by Daniel Stone
“Bigger intellectually, bigger hopefully”: Beveridge, Albert J., George Frisbie Hoar, William Jennings Bryan, and William Bourke Cockran. Great Political Issues and Leaders of the Campaign of 1900. Chicago: W. B. Conkey, 1900, p. 600.
an enormous elephant: Beveridge, Albert J., George Frisbie Hoar, William Jennings Bryan, and William Bourke Cockran. Great Political Issues and Leaders of the Campaign of 1900. Chicago: W. B. Conkey, 1900, p. 596.
“The Department of Agriculture has been extending”: McKinley, William. Speech, State of the Union Address, Washington D.C., December 3, 1900.
He had acquired some disease: “Obituary: George Fairchild.” Unknown newspaper. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.
his life’s work published: Fairchild, George T. Rural Wealth and Welfare: Economic Principles, Illustrated and Applied in Farm Life. New York: Macmillan, 1900.
“grief and loneliness”: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 180.
“pushing on.”: Pancoast, Helene. “Fairchild’s character.” Interview by author. July 2015.
a two-thousand-year-old grandparent: Texas AgriLife Extension Service. “Greeks and Romans Grew Kale and Collards.” Aggie Horticulture Aggie Horticulture. Accessed October 2, 2016. http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/publications/vegetabletravelers/kale.html.
“The ease with which it is grown”: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry. Seeds and Plants Imported During the Period September, 1900, to December, 1903. By B. T. Galloway. Bulletin No. 66, 5501–9896. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1905, pp. 45–46.
it drew salt into its body: “Kale.” American Heritage Vegetables. Accessed October 2, 2016. http://lichen.csd.sc.edu/vegetable/vegetable.php?vegName=Kale.
its biggest consumers restaurants: Greenfield, Rebecca. “How McDonald’s Could Conquer Kale.” May 12, 2015. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-12/how-mcdonald-s-could-conquer-kale.
chemists discovered it had more iron: Oaklander, Mandy. “Here’s Why Kale Is So Good for You.” Time Magazine. January 2, 2015.
“I could not understand why”: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 170.
the prospect of dried table grapes: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry. Seeds and Plants Imported During the Period September, 1900, to December, 1903. By B. T. Galloway, Bulletin No. 66, 5501–9896, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1905, p. 79.
tiny green beans known as lentils: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry. Seeds and Plants Imported During the Period September, 1900, to December, 1903. By B. T. Galloway. Bulletin No. 66, 5501–9896, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1905, p. 85.
the first budded pistachio trees: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 177.
“I would find seedless lemons”: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 177.
all for a small nut: Schutt, Ellen Isham. Anacardium occidentale. 1909. USDA Pomological Watercolors, National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, MD.
to import cashews from places like India: Perez, Agnes. “USDA ERS—Fruit and Tree Nuts: Trade.” Fruit and Tree Nuts: Trade. Updated August 25, 2016. http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/crops/fruit-tree-nuts/trade.aspx.
Buffalo, New York, wasn’t anyone’s first choice: University at Buffalo Libraries. “Pan-American Exposition of 1901.” Accessed October 16, 2015. http://library.buffalo.edu/pan-am/.
two large pavilions: “Map of Pan-American Exposition Held in Buffalo in 1901.” In University of Maryland Libraries. 1901.
the seventy-five-thousand-square-foot palace of agriculture: “Colors of Nature in Agriculture Building.” Buffalo Evening News, January 30, 1901.
watermelons, cauliflowers, and new varieties of tomatoes: Vegetable Exhibit, North Section. Photograph. University of Buffalo, Buffalo, NY.
the biggest agricultural trade show: Report of the Board of General Managers of the Exhibit of the State of New York at the Pan-American Exposition; Transmitted to the Legislature, March 27, 1902. Albany: J. B. Lyon, 1902, pp. 61–62.
Farmers took turns wandering: Durkee, J. H. “Report of the Agricultural Exhibit.” Pan-American Exposition of 1901, University at Buffalo Libraries. Accessed February 2, 2016.
