rafinesque and transylvania’s first botanical garden
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University of KentuckyUKnowledge
Microbiology, Immunology, and MolecularGenetics Faculty Publications
Microbiology, Immunology, and MolecularGenetics
Fall 2010
Rafinesque and Transylvania’s First BotanicalGardenCharles T. AmbroseUniversity of Kentucky, [email protected]
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Repository CitationAmbrose, Charles T., "Rafinesque and Transylvania’s First Botanical Garden" (2010). Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular GeneticsFaculty Publications. 49.https://uknowledge.uky.edu/microbio_facpub/49
Rafinesque and Transylvania’s First Botanical Garden
Notes/Citation InformationPublished in Transylvania Treasures, v. 3, no. 2, p. 2-3.
© 2010 Transylvania University
The copyright holder has granted the permission for posting the article here.
This article is available at UKnowledge: https://uknowledge.uky.edu/microbio_facpub/49
C onstantine Samuel Rafinesque (1783-1840) was Professor of
Botan.y and Natural History (Zoology) at Transylvania University from 1819-1826. He anticipated by several decades Darwin's theory of evolution with respect to mutability of species, but during his lifetime he was generally dismissed by American naturalists.l While in Lexington Rafinesque sought to establish the first botanical garden west of the Alleghenies. His plan was likely inspired by the famous Bartram's Garden in Philadelphia and the Orto
Botanico in Palermo-places where Rafinesque had previously lived. In his Lexington garden, Rafinesque envisioned growing medicinal herbs and various flora of North America, especially those of Kentucky.
In January 1824, Rafinesque sought an appropriation from the Kentucky legislature for a public botanical garden, but his bill was voted down by the House. The legislature later issued a charter for establishing the garden but provided no funding. In February 1824, a notice appeared in the Kentucky
Gazette about a public lecture in the Medical Lecture Room by "Dr. Rafinesque [on] the prospects, advantages and plan of the Agricultural, Medical and Botanical Garden to be established in Lexington."2 A joint stock company was formed and issued 100 shares at $50 each,
payable in 10 installments of $5 each. Eventually 63 shareholders purchased a total of 90 shares. Three donations to the garden represented the equivalent of four shares. Rafinesque and Dr. Benjamin Dudley each bought five shares; Dr. Daniel Drake and others bought two shares each; and Henry Clay, Transylvania President Horace Holley, and most others bought one share each. Two members purchased six shares each. Rafinesque anticipated that the garden would ultimately produce revenue and dividends from the sale of plants, shrubs, and trees grown there and herbal medicines, such as rhubarb (a mild laxative), senna (a purgative), and opium.
By September 1824 enough funds had been collected so that the Transylvania Botanical Garden Company purchased a seven-acre lot from Joseph R. Megowan for $1,000, payable over five years. It was located on the south side of Main Street between Ransom and Woodland avenues, today the site of Second Presbyterian Church, built in the 1920s,
The cover of Rafinesque 's)0 11 1111il. 11 and subscription book, lefl , t•nrrn./, 1 I
related to his botan/111/ 111 I
and The Woodlands, a cond -minium. Starting in April1 824 and continuing to February 1825, notices appeared in th Gazette about pending meeting of the stockholders, reminders 1 r, pay installments due on shar s, and solicitations for work to I · done in the garden. Notices w ·r · signed by a succession of gard ·rr
presidents: William H . Richardson (professor), R. Wickliffe (attorney), and Joseph Ficklin (Lexington postmaster). Rafinesque was secretary and superintendent) The term "botanic" came to be used over that of"botanical."
Rafinesque drafted a Prospectus,
By-Laws and Charter of the
Transylvania Botanic-Garden
Company that listed benefits f, r the community:
Our Garden will
a manner, and so far ornamented as to become a great embellishment to Lexington. A convenient lot is to be chosen within the town limits, a small but elegant building erected, with a portico, green house, aviaries, bowers, library, museum and many other suitable ornaments. The Garden will be such as to unite utility with pleasure, and will afford a pleasant resort and delightful walk to the citizens and ladies, where health, instructions, and pleasure will be met at every step.
