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History of Early American Landscape Design

Bartram Botanic Garden and Nursery

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The Bartram Botanic Garden and Nursery, located on the west bank of the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, was developed by John Bartram for both scientific and commercial purposes. He cultivated an encyclopedic range of plants comprised of both native examples discovered on his explorations and exotic specimens sent to him from other parts of the world.

Overview

Alternate Names: John Bartram & Sons; Bartram's Garden, Bartram House and Garden

Site Dates: 1730s

Site Owner(s): John Bartram; John Bartram, Jr.; Ann Carr; City of Philadelphia

Site Designer(s): John Bartram

Location: Philadelphia, PA
View on Google maps

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

Through a number of property transactions made between 1728 and 1740, John Bartram, the son of a Quaker farmer in rural Pennsylvania, acquired over 287 acres of rich, well-watered farmland on the Schuylkill River at Kingsessing, about three miles from the center of Philadelphia. The land had been in use since the mid seventeenth century and Bartram devoted most of it to agriculture. In addition to cultivating grains and raising livestock, he planted a kitchen garden in 1729 and built a stone farmhouse in 1731.[1] Also early in the 1730s he developed a large garden of six or seven acres on a sloping terrace leading from the house down to the river.[2] A drawing of 1758 that Bartram sent to his English friend and business associate Peter Collinson in London identifies no specific plant materials, but clearly indicates the layout of the terraced garden divided into four well-defined zones. Directly behind the house is a "Common Flower Garden," with an "Upper Kitchen Garden" to its north and "A new flower Garden," measuring twenty-six by ten yards, to the south. Board fences separate each of these gardens. A stone retaining wall punctuated by steps marks the transition from the upper zone down to the much larger “Lower Kitchen Garden," laid out on a slope that ended at the banks of Schuylkill River. An oval-shaped pond at the center of the lower garden connects to the “spring or milk House” located in the shade of a large tree near the garden’s northern fence. Plantings interspersed along the fence may represent espaliered trees.[3] Three long alleys of trees ran the full length of the garden, creating "Walks 150 yards long of a moderate descent." Following his visit to the property in 1787, Manasseh Cutler described this feature as “a walk to the river, between two rows of large, lofty trees,” adding that the trees were of “all of different kinds" (view text).

Bartram initially gathered plants for his garden from the countryside near his house. Over time, he ventured farther afield, eventually exploring remote wilderness areas from New York to Florida. Bartram's extensive field experience distinguished him from most of the gardeners and botanists of his day. Informed by personal knowledge of the natural habitats of the plants in his collection, he transplanted new finds to those sections of his property that most closely approximated the environmental conditions and terrain in which he had first encountered them.[4] Bartram’s insatiable botanical curiosity and far-ranging expeditions placed a premium on comprehensiveness, as did the function of his garden and nursery as a supplier of plants for sale and exchange. Initiating a trading relationship with J. Slingsby Cressy, a physician and botanist in Antigua, Bartram emphasized the breadth of his interests: “Whatsoever whether great or small ugly or handsom sweet or stinking…every thing in the universe in their own nature appears beautiful to mee,”[5] Twenty years later, in a letter to Peter Collinson, he crowed, “I can challenge any garden in America for variety.”[6] A few plants from Bartram’s garden survive in European herbaria.[7]

Despite his love of variety, Bartram was initially reluctant to cultivate delicate plants that required inordinate care to survive Philadelphia’s climate. “I don’t greatly like tender plants what wont bear our severe winters,” he remarked to Philip Miller (1791-1771), curator of the Chelsea Physick Garden, in a letter of June 20, 1757 (view text) This position changed somewhat in 1760, the year of Bartram’s first visit to South Carolina, when he decided to build a greenhouse. As he explained to Peter Collinson, his plan was to construct the building of stone and to grow “some pretty flowering winter shrubs, and plants for winter’s diversion,” rather than the exotic orange trees and tropical plants that several of his neighbors cultivated in their more opulent greenhouses. Bartram erected a modest, one-and-a-half story building of stone with an east facing window, which was completed by December 1762 when he informed Collinson that he had included an external fireplace and two flues in the back wall for heat.[8] From the 1760s on, the addition of warm-weather Carolina plants transformed Bartram’s garden, enlivening it with brilliantly colored flowers that he delighted in. [9]

