the precedence being due to it, both for antiquity (it having been established 100 years), and from its containing the best collection of American plants in the United States. There are above 2000 species (natives) contained in a space of six acres, not including the fruit nursery and vineyard, which comprise eight acres. . . . Indeed, the most remarkable feature in this nursery, and that which renders it superior to most of its class, is the advantage of possessing large specimens of all the rare American trees and shrubs; which are not only highly ornamental, but likewise very valuable, from the great quantities of seed they afford for exportation to London, Paris, Petersburgh, Calcutta, and several other parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa. This garden is the regular resort of the learned and scientific gentlemen of Philadelphia.”

• Darlington, William, 1849, describing Bartram Botanic Garden and Nursery, vicinity of Philadelphia, Pa. (pp. 18–19)

“He [John Bartram] was, perhaps, the first Anglo-American who conceived the idea of establishing a BOTANIC GARDEN for the reception and cultivation of the various vegetables, natives of the country, as well as exotics, and of travelling for the discovery and acquisition of them.*

“* The BARTRAM BOTANIC GARDEN, (established in or about the year 1730,) is most eligibly and beautifully situated, on the right bank of the river Schuylkill, a short distance below the city of Philadelphia. Being the oldest establishment of the kind in this western world, and exceedingly interesting, from its history and associations,—one might almost hope, even in this utilitarian age, that, if no motive more commendable could avail, a feeling of state or city pride, would be sufficient to ensure its preservation, in its original character, and for the sake of its original objects. But, alas! there seems to be too much reason to apprehend that it will scarcely survive the immediate family of its noble-hearted founder,—and that even the present generation may live to see the accumulated treasures of a century laid waste—with all the once gay parterres and lovely borders converted into lumberyards and coal-landings.”