Travels of William Bartram
Speaker: Joel Fry, Curator of Bartram’s garden
Joel T. Fry has served as curator for Bartram’s Garden, the home of John and William Bartram in Philadelphia, PA, since 1992. He first became involved in archaeological research at Bartram’s Garden in 1975, and has participated in a number of archaeological and historic research projects at the garden site since. He studied anthropology, historical archaeology, and American Civilization at the University of Pennsylvania, and has written extensively on the history of Bartram’s Garden and the Bartram family plant collections. Recent publications include: “Inside the Box: John Bartram and the Science and Commerce of the Transatlantic Plant Trade” in Ways of Making and Knowing: The Material Culture of Empirical Knowledge, edited by Pamela H. Smith, Amy R. W. Meyers, and Harold Cook, University of Michigan Press, 2014; “America’s ‘Ancient Garden’: The Bartram Botanic Garden, 1728-1850” in Amy R. W. Meyers, ed., Knowing Nature: Art and Science in Philadelphia, 1740-1840. Yale University Press, New Haven, 2011; “William Bartram’s ‘Commonplace Book’ and ‘On Gardening’” in the volume, William Bartram, The Search for Nature’s Design: Selected Art, Letters, and Unpublished Writings. Thomas Hallock, and Nancy E. Hoffmann, eds., University of Georgia Press, 2010; “William Bartram’s Oenothera grandiflora: ‘The Most Pompous and Brilliant Herbaceous Plant yet Known to Exist,’” in Fields of Vision: Essays on the Travels of William Bartram, Kathryn E. Holland Braund and Charlotte M. Porter, eds. The University of Alabama Press, 2010; and “Historic American Landscapes Survey, John Bartram House and Garden (Bartram’s Garden), HALS No. PA-1, History Report,” U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, HABS/HAER/HALS/CRGIS Division, Washington, DC, 2004. Bartram’s Garden, 5400 Lindbergh Blvd., Philadelphia, PA 19143. jfry@bartramsgarden.org
Please RSVP to our May 6th Meeting and Flower Show