From an early date Bartram provided trees, shrubs, bulbs, roots, and seeds to many of his neighbors in Philadelphia, including William Hamilton of The Woodlands, Charles Willson Peale of Belfield, and Thomas Penn of Springettsbury. His business expanded exponentially after he entered into an informal partnership with the London merchant Peter Collinson who was his faithful correspondent and advocate for over thirty years. With the encouragement of Collinson and a growing British and European clientele, Bartram traveled to most of the American colonies, collecting unusual plants and seeds to transplant and cultivate at his garden. During Bartram’s frequent absences from home on botanical expeditions, the garden was managed by his wife, Ann Mendenhall Bartram (1703–1789). Despite the disruption in trade caused by the American Revolution, the commercial nursery business continued to flourish through to the end of the eighteenth century, as a burgeoning domestic market joined the overseas trade. Bartram's business was still thriving as it approached its third decade. “I must inlarge my nursery garden,” he informed a friend in August 1769.[10]

Following the death of John Bartram in 1777, the nursery business continued under the supervision of John Bartram, Jr. with assistance from his elder brother, the natural history explorer and illustrator William Bartram. Under their watch, the garden became an outdoor classroom. Benjamin Smith Barton, the first professor of natural history at the University of Pennsylvania, brought his students to the garden to study live plants in situ, and the Bartrams noted with pride that their family’s botanic garden “may with propriety and truth be called the Botanical Academy of Pennsylvania, since…the Professors of Botany, Chemistry, and Materia Medica, attended by their youthful train of pupils, annually assemble here during the Floral season.[11] John Bartram’s children continued to expand the business, adding a second greenhouse was added around 1790, and another in 1817. [12] The fame of the garden attracted many distinguished visitors. George Washington visited the garden on June 10 and September 2, 1787 while in Philadelphia for the Continental Convention. [13] Although he disparaged the garden in his diary, describing it as “not laid off with much taste, nor was it large,” he was impressed by the many “curious pl[an]ts. Shrubs & trees, many of which are exotics.” (view text). Two years later he requested a catalog from the Bartrams (view text) and in 1792 ordered at least 106 varieties of plants. Three hundred trees and shrubs from Bartrams Garden were planted in ornamental ovals at Mount Vernon that spring.[14]

In 1807 the Bartrams distributed “A Catalog of Trees, Shrubs, and Herbaceous Plants Indigenous to the United States of America, cultivated and Disposed of by John Bartram and Son at their Botanical Garden at Kingessing, near Philadelphia. To which is added a Catalog of Foreign Plants Collected from Various Parts of the Globe.” By that time, John Jr. had brought in his, James Howell Bartram, to assist in managing the garden. As the elder Bartram explained in the introduction to the catalog: “Finding old age coming on, he has lately associated his son with him in the concern and hopes by their united exertions, the gardens will continue to be worthy of the attention of the lovers of science and the admirers of nature.”[15] After 1812, Bartram’s daughter, Ann Bartram Carr, was responsible for maintaining the garden and operating the business. She had learned the science of botany and the art of botanical illustration from her uncle William and together with her husband Colonel Robert Carr and his son John Bartram Carr (1804-1839) she enlarged the commercial nursery and continued the international trade in seeds and plants. At its peak the enterprise operated ten greenhouses and maintained a collection of over 1400 native and 1000 exotic plant species.<Fry 2004, 5> In 1838 the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Rail Road laid out the first route south of Philadelphia, cutting through the west side of the Bartram-Carr property. Later in the century, the single track was expanded to two tracks. Having continued to grow and thrive through three generations of the Bartram family, Bartram's Botanic Garden and Nursery began to experience financial difficulties and was sold out of the family in 1850. The historic garden was purchased by the wealthy railroad industrialist Andrew M. Eastwick (1811-1879), who maintained it as a private park. <Fry, 2004, 5> Today it is a 45-acre National Historic Landmark, operated by the John Bartram Association in cooperation with Philadelphia Parks and Recreation


Texts

“As to the evergreens for pyramids that which is called in Europe the silver fir in new England hemlock & our people spruice is esteemed one of the most beautiful evergreens for showey pyramids & yew & holy is also much esteemed…for hedges in A garden I like our red cedar or Juniper for tall natural pyramids the white or Lord weymouth pine & balm of gilead fir the larix & spruce fir & abor vita.”