R afinesque went to Washington from June to November of that year,
leaving supervision of the garden to others at a crucial time. Apparently he was then at odds with President Holley. Upon his return to Lexington, Rafinesque found that one of his rooms at the university had been given to a student and his belongings thrown into the other. He was dismissed from his position as librarian and took lodging in town.
When he called several meetings of the garden board, no one came. Little further work appears to have been done in the garden. Funds may have
been in short supply because many stockholders did not pay their full subs riptions. A t a final session of the
Botani arden ompany in March 1826, ftve members of the board,
including Rafinesque, elected to sell the property and "divide the proceeds ... proportionately among such shareholders as have paid their installments or any part of them."4
No further explanation was given in
the formally worded minutes. Soon afterwards, Rafinesque departed permanently for Philadelphia with 40
crates containing 8,000 specimens of Western plants and 4,500 shells and fossils of Kentucky, which he claimed to have collected.5,6
Thus ended an ambitious botanical venture, which failed largely from lack of the continuing support of
Rafinesque and his vision. The contemporary Community Garden recently created on campus is meeting with greater success (see Page 4). 1f
Charles T. A mbrose is a Professor in the D epartment o/ Microbiology, I mmunology, and M olecular Genetics at the University o/ Kentucky College o/ M edicine. In recent years, he has published widely on medical history.
1. C. T. Ambrose, "Darwin's Historical Sketch-An American Predecessor: C . S. Rafinesque," Archives of Natural H istory, Fall2010; 37: 191-202.
2 Kentucky Gaze//$ February 19, 1824. Courtesy of Lexington Public Library.
3. Kentucky Gazette, April)., May 20, May 22, and Tuly 29, 1824; Febuary 3A!Vlarch 3, March 17, March 24, April 7, and pril25, 1825.
4· M inutes of the Tmn!ylvania Botanical Garden Company . June 15, 1824-March 10, 1826. T ransylvania University Special Collections.
5. Rafinesquc, C .S. First Catalogue and Cirwlar of the Botanical Garden ofTmn!y__lvama University at Lexington in Kentucky. 1824, p. 8.
6. Boewc, C. "Raftnesque among the Field Naturalists" Profiles of Rafinesque, University of Tennessee Press, 2003, p. 117.
The Rafinesque files in Transylvania's Special Collections include the Prospectus, a book listing the shareholders, the minutes of meetings, and a journal kept by Rafinesque for one month. The 29 entries made from March 15-April20, 1825, include:
March 15- Engaged James Stewart as gardener for $20.00 per month -D avid Meade sends Billy, an able Black man for labour. Engaged board for him at 5 for one month. I set them to work to pull corn stalks.
March 16- Bought 2 spades, 2 hoes, 2 rakes, 2 lines for the gardeners ... We clean the ground in front of the garden, mend fences, etc.
March 17 - We dig holes for Locust trees. We trace the main walk and the serpentine walk.
March 18- We begin to plant Cherry trees, Raspberries, Weeping willows, Cotton trees, Wahoos, and several wild plants.
March 19- Sent Billy to Mr. Meade's with order to bring cart load of trees, cuttings and seeds from his pleasure grounds.
March 21 -Billy does not come back ...
March 22- Billy comes back with cart load of slips and cuttings from David Meade's; we begin to plant them.
March 24- We discover two springs in the garden.
Apri/4- Easter Monday- Billy is sick. I lay out the central circle.
April 6 - Billy is better & works ...
April 8- We spade and sow ... bought shoes for Billy.
April 9- Stewart is again drunk.
April11- Planted trees, etc ... Stewart again drunk, & is to be dismissed at the end of his month.
April12- Stewart wants his money, saying his month is out ... H e does mischief in the garden, steals shrubs, keeps seeds, and comes to threaten me, being drunk all the while. I am compelled to get a warrant against him.
VoL. III, No.2, FALL 2010