Yes, John Bartram founded America’s first botanical garden. He also created the first subscription box for gardeners.
Considered America's first botanist, he dedicated his life to studying plants. He also started an extremely expensive seed subscription venture.
In 1728, Quaker farmer John Bartram purchased just over 100 acres of land from Swedish settlers along the Western bank of the Schuylkill.
His plan was to farm it and build a home for his nine children and wife, Anna.
But he didn’t just grow food on this land, he indulged in his fascination — plants. Bartram, who many consider America’s first botanist, was absolutely fascinated by them. Back in the 18th century, plants found in the colonies were exotic new species.
Bartram was discovering them during the Age of Enlightenment, when learning for the sake of learning was in vogue.
Not only did he study Pennsylvania greenery, he traveled through the colonies from the Pine Barrens in New Jersey to the swamps of Florida. His plant expeditions took him as far as Nova Scotia, said Caroline Winschel, director of development and communications at Bartram’s Garden.
“He was clever,” said Winschel, “His house was at the top of the hill and his garden was planted on land that sloped down toward the river with great eastern exposure. There was sunlight all day. He created his own microclimates, with conditions that supported the plants’ natural habitats.”
In this way, Bartram created America’s first botanical garden. The Philadelphia Historic District will celebrate Bartram’s Garden, also America’s oldest surviving botanical garden this Saturday at its weekly “firstival” day party, a weekly fete honoring American firsts that happened in Philadelphia.
During Bartram’s time, Bartram’s Garden, according to an 1891 article in the Philadelphia Times, “was a resort of every scientific man in America, (Benjamin) Franklin, (David) Rittenhouse, (Benjamin) Rush, (William) Shippen and a corps of famous physicians of the period.”
The article also says that George Washington, who Bartram “lived to call a friend was a regular visitor to the historic spot.”
(No wonder Claire Fraser, the time traveling hero on Starz Outlander series visits Bartram’s Garden to fetch her medicinal herbs.)
During that time period, Bartram also sent wooden boxes containing his rare American seeds to Europe by ship.
“These ‘Bartram Boxes’ were pretty much the first subscription boxes,” Winschel said. “They cost about five guineas, the average annual salary of a laboring person. That was very, very expensive.”
After Bartram died in 1777, his sons, John and William operated the nursery, continuing their study of plants and wowing Philadelphia’s horticulture enthusiasts. John was involved with an early iteration of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.
» READ MORE: Years before Market Street became a bustling shopping district, it was home to America’s first circus
John Jr.’s daughter Ann Bartram, also a botanist, married Col. William Carr in 1809 and they continued studying plants. In 1829, the Carrs introduced the poinsettia to the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s first flower show.
Around that time, they also opened Bartram’s Garden to the public.
The Carrs sold the garden and farm to industrialist Andrew Eastwick in 1850. Bartram’s Garden became a public park in 1891, thanks to a movement by botanist Thomas Meehan, who once worked for Eastwick at Bartram’s.
That was also the year Bartram’s descendants formed a nonprofit that, Winschel said, continues to fundraise for ongoing maintenance and programming.
Today Bartram’s Garden is a green oasis in a thriving metropolitan city where Philadelphians work the magic of their green thumbs.
“Bartram’s Garden is almost 300 years old,” Winschel said. “The neighborhood and the city have changed so much in that time and Bartram’s Garden is still a place where people can come and enjoy the beauty of the natural world.”
This week’s Firstival is Saturday, April 18, 11 a.m.-1 p.m., at Bartram’s Garden, 5400 Lindbergh Boulevard. The Inquirer will highlight a “first” from the Philadelphia Historic District’s 52 Weeks of Firsts program every week. A “52 Weeks of Firsts” podcast, produced by All That’s Good Productions, drops every Tuesday.
