American Eden

by Victoria Johnson

  290“so justly esteemed”: TJ to DH, 23 August 1824, David Hosack Correspondence, APS.

  290“my sense of your eminence”: TJ to DH, date unknown, David Hosack Correspondence, APS.

  291DH and Lafayette remarks: quoted by Vail 1954, 373–74. Foner (1998, 47) observes that in all the celebrations of Lafayette during his tour of the United States, “one subject was studiously avoided—the existence of slavery.”

  291“your affectionate friend”: Lafayette to DH, 11 January 1827, David Hosack Correspondence, APS.

  292successfully nominated: 24 August 1824, N-Y Hort. Soc. Min., 47–48.

  292Sykes’s new coffeehouse: National Advocate, 26 July 1822.

  292“It is obvious that a garden”: DH 1824b, 19.

  293“celebrated Elgin Garden”: New-York Evening Post, 22 July 1824.

  293“youth of both sexes”: DH 1824b, 21.

  293“secrets of nature”: DH 1824b, 36.

  294John Francis and James Hosack toasts: American Farmer, 10 September 1824.

  294next meeting: 7 September 1824, N-Y Hort. Soc. Min., 53; DH to TJ, 29 September 1824, LC-TJ; DH to Madison, 29 September 1824, The Papers of James Madison, Library of Congress.

  294“I love the act”: TJ to DH, 9 January 1825, LC-TJ. For Madison’s acceptance: Madison to DH, 20 December 1824, The Papers of James Madison, Library of Congress.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN: “Expulsion from the Garden of Eden”

  295Grace Church: The church was then located at Rector Street and Broadway; it is now farther up Broadway, between Tenth and Eleventh Streets.

  295Irving wrote from Paris: Irving to DH, 30 May 1825, David Hosack Correspondence, APS.

  295Hosack, Coster: Robbins 1964, 166.

  295“His complexion is dark”: Royall 1826, 266.

  296“greatest botanists”: Royall 1826, 265.

  296“effort of genius”: quoted by Robbins 1964, 207.

  296gilt frame: Robbins 1964, 206.

  296furnishings: “Inventory and Appraisal of Personal Property of David Hosack,” DH Collection, N-YHS, 1836.

  297“incredible” number of people: Morris 1839, 120.

  297“crowd of literary men”: Bryant to Frances Bryant, 23 March 1825, quoted by Muller 2010, 46.

  297“brilliant assemblies”: Samuel Gross, quoted by Robbins 1964, 169.

  297“conversation animated”: Samuel Gross, quoted by Robbins 1964, 169.

  297“zealously devoted”: DH to JES, 14 November 1826, LS-JES.

  297Tocqueville and DH: Tocqueville and Beaumont also visited the Bloomingdale asylum with DH (Pierson 1996 [1938], 86).

  297“very famous” and “learned and pleasing man”: The Duke of Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach refers to Hosack as a “sehr berühmter Arzt” and “dieser gelehrte und gefällige Mann” in his memoirs (Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach 1828, vol. 1, 193).

  297“remnant of paradise”: quoted by Robbins 1964, 171.

  298white muscadine grapes: Robbins 1964, 175.

  298Erie Canal completion: Cornog 1998, 156–57.

  298names of boats: Daily National Journal, 11 October 1825.

  298DC remarks: Colden 1825, 320–21.

  299crowd estimate: Colden 1825, 122.

  299more than six thousand: Colden 1825, 122.

  299description of New-York Horticultural Society contingent: Colden 1825, 213.

  299parade and illuminations: Burrows and Wallace 1998, 430–31.

  299“brilliant sparks”: pyrotechnics expert Richard Wilcox, quoted by Colden 1825, 270.

  299DH condolences: acknowledged by Thomas Mann Randolph Jr. to DH, 13 August 1826, Misc. Mss., Thomas Jefferson, N-YHS.

  300support for Elgin: DH to JWF, 14 [no month given] 1826, DH Collection, N-YHS.

