Bartram's Garden is a 50-acre public garden and
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...
in
Southwest Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
, situated on the banks of the Tidal
Schuylkill River
The Schuylkill River ( , ) is a river in eastern Pennsylvania. It flows for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map(). accessed April 1, 2011. from Pottsville, Pennsylvania, Pottsville ...
.
Founded in 1728 by botanist
John Bartram
John Bartram (June 3, 1699 – September 22, 1777) was an American botanist, horticulturist, and explorer, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for most of his career. Swedish botanist and taxonomist Carl Linnaeus said he was the "greatest natu ...
(1699–1777), it is the oldest
botanical garden
A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is ...
to survive in North America.
The Garden is operated by the non-profit John Bartram Association in coordination with
Philadelphia Parks and Recreation.
Bartram's Garden has the only recreational access to the Tidal Schuylkill River and its wetlands.
Its trails make up segments of the
East Coast Greenway
The East Coast Greenway is a pedestrian and bicycle route between Maine and Florida along the East Coast of the United States. The nonprofit East Coast Greenway Alliance was created in 1991 with the goal to use the entire route with off-road, s ...
.
The garden acts as an outdoor classroom for learning about the plants and history of Southwest Philadelphia.
The John Bowman Bartram Special Collections Library contains an extensive collection of documents and materials related to the history of the Garden, the history of Philadelphia, and the development of the field of botany. The garden also serves as a venue for art.
The garden
Colonial American botanist
John Bartram
John Bartram (June 3, 1699 – September 22, 1777) was an American botanist, horticulturist, and explorer, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for most of his career. Swedish botanist and taxonomist Carl Linnaeus said he was the "greatest natu ...
founded the garden on his farm in
Kingsessing, west of the
Schuylkill River
The Schuylkill River ( , ) is a river in eastern Pennsylvania. It flows for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map(). accessed April 1, 2011. from Pottsville, Pennsylvania, Pottsville ...
and miles outside and south of the what were then the borders of
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
. He built its stone house between 1728 and 1731, added a kitchen around 1740, and installed a Palladian-inspired, carved facade between 1758 and 1770. The house still stands, as does his original garden (circa 1728) and greenhouse (1760).
Three generations of the Bartram family continued the garden as the premier collection of North American plant species in the world. They sold it in 1850.
The current collection contains a wide variety of native and exotic species of herbaceous and woody plants. Most were listed in the Bartrams' 1783 broadside ''Catalogue of American Trees, Shrubs and Herbaceous Plants'' and subsequent editions.
The garden contains three notable trees:
* ''
Franklinia alatamaha'' (Franklin Tree):
William
William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...
and John Bartram, Jr. encountered a small grove of this tree on October 1, 1765 while camping by Georgia's
Altamaha River
The Altamaha River is a major river in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It flows generally eastward for from its Source (river or stream), origin at the confluence of the Oconee River and Ocmulgee River towards the Atlantic Oce ...
.
William eventually brought seeds to the Garden, where they were planted in 1777.
The species, named in honor of John Bartram's friend
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin (April 17, 1790) was an American polymath: a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and Political philosophy, political philosopher.#britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the m ...
, was last seen in the wild in 1803. All ''Franklinia'' growing today are descended from those propagated and distributed by the Bartrams. They are credited with having saved it from extinction.
There are a number of ''Franklinia'' on site at Bartram's Garden; the largest is located in the Common Flower Garden to the east of the Bartram House.
* ''
Cladrastis kentukea'' (Yellowwood): A notably old tree, possibly collected by French plant explorer
André Michaux
André Michaux (' → ahn- mee-; sometimes Anglicisation, anglicised as Andrew Michaud; 8 March 174611 October 1802) was a French botanist and explorer. He is most noted for his study of North American flora. In addition Michaux collected specime ...
in
Tennessee
Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...
in 1796 and later sent to William Bartram.
This specimen is located by the Kitchen Garden to the east of the Bartram House; there is another large, though younger, specimen slightly further east.
* ''
Ginkgo biloba
''Ginkgo biloba'', commonly known as ginkgo or gingko ( ), also known as the maidenhair tree, is a species of gymnosperm tree native to East Asia. It is the last living species in the order Ginkgoales, which first appeared over 290 million year ...
'' (Ginkgo): This male ginkgo is believed to be the oldest ginkgo tree in North America, as the last of three original ginkgoes introduced in 1785 to the United States from
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
, via London.
It is located to the east of the Bartram Barn.
Landscape history

Bartram's Garden is the oldest botanic garden to survive in the United States.
John Bartram (1699–1777), well-known in colonial American as a botanist, explorer, and plant collector, established the garden in September 1728 after purchasing a farm in Kingsessing Township, Philadelphia County for personal use.
With his lifelong devotion to plants, he developed it as a systematic collection. Increasingly he devoted himself to exploration, discovering new specimens and North American species, making substantial scientific achievements. John Bartram engaged in extensive exchanges of both plant materials and information with other botanists and operated a flourishing business based around transatlantic trade in plants. By the mid-eighteenth century, Bartram's Garden had "the most varied collection of North American plants in the world."