  • Bartram, John, June 11, 1743, letter to Peter Collinson, describing the garden of Dr. Christopher Witt (1675-1765) in Germantown, Pa. (1992: 215-16)[16]
"I have lately been to visit our friend Doctor wit [Witt] where I spent 4 of 5 very agreeable sometimes in his garden wehre I viewed every kind of plant I believe that grew therin.... I observed particularly the Doctors famous Lychnis which thee hath dignified so highly, is I think unworthy of that Character our swamps & low grounds is full of them I had so contemptible an opinion of it as not to think it worthy sending nor afford it room in my garden."


"Mr. John Bartram is an Englishman, who lives in the country about four miles from Philadelphia. He has acquired a great knowledge of natural philosophy and history, and seems to be born with a peculiar genius for these sciences.... He has in several successive years made frequent excursions into different distant parts of North America, with an intention of gathering all sorts of plants which are scarce and little known. Those which he found he has planted in his own botanical garden, and likewise sent over their seeds or fresh roots to England. We owe to him the knowledge of many scarce plants, which he first found, and which were never known before."


  • Bartram, John, February 12, 1753, letter to Jared Eliot describing hedges (1992: 342)[16]
“About 16 years past I planted a hedge of red Cedars one foot long on a small bank About 2 foot asunder[.] they growed so well that in 3 or 4 years I had a A fine hedge 4 foot high 2 foot thick, & so close that A bird could not fly thro it.”


"I have met wt very Little new in the Botanic way unless Your acquaintance Bartram....

"His garden is a perfect portraiture of himself, here you meet wt a row of rare plants almost covered over wt weeds, here with a Beautiful Shrub, even Luxuriant Amongst Briars, and in another corner an Elegant & Lofty tree lost in common thicket — on our way from town to his house he carried me to severall rocks & Dens where he shewed me some of his rare plants, which he had brought from the Mountains &c. In a word he disdains to have a garden less than Pensylvania [sic] & Every den is an Arbour, Every run of water, a Canal, & every small level Spot a Parterre, where he nurses up some of his Idol Flowers & cultivates his darling productions."


Bartram, John, June 20, 1757, letter to Philip Miller (1992: 423-24)[16]

“I dont greatly like tender plants what wont bear our severe winters but perhaps annual plants that would perfect thair seeds with you without the help of A hot bed in the spring will do with us in the open ground.... Two roots of a sort is enough. I don’t want much of any one species but variety pleaseth me.”


  • Bartram, John, February 18, 1758, letter to Philip Miller in London (1992: 456-58)[16]
"At present my fancy runs all upon the living curious seeds cuttings of bulbous roots[.] fibrous roots is difficult to send… for now every few nights I dream of seeing & gathering the finest flowers & roots to plant in my garden[.] pray my dear friend oblige me with one or two of thy best sorts[.] I want but one of A sort but I love variety [.] pray don’t let our dutch outdo me."


  • Bartram, John, June 24, 1760, in a letter to Peter Collinson, describing his plans for the Bartram Botanic Garden and Nursery (quoted in Darlington 1849: 224) [19]
"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."


"I have now A glorious appearance of Carnations from thy seed—the brightest color that ever eyes beheld now, what with thine dr. Witts & others I can challenge any garden in America for variety."


"My garden now makes A glorious appearance I have A fine anonis with A large spike of blew flowers in full bloom which I gathered in Potemack 3 years ago…my great carolina saracena is in bloom…it is a glorious odd flower A goldish color & striped."


“I have many Carolina seeds come up this spring in the bed I sowed when I cam home…. Doctor Shippen gave me some seed last summer which he brought from the south of Europe one fine sumach grew 18 inches… I sheltered them with boards & thay are now very fresh the first I transplanted to one side of my walks.... Last summer there came up in my greenhouse from east India seed formerly sowed there an odd kind of Sumach (as I take it to be)[.] it growed in A few months near 4 foot high & continued green & growing all winter & this spring I planted it it out to take its chance it shoots vigorously & almost as red as crimson how it will stand next winter I cant say but I intend to cover the ground well above its root.... Last summer there came up in my greenhouse from east India seed formerly sowed there an odd kind of Sumach (as I take it to be)[.] it fgrowd in A few months near 4 foot high & continued green & growing all winter & this spring I planted it it out to take its chance it shoots vigorously & almost as red as crimson how it will stand next winter I cant say but I intend to cover the ground well above its root.”