  300botanical garden at Capitol Hill: The Columbian Institute was disbanded in 1837 and the federal government soon repossessed the land. In 1850, however, a new conservatory was built on the old site to safeguard the thousands of specimens brought back by the Wilkes Expedition, a globe-circling voyage led by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes Jr. from 1838 to 1842. (Titian Peale traveled with the Wilkes Expedition as a naturalist in charge of preserving the animal specimens.) In 1856, this establishment was officially named the United States Botanic Garden. In the 1920s and 1930s, following a redesign of the Mall led by Frederick Law Olmsted and Daniel Burnham, hundreds of the garden’s trees were razed and the portable collections were moved south of the new sightline stretching from the Capitol to the Washington Monument and placed on the site that the United States Botanic Garden still occupies today (Solit 1993).

  300“everybody and everything”: DH to JWF, 14 [no month given] 1826, DH Collection, N-YHS.

  301Peale still painting: SPCWP, vol. 4, 521.

  301Rubens, Rembrandt, Titian: Sellers 1980, 215; SPCWP, vol. 4, 543.

  301Mary Stansbury: SPCWP, vol. 4, 562.

  301“fish out of water”: SPCWP, vol. 4, 561.

  301Peale accident and DH: Rubens Peale to Franklin Peale, 9 May 1826, SPCWP, vol. 4, 533.

  301“Happiness is certinly”: CWP to Rubens Peale, 2 February 1827, SPCWP, vol. 4, 574.

  301“diffusion of knowledge”: quoted by Ewing 2007, 317.

  301Smithson bequest arrives: Ewing 2007, 324.

  301“great National Museum”: quoted by Sellers 1980, 231.

  302tickets to see a mermaid: Sellers 1980, 301.

  302rumor of DC death: Cornog 1998, 180.

  302“a mass of obesity”: Francis 1858, 187.

  302sending him medical advice: Cornog 1998, 180.

  302“not afraid to die”: quoted by Hosack 1829, 129.

  302audience gave up: 8 November 1828, in Asa Fitch Diary, vol. 1, 109, Yale University.

  303“Permit me Sir”: Madison to DH, 28 May 1829, The Papers of James Madison, Library of Congress.

  303“trees and plants”: Richard Rush to DH, 15 May 1827, reprinted in New-York Farmer, and Horticultural Repository, vol. 1, no. 2 (February 1828), 37.

  303next meeting of the New-York Horticultural Society: N-Y Hort. Soc. Min., 29 May 1827, 102.

  304“no public botanic gardens”: DH to Richard Rush, 22 January 1828, reprinted in New-York Farmer, and Horticultural Repository, vol. 1, no. 2 (February 1828), 39.

  304“pride and ornament”: DH to Richard Rush, 22 January 1828, reprinted in New-York Farmer, and Horticultural Repository, vol. 1, no. 2 (February 1828), 39.

  304DH and Columbia: 29 April 1828, N-Y Hort. Soc. Min.

  304CWE death: Robbins 1964, 172.

  304place of death: http://library-archives.cumc.columbia.edu/obit/caspar-wistar-eddy.

  305negotiations had failed: 29 July 1828, N-Y Hort. Soc. Min., 127.

  305“university and the Insurance companies”: DH to Peter Du Ponceau, 21 June 1834, Gratz Collection, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

  305DH and Cole encounter 30 May 1829: Parry 1988, 94.

  305species in Cole’s Garden of Eden and Elgin: Kelly 1994, 27–29.

  306“banquet for hours”: quoted by Kelly 1994, 36.

  306“commercial city”: Cole to Gilmor, 20 April 1829, quoted by Parry 1988, 92.

  306“fine productions”: quoted by Parry 1988, 93.

  306“wild scenery”: Cole to Gilmor, 26 April 1829, quoted by Parry 1988, 93.

  306$400: Parry 1988, 93.

  306DH makes offer to Cole: Parry 1988, 93.