“serves to deepen your faith”: Hartt, Mary Bronson. “How to See the Pan-American Exposition.” Everybody’s Magazine, July 1901, pp. 488–91.
the other side of the Atlantic: Lewis, W. Arthur. Growth and Fluctuations, 1870–1913. New York: Routledge, 2009, pp. 136–45.
Europe’s patchwork of small countries: Kjeldsen-Kragh, Søren. The Role of Agriculture in Economic Development: The Lessons of History. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School Press, 2007, pp. 174–75.
last speech McKinley would ever give: McKinley, William. The Last Speech of William McKinley, President of the United States, Delivered at the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, New York, on the Fifth of September, 1901. Canton, PA: Printed by the Kirgate Press of Lewis Buddy, 3rd, 1901.
“a disturbed anarchist”: Goldman, Emma. Emma Goldman: A Documentary History of the American Years, Vol. 1: Made for America, 1890–1901. Edited by Candace Falk. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008, p. 79.
CHAPTER TWELVE: On the Banks of the Tigris
a hundred-thousand-dollar “cottage”: Funigiello, Philip J. Florence Lathrop Page: A Biography. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1994, p. 108.
One evening: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, unpublished draft. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.
In Washington, groups of farmers: Moore, Sam. “Ten Agricultural Inventions That Changed the Face of Farming in America.” Farm Collector, August 2008.
a city of dairy and citrusmen: California Cultivator 16, no. 1 (January 4, 1901).
Before movie stars: Ratican, Diane. Why LA? Pourquoi Paris?: An Artistic Pairing of Two Iconic Cities. Mansfield, MA: Benna Books, 2014, p. 56.
“They were soon at my heels”: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 209.
When the Nile floods: Nixon, Scott W. “Replacing the Nile: Are Anthropogenic Nutrients Providing the Fertility Once Brought to the Mediterranean by a Great River?” Ambio 32, no. 1 (2003): 30–39.
two petitions—one for men and the other for women: The 1897 Petition Against the Annexation of Hawaii. 1897. National Archives and Records Administration. https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/hawaii-petition.
A Nevada congressman: House Joint Resolution 259, 55th Congress. “The Newlands Resolution” (July 7, 1898). U.S. National Archives.
“I cannot but be sad”: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 103.
tropical products Americans were increasingly using: “May Grow Our Own.” El Dorado Daily Republican (El Dorado, KS), October 11, 1900.
A Chinese minister’s wife: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, unpublished draft. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.
he sent unripe specimens to Washington: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 220.
“Look where one will”: Mitra, Rajendralala. “The Parsis of Bombay.” Lecture, Bethune Society, Calcutta, 1880.
women in long yellow and red robes: “Women and Children of the East.” National Geographic, April 1907.
“an insanitary labyrinth”: Lees, Andrew. The City: A World History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015, p. 86.
“The best Indian mangoes”: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 223.
introduced by the Portuguese: Joglekar, Rahul. “King of Mangoes Comes to See the Queen.” India Ink, New York Times, May 10, 2013.
The Douglas Bennett Alphonso: Popenoe, Wilson. Manual of Tropical and Subtropical Fruits: Excluding the Banana, Coconut, Pineapple, Citrus Fruits, Olive, and Fig. New York: Macmillan, 1920. p. 18.
Fairchild hired a group of children: Douglas. Adventures i
n a Green World, p. 35.
Straining to be polite: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 228.
“It certainly is a good way”: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 232.
The close, fuzz-less relative: Considine, Douglas M., and Glenn D. Considine, eds. Foods and Food Production Encyclopedia. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1982, p. 1331.
Farmers in Iowa, Texas, and California: Proceedings of the Thirty-Eighth Convention of the American Pomological Society. Columbus, OH: F. J. Heer Printing Company, 1922, p. 204.
genealogy has secured the Quetta’s presence: “Nectarine Historic Cultivars.” UC Davis Fruit & Nut Research and Information Center. December 12, 2013. http://fruitandnuteducation.ucdavis.edu/fruitnutproduction/PeachNectarine/Peach_Nect_FlFr/Nect_cv/.
the biggest intersection of the world: “Bagdad as a Railroad Centre.” New York Times, January 25, 1903.
a lush era of Islam: “Bagdad.” New York Times, June 17, 1900. Adapted from Leslie’s Popular Monthly.