"I have brought home with me A fine Collection of strange florida plants."


  • Alexiowitz, Iwan, 1769, describing Bartram Botanic Garden and Nursery (quoted in Darlington 1849: 50) [19]
“The whole store of nature’s kind luxuriance seemed to have been exhausted on these beautiful meadows; he made me count the amazing number of cattle and horses now feeding on solid bottoms, which but a few years before had been covered with water. 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....He next showed me his orchard, formerly planted on a barren, sandy soil, but long since converted into one of the richest spots in that vicinage.”


  • Mr. Iw--n Al--z, c. 1770, describing John Bartram and the Bartram Botanic Garden and Nursery (quoted in St. John de Crèvecœur, J. Hector, Letters from an American Farmer, 1783: 248, 254) [20]

"Let us... pay a visit to Mr. John Bertram [sic], the first botanist, in this new hemisphere.... It is to this simple man that America is indebted for several useful discoveries, and the knowledge of many new plants....

"Every disposition of the fields, fences, and trees, seemed to bear the marks of perfect order and regularity, which in rural affairs, always indicate a prosperous industry...

"From his study we went into the garden, which contained a great variety of curious plants and shrubs; some grew in a green-house, over the door of which were written these lines,

" Slave to no sect, who takes no private road,
" But looks through nature, up to nature's God!"


"[We] rid to see the Botanical garden of Mr. Bartram; which, tho’ Stored with many curious plts. Shrubs & trees, many of which are exotics was not laid off with much taste, nor was it large."


“It [the garden] is finely situated, as it partakes of every kind of soil, has a fine stream of water, and an artificial pond, where he has a good collection of aquatic plants....

“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.”


  • Lear, Tobias to Clement Biddle, October 7, 1789 (1993: 4: 124-25)[23]
"The President will thank you to get from Mr Bartram a list of the plants & shrubs which he has for sale, with the price affixed to each, and also a note to each of the time proper for transplanting them, as he is desireous of having some sent to Mount Vernon this fall if it is proper.

"It is customary for those persons who publish lists of their plants &c. to insert many which they have had, but which have been all disposed of— the President will therefore wish to have a list only of what he actually has in his Gardon."


  • Wilson, Alexander, August 10, 1804, "A Rural Walk. The Scenery drawn from Nature," Gray's Ferry (1876: 359, 361-64) [24]
“The Summer sun was riding high,
“The wood in deepest verdure drest;
“From care and clouds of dust to fly,
“Across yon bubbling brook I past;

“And up the hill, with cedars spread,
“Where vines through spice-wood thickets roam;
“I took the woodland path, that led
“To Bartram’s hospitable dome….

“The squirrel chipp’d, the tree-frog whirr’d,
“The dove bemoan’d in shadiest bow’r….

“A wide extended waste of wood,
“Beyond in distant prospect lay;
“Where Delaware’s majestic flood
“Shone like the radiant orb of day….

“There market-maids, in lovely rows,
“With wallets white, were riding home;
“And thund’ring gigs, with powder’d beauxs [sic],
“Through Gray’s green festive shade to roam.

“There Bacchus fills his flowing cup,
“There Venus’ lovely train are seen;
“There lovers sigh, and gluttons sup,
“By shrubb’ry walks, in arbours green.

“But dearer pleasures warm my heart,
“And fairer scenes salute my eye;
“As thro’ these cherry-rows I dart
“Where Bartram’s fairy landscapes lie.

“Sweet flows the Schuylkill’s winding tide,
“By Bartram’s emblossomed bow’rs;
“Where nature sports, in all her pride
“Of choicest plants, and fruits, and flow’rs.

"These sheltering pines that shade the path, —
"That tow'ring cypress moving slow, —
"Survey a thousand sweets beneath,
"And smile upon the groves below....