  307Cole complained: Cole to Gilmor, 31 May 1829, quoted by Parry 1988, 94.

  307returned in fall 1832: Powell 1990, 62.

  307Expulsion in Chambers Street townhouse: “Inventory of Estate” of Magdalena Hosack, N-YHS, 1841.

  307“Elgin Garden 1829”: see http://sweetgum.nybg.org/science/vh/specimen_details.php?irn=1987314.

  307DH buys Hyde Park, October 1828: Robbins 1964, 173.

  308frozen Hudson: DH to William Bard, 7 March 1829, quoted by Robbins 1964, 176.

  308Magdalena fell in love: Jacob Harvey to his father, 23 July 1830, quoted by Robbins 1964, 180.

  3
08DH and estate expenses: Pintard to Eliza Pintard Noel Davidson, 10 September 1829, quoted by Robbins 1964, 179.

  308“My father-in-law”: Jacob Harvey to his father, 23 July 1830, quoted by Robbins 1964, 180.

  308Trumbull’s Niagara panoramas: Ferber 2009, 122–23.

  308paintings by Trumbull and Stuart: “Inventory of Estate” of Magdalena Hosack, N-YHS, 1841.

  308“connoisseur of fine art”: Gross 1893, vol. 2, 90.

  309“The noble Hudson”: Thacher 1830, Letter I, 149.

  309“not square and formal”: Martineau 1838, vol. 1, 54.

  309ever-changing vistas: Parmentier 1828, 184–86. On Parmentier’s place in the history of American garden literature, see O’Malley 1992[a], 426.

  310“how ridiculous”: Parmentier 1828, 184.

  310acreage of Hyde Park: an advertisement in the Evening Star on 11 July 1836 put the acreage at seven hundred fifty; Thacher 1830, Letter II, put it at eight hundred.

  310“the finest seat in America”: Downing 1841, 22. On Parmentier, Downing, and the ideals of the Picturesque style of landscape design, see Major 1997, 2014; Cooperman and Hunt 2016; O’Malley 2007; and Pauly 2007, 168–74.

  310“hardly possible”: Trollope 1832, vol. 2, 238, quoted by Robbins 1964, 183.

  310estates nearby: Armstead 2012 offers an intimate portrait of the life of a gardener on the Verplanck family estate. On the Hudson estates, see also Lewis 2005.

  310“walking and riding”: Hone Diary, vol. 1, 21.

  311“delightful accounts”: Irving to DH, 29 May 1832, microfilm 842, David Hosack Correspondence, APS.

  311DH waiting: Martineau 1838, vol. 1, 73; Thacher 1830, Letter I, 148.

  311“truly enchanting”: Thacher 1830, Letter I, 148.

  311“sumptuous style” and description of library: Wharton Diary, 24 July 1832, 149ff.

  312finest in the United States: O’Donnell et al. 1992, vol. 1, 29; Robbins 1964, 177.

  312“peep at a book”: Downing to Torrey, 28 July 1834, John Torrey Papers, NYBG.

  312Weehawken with Hamilton: Martineau 1838, vol. 1, 56.

  312AH statue and DH: Hone Diary, 24 December 1830, vol. 1, 26.

  313“terrestrial paradise”: [anon.] “Letter from a Tourist to the Editor of the American Farmer, dated Albany, July, 1829,” American Farmer, vol. 11, no. 20, 153.

  313“make a man devout”: Martineau 1838, vol. 1, 54.

  313Parmentier’s borders: description given in Downing 1841, 373.

  313description of garden and conservatory: Thacher 1830, Letter II, 156.

  314“thousand other beauties”: Wharton Diary, 31 July 1832, 158.

  314“remarkable”: Martineau 1838, vol. 1, 75; “well filled range of hothouses”: Downing 1836, 101.

  314“wormwood, horehound”: Sayers 1837, 327.

  315watermelons: [anon.] “Letter from a Tourist to the Editor of the American Farmer, dated Albany, July, 1829,” American Farmer, vol. 11, no. 20, 153; citron melons: Wharton Diary, 15 July 1832, 144.

