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- PETICOLAS BRADDICK JANE 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
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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 BEERY JOSEF 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. former prices.” claiming that, in But, while we fact, his grandfather, William, introduced may, in hindsight, have a critical view of Lombardy poplar and had “00,000 Hamilton’s choice of the tree-of-heaven, growing in his nurseries, which were dis- there is no question that another of his seminated far and wide before its propa- Asian introductions, the ginkgo, was gation was attempted by others.” At the truly a prized one. The tree itself has least, the Prince Nursery should be cred- an extraordinary history. Thought to be ited as one of the first major distributors extinct and known only through fossil of the Lombardy poplar. records, the ginkgo survived unchanged In the same article, W. R. Prince from the Jurassic Period. This living relic maintained that it was William Prince was preserved in Chinese monasteries by who also introduced the Ailanthus, Buddhist monks before it was rediscov- which his grandfather had initially sent ered in 69 by the German botanist and to the Bartram’s Garden “under the physician Engelbert Kaempfer, who was erroneous name of ‘Tanners’ Sumach’.” in Japan on a mission for the Dutch East- Today Hamilton might be more than India Company. The earliest trees raised willing to offer Prince this dubious dis- in Europe appear to have been all male, tinction and it is gratifying to note that and the first recorded female tree was we have no evidence that Jefferson ever found near Geneva in 84. Hamilton grew it. Indeed, it is hard to fathom a planted two male trees close to the front
12 of his mansion in 784, which grew into Hamilton’sHamilton’s ginkgginkgo,o, aaccordingccording to DDr.r. massive specimens, and sometime later, Harshberger,Harshberger, ““isis stilstilll rregardedegarded as when is not clear, a female tree was oneone of PPhiladelphia’shiladelphia’s ararborealboreal trtrea-ea- planted nearby. sures,sures, and trtreeee loloversvers ffromrom distant Long after Hamilton’s death in 83 partsparts of the globeglobe,, when in the and the estate incorporated as “The city,city, jourjourneyney to the cemetercemeteryy to Woodlands Cemetery Company of see the magnificent Philadelphia” in 840, The Woodlands specimen.” remained a Mecca for tree enthusi- The asts. Thomas Meehan’s book, American Woodland’s Handbook of Ornamental Trees, 853, magnificent which focused primarily on the trees at ginkgos Bartram’s Garden, frequently cited like remained in specimens at The Woodlands; including goodgood coconditionndition Hamilton’s ginkgo, which he considered forfor nearnearlyly ttwowo hundrhundreded the “handsomest.” In 865 the American years. In 98 the male ginkgo landscapelandscape designer A. JJ.. DoDowningwning cocom-m- measuredmeasured 68 ffeeteet taltalll and 3300 incincheshes iinn mented that: ““TheThe attentioattentionn of the diameter and was stillstill in rrelativelyelatively ggoodood visitor to this placeplace [[TheThe WWoodlands]oodlands] health. TTragically,ragically, in the mid 980s, a is nownow arrarrestedested bbyy ttwowo vveryery larglargee cemeterycemetery ccaretakeraretaker cut dodownwn the ttwowo rre-e- specimens of that curiouscurious trtree,ee, the maining treestrees becbecauseause his dog tootookk sicsickk Japanese Ginkgo (Salisburia), sixtsixtyy oorr afterafter eating sosomeme of the seeds prproducedoduced seventyseventy ffeeteet high, perperhaps,haps, the finest in byby the femalefemale trtree.ee. But, at BarBartram’stram’s EuropeEurope or AAmerica.”merica.” In 99, PProfessorrofessor Garden,Garden, an ancient ginkgginkgoo sursurvivesvives CharlesCharles SSpragueprague SSargentargent of the ArArnoldnold and, aaccordingccording Arboretum,Arboretum, who knekneww of the trtreeee oonlynly to Joel TT.. FFrey,rey, byby legend,legend, wwroterote the ffollowing:ollowing: ““ItIt is the garden’sgarden’s probableprobable that the first GinkgGinkgoo in curator,curator, familfamilyy this country was one planted traditiontradition and at Woodlands…This tree if somesome scscantant docu- living is certainly one of the mentationmentation indicatesindicates most interesting of exotic that this treetree ccameame treestrees whicwhichh havhavee been plant- fromfrom WWilliamilliam HamiltoHamilton,n, ed in the United States.”States.” AAnd,nd, possiblypossibly as earearlyly as 785.785. JohnJohn WW.. HarshbergHarshberger,er, prprofessorofessor Although the HamiltonHamilton trtreesees wwereere of botanybotany at the UnivUniversityersity of cut, the stumps at The WWoodlandsoodlands aarere Pennsylvania,Pennsylvania, vverifiederified in 92 that stillstill alivalivee and cocontinuentinue to prproduceoduce susuckers,ckers, therethere rremainedemained ttwowo trtreesees stilstilll in fromfrom whicwhichh cuttings havhavee been prpropagat-opagat- vigorousvigorous health, estimating that ed severalseveral times in the past ttwowo decdecades.ades. the largestlargest was about 75 ffeeteet taltalll and 7 feetfeet 7 incincheshes in cir- VisionsVisions of EElysiumlysium cumference.cumference. In AprilApril 800,800, less than a momonthnth befbeforeore JeffersonJefferson wwouldould leavleavee PPhiladelphiahiladelphia fforor the final time,time, he paid a visit to The WoodlandsWoodlands and ffoundound mmuchuch to his Gingko liking.liking. JeffJeffersonerson especialespeciallyly fan- cied the sweet-scentedsweet-scented aacaciascacias leaves.