"From pathless woods, from Indian plains,
"From shores where exil'd Britons rove;
"Arabia's rich luxuriant scene,
"And Otaheite's ambrosial grove.

"Unnumber'd plants and shrubb'ry sweet,
"Adorning still the circling year;
"Whose names the Muse can ne'er repeat,
"Display their mingling blossoms here....

"For them thro' Georgia's sultry clime,
"And Florida's sequester'd shore;
"Their streams, dark woods, and cliffs sublime,
"His dangerous way he did explore.

"And here their blooming tribes he tends,
"And tho' revolving Winters reign,
"Still Spring returns him back his friends,
"His shades and blossom'd bowers again."


  • Pursh, Frederick, 1814, recalling a visit to Bartram Botanic Garden and Nursery in 1799 (1814: 1: vi)[25]
"Near Philadelphia I found the botanic garden of Messrs. John and William Bartram. This is likewise an old establishment, founded under the patronage of the late Dr. Fothergill, by the father of the now living Bartrams. This place, delightfully situated on the banks of the Delaware, is kept up by the present proprietors, and probably will increase under the care of the son of John Bartram, a young gentleman of classical education, and highly attached to the study of botany. Mr. William Bartram, the well known author of “Travels through North and South Carolina,” I found a very intelligent, agreeable, and communicative gentleman; and from him I received considerable information about the plants of that country, particularly respecting the habitats of a number of rare and interesting trees. It is with the liveliest emotions of pleasure I call to mind the happy hours I spent in this worthy man’s company, during the period I lived in his neighbourhood.


  • Baldwin, William, August 14, 1818, letter from Philadelphia to William Darlington (Darlington 1843: 277-78)[26]
" I spent several hours yesterday with our worthy old friend BARTRAM; and have made an arrangement with Col. ROBERT CARR, who has the management of the garden, to cultivate my S. American plants. He has now the Lantana Bratrami [sic] (for the first time) in flower in his garden…. Mrs. CARR (daughter of the late JOHN BARTRAM,) draws elegantly,— and has engaged to execute as many drawings for me as I want…..
“I found yesterday…a new species of Prunella….On showing a specimen of it to Mr. BARTRAM, he thought he had seen it, — and considered it a new species. He will search for it, and let me know."


  • Thacher, James, 1828, describing history of Bartram Botanic Garden and Nursery (1828: 1: 67)[27]
"Mr. Bartram was the first native American who conceived and carried into effect the plan of a botanical garden for the reception and cultivation of indigenous as well as exotic plants, and of travelling for the purpose of accomplishing this plan. He purchased a situation on the banks of Schuylkill, and enriched it with every variety of the most curious and beautiful vegetables, collected in his excursions, which his sons have since continued to cultivate."


  • Committee of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, 1830, describing Bartram Botanic Garden and Nursery (quoted in Boyd 1929: 428) [28]
“Mr. Carr’s fruit nursery has been greatly improved, and will be enlarged next spring to twelve acres—its present size is eight. The trees are arranged in systematical order, and the walks well gravelled. The whole is abundantly stocked, from the seed bed to the tree. Here are to be found 113 varieties of apples, 72 of pears, 22 of cherries, 17 of apricots, 45 of plums, 39 of peaches, 5 of nectarines, 3 of almonds, 6 of quinces, 5 of mulberries, 6 of raspberries, 6 of currants, 5 of filberts, 8 of walnuts, 6 of strawberries, and 2 of medlars. The stock, considered according to its growth, has in the first class of ornamental trees, esteemed for their foliage, flowers, or fruit, 76 sorts; of the second class 56 sorts; of the third class 120 sorts; of ornamental evergreens 52 sorts; of vines and creepers, for covering walls and arbours, 35 sorts; of honey suckle 30 sorts, and of roses 80 varieties.”


  • 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 (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.”


  • Hovey, C. M., June 1837, describing Bartram Botanic Garden and Nursery (Magazine of Horticulture 3: 210)
“In the orangery attached to the large greenhouse are a great number of very old orange and lemon trees.”