  315took specimens to the city: New England Farmer, and Horticultural Journal 8, no. 52 (July 16, 1830), 14. On the development of American horticultural products and practices in this era, see Kevles 2008, 2013; Pauly 2007; and Prentiss 1950.

  315“cooking apparatus” and livestock: Thacher 1830, Letter II, 156.

  315“sagacious about long horns”: quoted by AEH 1861, 333.

  315stream and ponds: Thacher 1830, Letter II, 156.

  315“excel in fruits”: Harvey to Joseph Harvey, 24 January 1830, quoted by Robbins 1964, 180.

  315“my bees”: DH to Thacher, 11 February 1834, microfilm 842, David Hosack Correspondence, APS.

  316DH planned book: Wharton Diary, 9 July 1832, 140.

  316large check: Wharton Diary, 28 July 1832, 156.

  316sat talking: Wharton Diary, 20 July 1832, 147.

  316“withdraw from the labour”: DH to Vahl, 1 March 1804.

  317JWF request for corrections: see DH to JWF, undated letter sent from Hyde Park, JWF Collection, N-YHS.

  317“If a party”: DH quoted by [Francis] 1835, 14.

  317vine and fig-tree: GW to Lafayette, 1 February 1784, quoted by Chernow 2010, 462.

  317published: e.g., Boston Daily Advertiser, 18 February 1829.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: “Like a Romance”

  318lock of his hair: AEH 1861, 335.

  318“superb” fruits and vegetables: Hone Diary, 10 December 1835, vol. 1, 178.

  319below zero for days: Evening Star, 23 December 1835.

  319“flashes of lightning”: Hone Diary, 16 December 1835, vol. 1, 181.

  319warehouse near the docks: The fire broke out near the corner of Exchange and Pearl Streets (Burrows and Wallace 1998, 596).

  319burning turpentine: Farmers’ Cabinet, 1 January 1836; Burrows and Wallace 1998, 598.

  319a resident of Flatbush: Hone Diary, 22 December 1835, vol. 1, 188.

  319AH statue shattered: Hone Diary, 22 December 1835, vol. 1, 181.

  319blankets and flowers: Farmers’ Cabinet, 1 January 1836.

  320“most awful calamity”: Hone Diary, 17 December 1835, vol. 1, 180.

  320“singed almost everybody”: Washington Irving to Peter Irving, 25 December 1835, quoted by Pierre Munro Irving 1864, vol. 3, 81; quoted by Jones 2008, 323.

  320insurance stock: I am grateful to Eric Hilt for information on DH’s holdings; his losses were reported in Farmer’s Cabinet, 1 January 1836.

  320DH stroke: my account is based on AEH 1861, Philip Hone’s diary, and an account published in the Morristown Jerseyman, 30 December 1835.

  320DH collapsed: Hone Diary, 18 December 1835, 184.

  320across Chambers Street: Gross 1893, vol. 2, 88; Hone Diary, 19 December 1835, 185.

  321DH improved: Hone Diary, 23 December 1835, 188–89; Jerseyman, 30 December 1835.

  321“great man”: quoted by American Journal of Science 29 (1836), 395.

  321“It is impossible”: Evening Star, 23 December 1835.

  321“Christmas Day”: Hone Diary, 25 December 1835, 189.

  321DH pallbearers: Hone Diary, 25 December 1835, 190.

  321“remains were followed”: Francis 1858, 86.

  322“As a physician”: Hunt 1836, 162.

  322“garden second to none”: Hunt 1836, 161.

  322Astor bought it: Albee et al. 2008, 43. In the same years when Frederick W. Vanderbilt was building at Hyde Park, another grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, George Washington Vanderbilt II, was working with Frederick Law Olmsted on the landscape design for Biltmore, his estate in Asheville, North Carolina (Rybczynski 1999, 379–84).