Iron from England: “Bagdad.” New York Times, June 17, 1900. Adapted from Leslie’s Popular Monthly.
“Baghdad buttons”: “Bagdad.” New York Times, June 17, 1900. Adapted from Leslie’s Popular Monthly.
“Women in black gowns and masks”: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 238.
new strains of wheat, millet, barley: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 240.
the suckers made the ocean voyage: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 241.
Coachella Valley High School named its mascot: Ward, Erica M. Coachella. Mount Pleasant, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2015, pp. 60–61.
“The food was bad on the boat”: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, unpublished draft. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.
“the queen of tropical fruits”: “Hunting for New Crops.” The Inter Ocean (Chicago, Illinois), September 4, 1906.
“It has a beautiful white fruit pulp”: Fairchild, David. “Our Plant Immigrants.” National Geographic, April 1906, p. 194.
“I had a hell of a time”: Fairchild, The World Was My Garden, unpublished draft. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.
In Lathrop’s later retelling: Fairchild, David. “Uncle Barbour.” 1934. TS, Barbour Lathrop Collection, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.
“What kept you so long?”: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 249.
to eat with two narrow sticks: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 258.
a yellow plum known as a loquat: Fairchild, David. Three New Plant Introductions from Japan. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1903.
“puckerless persimmon”: Wilson, Robert. “The Puckerless Persimmon—Fit Food for the Gods.” Pittsburgh Press, January 22, 1911.
zoysia grass, a rich green lawn specimen: Forrester, Gary. “Zoysiagrass.” Home & Garden Information Center, Clemson University. January 2016. http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/plants/landscape/lawns/hgic 1212.html.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Bell’s Grand Plan
The invitation came from Gilbert Grosvenor: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 194.
or at the very least, to keep it alive: Grosvenor, Gil. “National Geographic History.” Interview by author. February 2015.
“one of the most extensively traveled men”: “Cotton Views.” Houston Post, September 17, 1904.
“the closest thing to a social headquarters”: Tyrrell, Ian R. Crisis of the Wasteful Nation: Empire and Conservation in Theodore Roosevelt’s America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015, p. 29.
He built a briefing room: Kumar, Martha Joynt. The White House Beat at the Century Mark. University of Maryland, College Park: Center for Political Leadership and Participation. p. 7. marthakumar.com/communications/white_house_beat.pdf.
the “White House”: Office of the Curator, the White House. “Inside the White House: History.” The White House. Accessed May 5, 2015. https://www.whitehouse.gov/about/inside-white-house.
Victorian décor: Buckland, Gail. The White House in Miniature. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1994, p. 76.
Then he started to invite: “Theodore Roosevelt Renovation: 1902.” White House Museum. Accessed May 5, 2016. http://www.whitehousemuseum.org/special/renovation-1902.htm.
audiences applaud and cheer: Burleigh, Nina. The Stranger and the Statesman: James Smithson, John Quincy Adams, and the Making of America’s Greatest Museum: the Smithsonian. New York: Morrow, 2003, p. 3.
“The government enterprise”: Fairchild, David. “Plant Immigrants.” Lecture, Address to the National Geographic Society, Washington D.C., 1903.
Bell had invited Fairchild: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, unpublished draft. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.
Wilson assigned Fairchild: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry. Seeds and Plants Imported During the Period September, 1900, to December, 1903. By B. T. Galloway. Bulletin No. 66, 5501–9896, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1905, Introduction by D. Fairchild, p. 7.
“This branch of our government”: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 286.
the largest office building: Glazer, Nathan, and Cynthia R. Field, eds. The National Mall: Rethinking Washington’s Monumental Core. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008, p. 183.
“Of the nearly 4,400 new introductions”: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry. Seeds and Plants Imported During the Period September, 1900, to December, 1903. By B. T. Galloway. Bulletin No. 66, 550–9896, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1905, Introduction by D. Fairchild, p. 8.