  • Downing, Andrew Jackson, March 1837, "Notes on Some of the Nurseries and Private Gardens in the Neighborhood of New York and Philadelphia" (June 1837: 211)[29]
“It is with deep regret that we learn that one of the principal rail roads in the State of Pennsylvania, now constructing, will run to the city directly through the nursery of Col. Carr, and will cut up the grounds in such a manner as to entirely destroy their beauty; but what is a source of yet deeper regret, is the destruction which it will cause of some of the old and still beautiful specimens of trees which ornament the place; several of these, which have long served as a memento of the zealous labors of the elder Bartram and his sons, will fall by the woodman’s axe. It is a melancholy scene to the American horticulturist to see the few beautiful private residences and nurseries of which our country can boast, one by one, purchased by individuals or companies, to be cut up into building lots, or otherwise destroyed, by rail roads running directly through them. Dr. Hosack’s, at Hyde Park, N.Y., the best specimens of gardening in this country, was the first; Mr. Pratt’s, Laurel [Lemon Hill]], but little inferior in its style, next; and now one of the oldest nurseries, bounded by one of the best naturalists this country ever produced, is to follow, though not the same, a similar fate.”


Fig. X, Louise Françoise Jacquinot after Pancrace Bessa, "Bartram's Oak (Quercus heterophilla)," 1841, plate 18 from François André Michaux, North American Sylva (1841)
  • [[François André Michaux, 1841, describing the Bartram Oak at the Bartram Botanic Garden and Nursery (1: 37) [30]
"Every botanist who has visited different regions of the globe must have remarked certain species of vegetables which are so little multiplied that they seem likely at no distant period to disappear from the earth. To this class belongs the Bartram Oak. Several English and American naturalists who, like my father and myself, have spent years in exploring the United States, and who have obligingly communicated to us the result of their observations, have like us, found no traces of this species except a single stock in a field belonging to Mr. Bartram, on the banks of the Schuylkill, 4 miles from Philadelphia…. [Fig. X]

"Several young plants, which I received from Mr. Bartram himself, have been placed in our public gardens to insure the preservation of the species."


“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.”


“884. At and near Philadelphia are Bartram’s botanic garden, now the nursery of Colonel Carr, and accurately described by his foreman, Mr. Wynne (Gard. Mag., vol. viii. p. 272.); Messrs. Landreth and Co.’s nursery; and that of Messrs. Hibbert and Buist; besides some commercial gardens in which, to a small nursery with green and hot-houses, are added the appendages of a tavern. These tavern gardens, Mr. Wynne informs us, are the resort of many of the citizens of Philadelphia, more especially the gardens of M. Arran, and M. d’Arras; the first having a very good museum, and the latter a beautiful collection of large orange and lemon trees."



