Inspirations from the Woodlands Jefferson’S Enduring Ties to Philadelphia’S Botanical Riches
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Inspirations from the Woodlands Jefferson’s Enduring Ties to Philadelphia’s Botanical Riches “…we are in sight both of Bartram’s & dite academics, seed merchants and nurs- Gray’s gardens, but have the [Schuylkill] erymen, and pioneering naturalists. John river between them & us…” and William Bartram, Benjamin Smith THOMAS JEFFERSON TO Barton, Charles Willson Peale, Bernard MARTHA JEFFERSON RANDOLPH PHILADELPHIA, MAY 26, 793 McMahon – all infamous characters in this botanical arena – are frequently mentioned in our accounts of Jefferson OR TWO-AND-A-HALF DECADES, begin- and gardening. But there was one among Fning in 775, Thomas Jefferson’s political Jefferson’s botanical camaraderie – career demanded he periodically consider the well-heeled, gentleman gardener, the City of Brotherly Love his home. William Hamilton (743-83) – who Philadelphia, due to the actions of the stood somewhat apart from the rest. Continental congress, was the home of Born into wealth and social prominence, liberty, the birthplace of democracy, and, Hamilton, at an early age, inherited an for a time, the capital of the new nation. immense, 600-acre country seat, which Philadelphia was also a gathering place for he named The Woodlands. Hamilton the premier naturalists, botanists, and hor- remained a bachelor, sharing his home ticulturists in America, and Jefferson was with his mother, nephew and two nieces, both disciple and leading figure among and he spent his lifetime designing and this elite circle. In 797 Jefferson’s peers embellishing his property in the grand elected him president of the American style of 8th-century English landed gen- Philosophical Society, a prestigious try. The sprawling estate was located on organization located in Philadelphia a high eminence on the west bank of the that promoted scientific thinking and Schuylkill River, overlooking a bend of Enlightenment ideals. He presided over the river and commanding broad views the society for eighteen years – throughout of the surrounding countryside. It stood his vice-presidency and his two terms as in close proximity to Bartram’s garden president of the United States – and well and nursery, Gray’s ferry (the city’s into his retirement years. Jefferson’s ties principal southern entrance), and the with Philadelphia remained an abiding Landreth seed company. Hamilton was a influence throughout the remainder of passionate collector and had constructed his life, impacting even the landscape he a one-hundred-forty foot greenhouse would ultimately shape at Monticello. designed especially for his tender exotics. Jefferson’s Philadelphian associates He was a serious student of botany and were a wide-ranging assortment of indi- accruing plants was his passionate avoca- viduals that included elite botanists, eru- tion. Scottish plant collector John Lyons 9 2005 sions, and there is good evidence for this. Bernard McMahon complained to Jefferson, “altho’ he is in every other respect a particular friend of mine, he 6, 1854 never offered me one [plant] in return.” Hamilton often directed his personal secretary, George Smith, to inquire about prices of rare plants “anonymously,” and his letters contained obsessive warn- ings that his choicest specimens, such GLEASON’S PICTORIAL DRAWINGROOM COMPANION, VOL. as his prized China rose cuttings and Mid-nineteenth-century view of the South African geraniums, be kept “under Philadelphia mansion The Woodlands. lock & key,” adding “no soul should be suffr’d alone in the pot or Tub enclosure.” (d. 88), who introduced Jeffersonia Criticisms of Hamilton’s covetous nature, diphylla into English gardens, and the however, were often insensitive to the German botanist Frederick Pursh (774- enormous effort and expense he himself 820), were among Hamilton’s more put forth to seek out and obtain these astute garden managers. Pursh lived at unusual and highly desirable acquisitions The Woodlands from 802 to 805 and, in the first place. in the introduction to his Flora Americae There are ample accounts of Septentrionalis, 84, (which contained the Hamilton’s generous hospitality as well, plants described by the Lewis and Clark and he saw that the grounds were always Expedition) he credited Hamilton’s col- perfectly maintained for an admiring lections as being “particularly valuable for public. Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, in his furnishing me with a general knowledge “Travels through America in 797-799, of the plants of [North America].” The 805…” gave the following description of French naturalist and explorer André his visits to “old acquaintances” in 805: Michaux (746-802) and the Bartrams “I spent Sunday with Mr. William were among many who supplied Hamilton, owner of Wood-land, the Hamilton with trees and other plants. famous residence near Philadelphia. The But, the sheer scale of Hamilton’s collection of foreign plants and bushes land holdings and his ambitions for it, gathered from all three parts of the world, along with his flamboyant and extrava- is the most numerous and beautiful gant life style, was likely intimidating which an individual may own.” to some of his more down-to-earth, A particularly evocative memoir, horticulturally-minded contemporaries. made in 803, detailed the visit of Rev. Dr. University professors and taxonomic Manasseh Cutler, a botanist and member purists such as Drs. Benjamin Smith of Congress from Massachusetts, who Barton and William P. C. Barton took was en-route with his entourage to their classes on frequent excursions into Washington, DC. The weary travelers ar- the countryside and The Woodlands rived unannounced and were greeted by was a popular destination, even though “Mr. Hamilton at his ease, smoking his they held a general consensus that, “the cigar,” who graciously treated them to an curious person views it with delight, the enchanting evening. The guests walked naturalist quits it with regret.” Hamilton the pleasure grounds in near darkness on was accused by many of being secre- “lawns of green grass, frequently mowed,” tive and miserly with his plant posses- and viewed “at different distances numer- 10 ous copse of the native trees interspersed The Lombardy poplar, which with artificial groves, which are of trees Hamilton brought to The Woodlands collected from all parts of the world.” Dr. upon his return from England and Cutler was particularly impressed with France in 784, would become “all the Hamilton’s extensive greenhouses: rage” well into the next century. It ap- “Every part was crowded with trees pears Hamilton used it both as a “ter- and plants, from the hot climates, and race shrub” as well as planted out in such as I had never seen. All the spices. the landscape. In 794 Jefferson listed The Tea plant in full perfection. In short, Lombardy poplar among his “Objects he assured us, there was not a rare plant for the garden this year,” and the tree’s in Europe, Asia, Africa, from China and instantly recognizable, columnar habit is the islands in the South Sea, of which clearly evident in Jane Braddick Peticolas’ he had any account, which he had not famous painting, c. 825, of the West procured.” Front of Monticello. Stephen Spongberg, Hamilton enter- JANE BRADDICK PETICOLAS tained his guests until one in the morning, dining on a sumptuous meal while pouring over large botanical books from his li- brary. Each time they turned to a particularly rare and superb plant, Hamilton would send one of his gardeners with a lantern to the green house to fetch the specimen for com- Monticello c.1825 showing Lombardy Poplars on extreme left. parison. in A Reunion of Trees, describes the rapid- Hamilton’s Arboreal Legacies growing, short-lived tree, which is tech- Hamilton’s place in the annals of nically a fastigiated form of Northern horticulture in America is forever dis- Italy’s black poplar, as a kind of “fanciful, tinguished by his introduction of the arboreal exclamation point in the land- ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba), Lombardy poplar scape.” It was fancied by so many that (Populus nigra ‘Italica’), Norway maple John W. Francis, in his reminiscences (Acer platanoides), and the tree-of-heaven of New York City, wrote: “In 800-4 (Ailanthus altissima). Initially, these un- and ’5, they infested the whole island [of usual novelties were afforded the highest Manhattan], if not most of the middle, regard and distributed and promoted northern, and many southern States.” with much fanfare and zeal by the nurs- Popular garden literature during the ery trade. Each of these species, for bet- 9th century was rich with tales of a ter or for worse, has had an enormous number of Hamilton’s remarkable trees, impact on the American landscape and, and the Lombardy poplar was no excep- over time, public opinions and taste has tion. In 86, Robert Carr, nephew of changed dramatically William Bartram and then-owner of the 11 2005 Bartram’s garden and nursery, published time when this vigorous, rapidly-growing an account of Hamilton’s introductions tree, which has now invaded the entire in Thomas Meehan’s Philadelphia-based continent with environmentally disrup- periodical magazine, The Gardener’s tive consequences, was once pampered Monthly. Carr submitted that William in greenhouses and treated as one of the Bartram was actually present for the great novelties from The East. Adding to unpacking of Hamilton’s shipment from the paradox, William R. Prince’s account abroad and that his uncle “informed in Meehan’s journal further stated that me that the Lombardy Poplar was one the sudden mania for this now-maligned of the trees, and JOSEF BEERY tree might have been that he then be- due to a mere change lieved it was the of its common name first brought to from “Sumach,” this country…I which he considered believe he brought repulsive, to “Chinese the European Ailanthus.” With this Sycamore enticing new name, Maple…at the Prince ominously same time.” Shortly concluded, “a potent after the publica- charm came over the tion of Carr’s entire tree, and every account, William one gazed on it with Robert Prince, of wonder and admira- the famous Prince tion, and for many family nursery in years it was impos- Flushing, New sible to supply the York, responded in demands at treble the Meehan’s journal, Ailanthus seeds.