Humphry Marshall's Botanic Garden: Living Collections 1773-1813
Date
1988-12
Authors
Gutowski, Robert
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Humphry Marshall (1722-1801), author of the first
American botanical imprint, Arbustum Americanum: The
American Grove ... (Philadelphia, 1785), established at his
Chester County, Pennsylvania home what is generally
regarded as the second botanic garden in America. Aiding
Marshall was his nephew, Dr. Moses Marshall (1758-1813).
Since the Chester County Historical Society acquisition of
Marshall's house and garden site in 1982, information about
the landscape is important to conserve and interpret this
property. The period 1773-1813 represents the tenure of
Humphry and Moses Marshall, encompassing the significant
period of botanical and horticultural activity.
This study records the existing plantings, documents
plantings surviving from the Marshalls' tenure, and
documents 136 plants as a partial catalog of the Marshalls'
living collection. The annotated catalog in Chapter 2
demonstrates great diversity in species, provenance, and
use. The catalog confirms intensive cultivation and the
international scope of the garden. Site analysis and
historical research indicated garden elements existing
during the Marshalls' lifetimes.
The common view of Marshall's garden, solely as an
arboretum of native forest trees, is expanded by the
collection documented, which includes: greenhouse plants,
herbaceous perennials, plants of the Materia Medica,
economic plants, exotics, plants for kitchen garden and
pleasure ground. Some were new introductions.
The living collection reflected the garden's
significance in developing national and international plant
exchange and trade, as an herbarium viva, plant
introduction station, medicinal garden, and pleasure
ground. The collection helped to develop American botany
and horticulture during the Colonial and Early Republic
eras, contributing to the recognition of a national
character at home and abroad. Marshall's Botanic Garden,
the culmination of the "curious gentleman's" garden in
America, appears as a precursor of the modern, academically
based, American botanic garden and arboretum: an
interdisciplinary center whose primary feature is the
teaching collection and whose primary functions are
research and instruction.
Description
Keywords
History- public garden , Humphry Marshall , Moses Marshall , Arbustum americanum