Images


References

Notes

  1. Fry, 4, 7, 15-18, 22, 27-30. Bartram was experienced in stone quarrying, stone working, and construction, and apparently built the house himself. Collinson wrote him on December 14, 1737, “I have heard of thy House & thy great Industry in building it.”
  2. Fry, 2004, 4, 7, 18, 22
  3. Fry, 2004, 43
  4. For a discussion, see Therese O’Malley, 282.
  5. John Bartram to J. Slingsby Cressy, c. 1740, in Bartram, 1992, 131
  6. John Bartram to Peter Collinson, July 19, 1761, in Bartram, 1992: 529.
  7. For examples, see Joel T. Fry, ‘John Bartram and His Garden: Would John Bartram Recognize His Garden Today?’, in America’s Curious Botanist: A Tercentennial Reappraisal of John Bartram, 1699-1777, ed. by Nancy Everill Hoffmann and John C. Van Horne, Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society (Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society, 2004), 159, n.10, view on Zotero.
  8. James A. Jacobs, John Bartram House and Garden, Greenhouse (Seed House), Historic American Landscapes Survey (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior. National Park Service, 2001), 2, 4, view on Zotero.
  9. See, for example, Bartram, 1992, 495, 529, 668-69,
  10. John Bartram to John Fothergill, August 12, 1769, quoted in Fry, 2004, 37.
  11. “A Catalog of Trees, Shrubs, and Herbaceous Plants Indigenous to the United States of America (1807) quoted in Fry, 2004, 56; see also 5.
  12. Fry, 2004, 56; Benjamin Hays Smith, “Some Letters from William Hamilton of the Woodlands to his Private Secretary,” PMHB 29 (1905), 258-59.
  13. George Washington, The Diaries of George Washington, ed. by Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1979), 5: 166, 183, view on Zotero.
  14. See "List of Plants from John Bartram’s Nursery, March 1792," and George Augustine Washington to George Washington, 15–16 April 1792, in George Washington, The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, ed. by Robert F. Haggard and Mark A. Mastromarino (Charlottesville: University of Virginia, 2002), 10: 175-83, 272-73, view on Zotero.
  15. Fry, 2004, 60
  16. 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 16.6 16.7 16.8 Bartram, 1992, view on Zotero.
  17. Peter [Pehr] Kalm, Travels into North America: Containing Its Natural History, and a Circumstantial Account of Its Plantations and Agriculture in General, with the Civil, Ecclesiastical and Commercial State of the Country, the Manners of the Inhabitants, and Several Curious and Important Remarks on Various Subjects, trans. John Reinhold Forster, 3 vols. (London: John Reinhold Forster, 1770), 1, view on Zotero.
  18. Cadwallader Colden, "The Letters and Papers of Cadwallader Colden", vol. 4 (1748-1754), Collections of the New-York Historical Society (1920): 471-72, view on Zotero.
  19. 19.0 19.1 19.2 William Darlington, Memorials of John Bartram and Humphry Marshall: With Notices of Their Botanical Contemporaries (Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1849), view on Zotero.
  20. "A Russian Gentleman, Describing the Visit He Paid at My Request To Mr. John Bertram, The Celebrated Pennsylvanian Botanist," quoted in J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer: Describing Certain Provincial Situations, Manners, and Customs Not Generally Known (London: Thomas Davies and Lockyer Davis, 1783), view on Zotero
  21. George Washington, The Diaries of George Washington, ed. by Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1979), view on Zotero.
  22. Manasseh Cutler, Life, Journals and Correspondence of Rev. Manasseh Cutler, L.L.D., ed. by William Parker Cutler and Julia Perkin Cutler, vol. 1 (Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1888), view on Zotero.
  23. George Washington, The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, ed. Dorothy Twohig (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1993), view on Zotero.
  24. Alexander Wilson, The Poems and Literary Prose of Alexander Wilson, the American Ornithologist, ed. Alexander B. Grosart, 2 vols. (Paisley: Alex. Gardner, 1876), view on Zotero.
  25. Frederick Pursh, Flora Americae Septentrionalis; Or, a Systematic Arrangement and Description of the Plants of North America, 2 vols (London: White, Cochrane, & Co., 1814), view on Zotero.
  26. William Baldwin, Reliquiae Baldwinianae: Selections from the Correspondence of the Late William Baldwin with Occasional Notes, and a Short Biographical Memoir, ed. William Darlington (Philadelphia: Kimber and Sharpless, 1843), view on Zotero.
  27. James Thacher, American Medical Biography: Or, Memoirs of Eminent Physicians Who Have Flourished in America, 2 vols (Boston: Richardson & Lord and Cottons & Barnard, 1828), view on Zotero.
  28. James Boyd, A History of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, 1827-1927 (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, 1929), view on Zotero.
  29. Andrew Jackson Downing, "Notes on Some of the Nurseries and Private Gardens in the Neighborhood of New York and Philadelphia, Visited in the Early Part of the Month of March, 1837," The Magazine of Horticulture, 3 (June 1837), view on Zotero.
  30. François André Michaux, The North American Sylva; Or, A Description of the Forest Trees of the United States, Canada, and North America...Translated from the French of F. Andrew Michaux...Illustrated by 122 Finely Colored Plates by Thomas Nuttall, trans. by Augustus L. Hillhouse, 6 vols (Philadelphia: J. Dobson, 1841), 1, view on Zotero.
  31. J. C. (John Claudius) Loudon, An Encyclopaedia of Gardening; Comprising the Theory and Practice of Horticulture, Floriculture, Arboriculture, and Landscape-Gardening, new ed., corr. and improved (London: Longman et al., 1850), view on Zotero.

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History of Early American Landscape Design contributors, "Bartram Botanic Garden and Nursery," History of Early American Landscape Design, , https://heald.nga.gov/mediawiki/index.php?title=Bartram_Botanic_Garden_and_Nursery&oldid=16707 (accessed March 28, 2024).

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