Following the
American Revolution
The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...
and John Bartram's death in 1777, Bartram's sons
William Bartram (1739–1823) and
John Bartram Jr. (1743–1812) continued the family's international trade in plants. They expanded both the botanic garden and the plant nursery. William became a respected naturalist, artist, and author using the garden to train the next generation of explorers and natural scientists. While Philadelphia operated as the temporary capital of the new nation, prominent visitors to the garden included members of the
Continental Congress
The Continental Congress was a series of legislature, legislative bodies, with some executive function, for the Thirteen Colonies of British America, Great Britain in North America, and the newly declared United States before, during, and after ...
of 1784 and President
George Washington
George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...
in 1787.
Manasseh Cutler, an amateur botanist from Massachusetts, gave a detailed account of his visit to the garden in 1787.
William Bartram's
travel book
Travel is the movement of people between distant geographical locations. Travel can be done by foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, bus, airplane, ship or other means, with or without luggage, and can be one way or round trip. Travel ca ...
, published in 1791, recorded his explorations in
the South. Considered a classic in American nature writing, an edition was published as recently as 1998.
After the death of John Bartram Jr. in 1812, his daughter
Ann Bartram Carr (1779–1858) took over the farm and business, along with her husband Colonel Robert Carr (1778–1866) and later their son
John Bartram Carr (1804–1839). They continued the international commercial trade in native plants of North America,
shipping as many as 2,000 species of plants worldwide.
Domestic demand also increased under their management, and they established an additional specimen garden to the west of the Bartram House to showcase popular new flowering plants.
Ann Bartram Carr was the first of the Bartrams to open the garden to the public, planting a half-circle 1-acre garden for the enjoyment of the public, a green oasis in an increasingly industrial world.
In 1850, financial difficulties resulted in the family selling the historic garden to Andrew M. Eastwick (1811–1879), as a private park for his estate. Following Eastwick's death in 1879, botanist
Thomas Meehan (1826–1901) organized a campaign in Philadelphia to preserve the garden. Charles S. Sargent of
Boston, Massachusetts
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
, who worked at the
Arnold Arboretum
The Arnold Arboretum is a botanical research institution and free public park affiliated with Harvard University and located in the Jamaica Plain and Roslindale, Massachusetts, Roslindale neighborhoods of Boston.
Established in 1872, it is the ...
, helped to organize a national campaign for funds.
The City of Philadelphia assumed control of the site in 1891, protecting it as a city park. The John Bartram Association was formally organized in 1893, to oversee preservation and presentation of the garden, house, and outbuildings.
The garden was designated as a
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...
in 1960.
Sadly, in the interim between 1879 and 1891, the garden was left wanting in terms of care and interpretation. Many of the plants were stolen, died, or damaged.
Despite the disappearance of a number of subsidiary physical elements in the landscape, the rectilinear framework that John Bartram designed and laid out in the eighteenth century can still be recognized.
The John Bowman Bartram Special Collections Library contains a vast collection of documents and materials related to the history of the Garden. A small number of examples in the garden's plant collection date from the Bartram family occupancy;
however, documentation for what was once in cultivation is rich. This has supported efforts such as restoration of the Ann Bartram Carr Garden, a 19th-century semi-circular specimen garden to the west of the Bartram House. This area of the gardens was reopened in 2016.
In 2011, four acres along the Garden's southern border were established as the Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram's Garden, an African Diaspora-focused crop farm.
Bartram's Garden's long existence as a living botanical space, its focus on native plants, and its resonance with the surrounding area's history make it an unparalleled site for presenting and interpreting eighteenth- and nineteenth-century botanic and agricultural studies, the development of the field of botany, the plant and seed business in North American, the lives of John Bartram and his family, and domestic life in Philadelphia.
Rambo's Rock
Rambo's Rock was a large boulder on the eastern edge of the Schuylkill River, directly across from Bartram's Garden, just south of
Grays Ferry on the plantation of Swedish immigrants
Peter and Brita Rambo. The rock has disappeared and been replaced with a wharf.
Representation in popular culture
*
Diana Gabaldon's novel ''
Written in My Own Heart's Blood
''Written in My Own Heart's Blood'' is the eighth book in the ''Outlander'' series of novels by Diana Gabaldon. Centered on time travelling 20th century doctor Claire Randall and her 18th century Scottish Highlander warrior husband Jamie Fras ...
'' (2014), chapter 24, features the garden as the setting for the reunion of the two main protagonists. This is one of the series known as the ''
Outlander'' novels.
See also
*
Schuylkill River Trail
The Schuylkill River Trail ( , ) is a multi-use trail along the banks of the Schuylkill River in southeastern Pennsylvania. Partially complete, the trail is ultimately planned to run about from the river's headwaters in Schuylkill County, Penns ...
*
Bartram Village
*
D. Landreth Seed Company
*
List of parks in Philadelphia
*
List of National Historic Landmarks in Philadelphia
*
National Register of Historic Places listings in Southwest Philadelphia
References
External links
*
* Finding aid to th
John Bartram Association, records relating to its foundation and early organizationat th
University of Pennsylvania Libraries*
*
Historic American Landscapes Survey (HABS) documentation, filed under 54th Street and Lindbergh Boulevard, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA:
**
**
**
{{Authority control
Historic house museums in Philadelphia
Biographical museums in Pennsylvania
Parks in Philadelphia
Philadelphia Register of Historic Places
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Philadelphia
1728 establishments in Pennsylvania
Botanical gardens in Pennsylvania
Historic American Buildings Survey in Philadelphia
Historic American Landscapes Survey in Pennsylvania
National Historic Landmarks in Pennsylvania
Kingsessing, Philadelphia
Bartram family