  322DH plants for sale: Evening Star, 3 July 1838.

  322“still in Eden”: Cole 1836, 12.

  322“If the Garden”: quoted by Jones 2008, 385.

  323Shaw sold plants: Commercial Advertiser, 22 March 1834.

  323enjoyed a conservatory on the grounds: New-York Hospital 1845, 79.

  323city was laying out cross streets: Brown 1908, 18; entry for 7 October 1839, CU-CC TM, vol. 4, part 1, 2059.

  323fields of Elgin: see transcript of Butler’s remarks, 1 November 1939, Buildings and Grounds Collection, CU.

  323college moved 1857: Klein 1939, 294.

  323turn a profit: Klein (1939, 294) notes that Columbia first spent an estimated $500,000 on “taxes, assessments, and opening of the property.”

  323By 1870: Brown 1908, 19; Okrent 2003, 12.

  324Carnegie’s house: West Fifty-First Street (Nasaw 2006, 293). On the increase in real estate values north of the old Elgin property because of Central Park, see Scobey 2002, chapter 7, and Rosenzweig and Blackmar 1992.

  324medical school: McCaughey 2003, 187. The deal was finalized in 1891.

  324insane-asylum property: Klein 1941, 68.

  324Olmsted pointed out: Olmsted to William Ware, 31 May 1893, Buildings and Grounds Collection, CU, Correspondence: President Low, 1889–1894, Series III: Morningside Heights Campus, Box 16, Folder 1. On the design
and construction of this campus, see Bergdoll 1997 and Dolkart 1998.

  324Olmsted reportedly pronounced: see “Editorial,” University Bulletin 12 (December 1895), 4. The Elgin provenance of the yews is noted in that editorial, in Underwood 1903, 279, and in an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, 26 December 1914, on the impending death of Columbia’s Elgin yews.

  324feeling cramped: Kolodin 1966, 18.

  324John D. Rockefeller Jr. residences: Okrent 2003, 46.

  325“reads like a romance”: quoted by Okrent 2003, 51.

  325eleven acres: Okrent, 56; New York Times, 23 January 1929.

  325construction began: Okrent 2003, 187.

  326rivet ceremony: Okrent 2003, 393–94; New York Times, 2 November 1939.

  326“no other piece of land”: transcript of Butler’s remarks, 1 November 1939, 5, Buildings and Grounds Collection, CU. Over the next decades, roof gardens were laid out on a number of the Rockefeller Center buildings (Deitz 2011, 93–95).

  327$400 million: Dunlap 1993.

  327nearly $2 billion: Bagli 2000.

  327plaque: Okrent 2003, 405. The original plaque recognizing Hosack’s work at Elgin was made of granite and placed in the flagstones; at a later date, a new plaque with the same wording was installed at one end of the retaining wall surrounding the Channel Gardens.

  The full text on this plaque reads:

  In memory of David Hosack

  1769–1835

  Botanist, physician, man of science

  and citizen of the world

  On this site he developed

  the famous Elgin Botanic Garden

  1801–1811

  for the advancement of medical research

  and the knowledge of plants.

  EPILOGUE

  329Burr stroke: Isenberg 2007, 403–4.

  329Burr reportedly: AEH report of AB reply quoted by Samuel W. Francis 1866, 216.

  329“I know you”: ARD quoted by AEH 1861, 327.

  330“know his food”: in original as “qu’il distingue l’aliment du poison” (Delile 1833, 33).

  330DH mentioned by Tocqueville: Tocqueville and his friend Beaumont had come to the United States to study the prison system, and Hosack, who had spent many years as an attending physician at the state prison near the village of Greenwich, evidently had shared with them his opinions on the topic. In the study of the American prison system that Tocqueville and Beaumont published in France in 1833, they reproduced a letter on the practice of solitary confinement that Hosack (they spelled it “Hozack”) had received in 1830 from a British prison reformer (Beaumont and Tocqueville 1833, vol. 5, item no. 24).