Preserving Bartram’s Garden: Recent Restoration of the House, Garden and Riverfront

Posted by on Apr 19, 2016 in | Comments Off on Preserving Bartram’s Garden: Recent Restoration of the House, Garden and Riverfront Sitting on 45 acres of pastoral landscape, the Colonial-era house at Bartram’s Garden has long been recognized as a Philadelphia architectural landmark and one of the first historic buildings preserved as a public park in Pennsylvania. John Bartram (1699-1777), the first American-born botanist, began construction shortly after he purchased the farm of 102 acres in the fall of 1728 in what...
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Thomas Say: Pennsylvania Entomologist

Posted by on Apr 19, 2016 in | Comments Off on Thomas Say: Pennsylvania Entomologist Thomas Say was a keen observer of living things. In a scientific era that cherished primacy in classification and description, Say was renowned for his work. He named approximately 1,500 North American insects and scores of other species. This accomplishment alone could justify scientist Benjamin Silliman’s assertion that Say “has done more to make known the zoology of this country,...
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Biographer of the Feathered Tribes: Alexander Wilson and American Ornithology

Posted by on May 8, 2015 in | Comments Off on Biographer of the Feathered Tribes: Alexander Wilson and American Ornithology “As it has fallen to my lot to be the biographer of the feathered tribes of the United States,” Alexander Wilson (1766-1813) wrote to William Bartram (1739-1823) on August 4, 1809, “I am solicitous to do full justice to every species; and I would not conceal one good quality that any one of them possesses.” At the age of 43 Wilson – weaver, peddler, poet, teacher...
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A Flowering for the Ages

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on A Flowering for the Ages Botanists who classify and name plants are called plant taxono­mists, plant systema­tists, or systematic botanists, most of whom work in her­baria, a name first applied by Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778), the great Swedish systematist. A herbarium, the plant taxono­mist’s basic reference source, is a collection of preserved plant specimens, mostly pressed and dried (although certain specimens...
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Chester County Welcomes Thee

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Chester County Welcomes Thee The history of Chester County constitutes a significant part of the history of Pennsylvania, both province and commonwealth, and of the history of the United States of America. At the beginning of our nation’s Bicentennial and on the threshold of our state’s and our county’s tricentennial celebrations, Chester County looks proudly upon its past accomplishments and with...
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Gardens Change with Time

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Gardens Change with Time William Penn’s wish that Philadelphia, the capital of his colony, should be a “Greene Country Towne” never was to come to fruition. The town’s settlers really preferred a re-creation of London in miniature. However, gardens and gardening have been an important aspect of the Pennsyl­vania heritage. Gardening has been practiced as a fine art and as a necessity based upon...
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Like Father, Like Son: The Extraordinary Bartrams

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Like Father, Like Son: The Extraordinary Bartrams An unusual man, of seemingly boundless talent and insatiable curiosity, John Bartram (1699-1777) was many things to many people. Although primarily regarded as a botanist, he might also have been considered a paleontologist, an archaeol­ogist, a geologist, a limnologist, a conchologist, an ethnologist, and so on. Like Thomas Jefferson, he was a prime example of that rare, almost unique,...
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Currents

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Currents White Elephants Baseball historians generally consider Connie Mack (1862-1956) the paragon of managers. His knowledge of the game, professional disposition, and ability to acquire and, more importantly, manage players captured the attention of sports enthusiasts during a time when the national pastime was riddled with scandal, permeated with intemperance, and punctuated by rowdyism. Connie Mack...
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Franklinia Alatamaha by John and William Bartram

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Franklinia Alatamaha by John and William Bartram To commemorate the three hundredth anniversary of the birth of John Bartram (1699-1777), Historic Bartram’s Garden in Philadelphia launched a national survey of the Franklinia alatamaha, the most famous discovery made by the famous naturalist and his son, William Bartram (1739-1823). The census drew the participation of both botanical gardens and home gardeners while it recorded the...
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Growing Bigger and Better Year by Year

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Growing Bigger and Better Year by Year At noon on Saturday, November 24, 1827, fifty-three prominent Philadelphians gathered at the old Franklin Institute, then located on Seventh Street, in response to a newspaper advertisement calling for the formation of an organization devoted to the “highly instructive and interesting science” of horticulture. Since that inaugural meeting – nearly one hundred and seventy-five...
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