13 JOSEF BEERY 2005 TJF / CHAD WOLLERTON CHAD / TJF
(Mimosa farnesiana) and later re- quested seed on several occasions. A correspondence ensued for nearly a decade. Although he and Hamilton were on opposite ends of the political spectrum, they had much in common through their mutual love of horticulture – gardening being the great unifier. Both men shared a fundamental curiosity about nature and had similar sensibilities with regard to the creative process of embel- lishing nature by fancy. Both men were profoundly inspired by Monticello’s mimosa in flower. Thomas Whately’s treatise, Observations his impending retirement from public on Modern Gardening (770), whose strik- office loomed large in his imagination, ing descriptions of imaginary tours and Jefferson wrote Hamilton a lengthy settings, according to scholar and critic theoretical treatise, eloquently expressing Katja Grillner, “functioned to provide his desire to improve his own grounds in virtual landscapes in which the aesthetic the “style of the English gardens,” admir- judgment of …enthusiastic garden visi- ing Hamilton’s estate as “the only rival tors would be exercised.” On separate oc- which I have known in America to what casions, with Whately as muse, Hamilton may be seen in England.” Jefferson was and Jefferson toured the English coun- reserving this dream of transforming his tryside as critical “enthusiastic garden little mountain for his final occupation visitors;” Hamilton in 785, a year prior to upon his return home. The bulk of his Jefferson’s more celebrated journey with essay described his views on the sensible John Adams. Hamilton’s tour was con- treatment of the native woods, “which siderably more extensive, but he, unlike are majestic,” by trimming up the loftiest Jefferson, left no specific record or diary trees to produce open ground below while of his impressions. The impact, none- retaining dense shade. His intension was theless, was profound, as indicated in a to recreate his experience of the English letter Hamilton wrote to his secretary, landscape, which is dependent upon that Mr. Smith, prior to his return to America, country’s sunless climate, while recogniz- detailing his freshly conceived plans for ing that, “under the beaming, constant The Woodlands: and almost vertical sun of Virginia, shade “Having observed with attention the is our Elysium.” This seminal letter was nature, variety & extent of the planta- the basis for Monticello’s recreation of tions [in England] of shrubs trees & Jefferson’s grove in 978. fruits & consequently admired them, I shall (if God grant me a safe return to “Curious trees as will bear our my own country) endeavour to make it winters” [The Woodlands] smile in the same use- ful & beautiful manner.” Jefferson also mentioned his wish to be- Jefferson obviously recognized gin “the collection of such curious trees as this inspiration when he visited The will bear our winters in the open air.” This Woodlands years later. In July 806, as caveat was not peculiar. As a surge of new introductions from foreign lands and dif- 14 fering climates were arriving on American Hamilton’s regard for the hardiness shores, the question of a plant’s hardiness of species still new to the eastern North was a major concern and the act of test- American landscape was often evident, as ing a species’ limits became part of the in his enthusiasm for his precious “silk game. Upon his visit to The Woodlands tree of Constantinople,” the mimosa in 802, François André Michaux (770- (Mimosa julibrissin). In a note accompa- 855), the French plant explorer and son nying the young tree he sent as a gift to of André, wrote: “[Hamilton’s] collection Jefferson in 805, Hamilton wrote: of exotics is immense, and remarkable, for “…if well preserved for two or three plants from New Holland, all the trees years in a pot, will afterwards succeed and shrubs of the United States, at least in the open ground. I have trees of 20 those that would stand the winter in feet height which for several years past Philadelphia…” In his Flora Septentrionalis, have produced their beautiful & fragrant Pursh further expanded Michaux’s com- flowers & have shewn no marks whatever ments in his impressions of Hamilton’s of suffering from the severity of the last collections: winter.” “Not far from [the Bartram’s garden The following year Hamilton added and nursery] are also the extensive gardens similar observations about the ginkgo of William Hamilton, Esq., called The and paper mulberry: Woodlands, which I found not only rich “In the autumn I intend sending you in plants from all parts of the world, but if I live three kinds of trees which I think particularly so in rare and new American you will deem valuable to your garden species. Philadelphia being a central situ- viz – Ginkgo biloba or China Maidenhair ation, and extremely well calculated for tree, Broussenetia papyrifera vulgarly the cultivation of plants from all the other called paper mulberry tree & Mimosa parts of North America….” julibrisin or silk tree of Constantinople. TJF
Jefferson’s Grove recreated at Monticello. 15 2005
