Philadelphia Horticulture and the College

Philadelphia Horticulture and the College. . , Philadelphia is built upon land originally occupied by the Lenni Lenape. The Lenape utilized plants for food and medicine long before European colonists arrived., By 1787, when the College was founded, Philadelphia was the nation's largest city and a hub of European-inspired horticulture in the new colony. John Bartram (1699-1777), widely regarded as the father of American botany, had created the first botanic garden in 1728 on the west bank of the Schuylkill River three miles from the city. He engaged in an extensive Transatlantic plant and seed exchange via his Bartram's Boxes, seed collections shipped in the fall to clients in England. His son, William Bartram (1739-1823), continued and expanded upon his father's work, joining a growing new generation of Philadelphia horticulturists. . The study of Botany should be a very important and essential part of the objects of the College , . That this branch of medicine can only be cultivated with advantage by means of a botanical garden , . That the establishment and support of such nurseries of botanical knowledge have engaged the patronage of the most respectable governments in Europe , . That a botanical garden in this new country is rendered more necessary in order to preserve and transmit to posterity many plants, which in the progress of improvements and cultivation of the earth cannot fail of being lost or of existing under circumstances less profitable than may be expected from being cultivated in a spot appropriated to that purpose , Along with Benjamin Rush (1746-1813), another notable founding Fellow was Adam Kuhn (1741-1817). Kuhn studied under Carl Linnaeus in Sweden from 1761 to 1764. Linnaeus' binomial naming system, which is still used today, can be seen on all the signs in this garden. Kuhn was the first professor of materia medica (now known as pharmacology) at the College of Philadelphia, now the University of Pennsylvania., He was succeeded in the role by College Fellow Benjamin Smith Barton (1766-1815), who wrote the first textbook of botany in America, Elements of Botany, or Outlines of the Natural History of Vegetables., Founding Fellow Thomas Parke was a great friend of William Hamilton, owner of The Woodlands, another notable estate on the west bank of the Schuylkill. Hamilton was an avid botanist and plant collector. Guided by English horticultural practices, he built a huge greenhouse in 1792 and laid out his grounds with incredible care. When New York physician David Hosack (1769-1835) wanted to create the first public botanic garden in the United States, he consulted Parke, who suggested that he look at The Woodlands hothouse complex built by Hamilton. Hosack took Parke's advice. He recreated the complex almost exactly in 1801 at the Elgin Botanic Garden,, which showcased plants from all over the world, including those used in medicine. Sadly, his garden is now underneath the Rockefeller Center., Although the Fellows were key to horticulture in Philadelphia at the time of the College's founding and wanted to establish a garden, they did not formally create the one you see today until 1914.