“circumnavigate Africa”: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 363.
“This obviously entails a great risk”: “Curious African Tribes.” New York Times, September 30, 1900.
“I was much disappointed”: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 273.
The bickering over land: Iweriebor, Ehiedu E. G. “The Colonization of Africa.” Africana Age, Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library. Accessed April 5, 2016. http://exhibitions.nypl.org/africanaage/essay-colonization-of-africa.html.
landing required an unreliable method: Fairchild, The World Was My Garden, p. 273.
It was a Kaffir orange: Fairchild, David. “The Kafir Orange: An Edible Member of the Strychnine-Producing Genus Which Succeeds in the United States.” The Journal of Heredity 4, no. 3 (1913): 148–53.
the carissa plum: “Carissa, Natal Plum.” Growables: Grow Florida Edibles. Accessed January 3, 2015. http://www.growables.org/information/TropicalFruit/carissa.htm.
“We tore the pineapples to pieces”: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden. Unpublished draft. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.
a bespoke three-story redbrick mansion: “Building Permits.” Sunday Herald (Washington, D.C.), June 14, 1891.
Money flowed freely: Gray, Charlotte. Reluctant Genius: Alexander Graham Bell and the Passion for Invention. New York: Arcade, 2006, p. 416.
on whose rosters, one after another: Directory of the Washington Academy of Sciences. Washington, D.C.: Judd & Detweiler Printers, 1893.
Each Wednesday evening: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 290.
“exploration” or “curiosity”: Grosvenor, Gil. “National Geographic History.” Interview by author. February 2015.
Only after Bell patented: Lorna MacDonald librettist. The Bells of Baddeck. Baddeck, Nova Scotia, July 2015.
Fairchild reminded Bell: Grosvenor, Gil. “National Geographic History.” Interview by author. February 2015.
Mr. Bell was at his charming best: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 290.
“The president joked, they laughed”: “The ‘Kitchen Cabinet’ of the President.” New York Times, August 8, 1909.
“the strenuousest
of the strenuous”: “The ‘Kitchen Cabinet’ of the President.” New York Times, August 8, 1909.
an offhanded suggestion: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, unpublished draft. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.
It was Bell’s idea: Muller, Hugh. Interview by the author. July 2015.
for two hours, Fairchild listened: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, unpublished draft. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Coral Gables, FL.
a cursory engagement: “Feminine Chat.” Harrisburg Star-Independent, December 10, 1902. And Harris, Amanda. Fruits of Eden: David Fairchild and America’s Plant Hunters. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2015, pp. 107–108.
“Concentration proved difficult”: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 311.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: A Brain Awhirl
“his intellect”: Marian Bell to David Fairchild. January 4, 1905. Washington, D.C. Letter found by the author.
courting begun to change: Bailey, Beth L. From Front Porch to Back Seat: Courtship in Twentieth-Century America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989, p. 3.
a new term: “dating”: Wilson, Brenda. “Sex Without Intimacy: No Dating, No Relationships.” NPR. June 8, 2009. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105008712. This act of dating was true for another couple. The same three months Fairchild pursued Marian, Teddy Roosevelt’s niece Eleanor was getting to know her future husband, Franklin, who happened to be her fifth cousin once removed.
her parents might have matched her: Traister, Rebecca. All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016.
half the population . . . under twenty-three: Hobbs, Frank, and Nicole Stoops, U.S. Census Bureau. Demographic Trends in the 20th Century. CENSR-4. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2002, p. 1.
“If, in marrying, you get nothing”: Bush, Joseph. Before Marriage, and After. London: Charles H. Kelly, 1901, p. 24.
Gertrude Mercer Hubbard: Fairchild. The World Was My Garden, p. 311.
the high-altitude attic: Fairchild. Pocket notebook. November 1904 to January 1905.
a woody climbing vine: “Camoensia Maxima.” JStor Global Plants. Accessed May 6, 2016. https://plants.jstor.org/compilation/camoensia.maxima.