The first is said…to produce a good eat- package of curious treasures from the able nut – the 2nd in the bark as yields West, they being the “persons most a valuable material for making clothing likely to take care of them.” On March to the people of Otaheite & other South 22, 807 President Jefferson forwarded Sea Islands – & the third is a beautiful to Philadelphia two separate packages, flowering tree at this time in its high- each with similar counsel: “…the packet est perfection, the seeds of which were of seeds are the fruits of [Meriwether collected on the shore of the Caspian Lewis’s] journey across the continent, & Sea. They are all hardy having for several will I trust add some useful or agreeable years past borne our severest weather in varieties to what we now possess.” the open ground without the smallest Jefferson’s faith in Hamilton’s hor- protection…” ticultural skills might have been overly Jefferson did receive the mimosa optimistic in this case, for the next cor- seedling Hamilton promised him in 806, respondence from The Woodlands came but he declined the paper mulberry, hav- nearly a year later, in February 808, ing already gotten two male trees from a bearing Hamilton’s report: “Mr. Lewis’s neighbor. It is not clear whether Jefferson seeds have not yet vegetated freely, more received the ginkgo, especially since he however may come up with this com- hoped to defer such gifts of plants for his ing spring.” U. P. Hedrick’s History of retirement to Monticello, still three years Horticulture in America, may shed light hence. on the fate of Lewis’s seeds with this But, Hamilton’s interest in the details assertion: “Hamilton…employed the of successfully cultivating new introduc- seedsman Landreth to grow plants tions, along with his obvious means and from the seeds that came to him.” The resources and his insatiable eagerness for D. Landreth Seed Company, across the any and every new plant, might explain Schuylkill River from the Bartram’s in part Jefferson’s reasoning when he nursery, also reputedly obtained seed entrusted Hamilton with a portion of and successfully grew the Osage Orange the botanical discoveries of the Lewis (Maclura pomifera), another of the no- and Clark Expedition. In January 807 table finds of the Expedition, and this Jefferson confided to Bernard McMahon valuable tree was shortly thereafter being that he and Hamilton would be the marketed on a massive scale and planted primary recipients of Governor Lewis’ across America to create living fences in rural areas. Lewis & Clark Plants Hamilton’s noble collection Collections of seeds of In March 808, a month after Hamilton’s Lewis and Clark plants update, Jefferson wrote his friend a long are available from the and chatty letter, covering a variety of Center for Historic new topics, but never mentioning the Plants. The Garden seeds of the Expedition. Hamilton had Kit comes with eight inquired about a winter Haw that he’d packets of seeds and an illustrated booklet. admired in Washington and Jefferson was intent on determining the identity of For details and to order, visit our Website: the red-berried thorn hedges. Jefferson www.twinleaf.org was also eager for Hamilton to grow his “Aspen from Monticello,” which he described as “a very sensible variety from 16 G.B. MCINTOSH G.B. have deserved well of your country.” Jefferson maintained ties to Philadelphia through his grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, who had been sent there to study the “particular branches of science, which are not so advantageously taught anywhere else in the United States.” The “schools” Jefferson recommended he attend were: “The garden at the Woodlands for Botany, Mr. Peale’s Museum for Natural History, and [Doctor Caspar Wistar’s] Medical school for Anatomy.” In May 809, Jefferson asked Hamilton to see that the young Osage orange. man studied well “the style of your pleasure grounds, as the chastest model of gardening which I have ever seen out of England.” Jefferson believed any other I have seen in this country, he himself also had much to learn from superior in the straitness & paper white- Hamilton and he hoped someday to ness of the body; & the leaf is longer in tempt his ailing friend, who suffered its stem consequently more tremulous, from gout, to visit his little mountain, and…smooth (not downy) on its un- “where I should be very happy to see you & to take from you some of those les- sons for the improvement of my grounds Trees from Monticello which you have so happily practiced on your own.” In that first spring of his Tulip Poplar retirement, Jefferson could finally begin Available as plants. to focus on developing the particu- Osage Orange lar Elysium he had long conceived at Available as seeds. Monticello. As Hamilton had envisioned Tulip Poplar upon his return from England some in bloom. twenty-five years earlier, Jefferson wished to make his paradise smile. For details and to order, visit our Website: www.twinleaf.org Peggy Cornett, Director Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants derside.” Jefferson concluded by praising The author is extremely grateful to Robert Hamilton for the great botanical wealth Cox, Joel T. Frey, Charlotte Landreth-Melville, Timothy Long, Elizabeth McLean, Barb Melera, he had accumulated at The Woodlands, and Aaron Wunsch for their help in the research saying “your collection is really a noble and writing of this paper. one, & in making & attending to it you
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