Background

Bernard McMahon was born in Ireland.

Career

In 1796 Bernard McMahon came to America as one of those "Exiles of Erin, " driven from Ireland by political motives, who sought and found refuge in the United States. He settled in Philadelphia. McMahon's greenhouses and experimental gardens, were situated near the Germantown turnpike between Philadelphia and Nicetown. In connection with the nurseries, McMahon had established a seed and general nursery business at 39 South Second Street below Market, on the east side of Philadelphia. Behind the counter was his wife. The remarkable part of the store was not in its stock, although it was one of the largest seed stores in the United States at that time, but rather the character and prominence of the botanists and horticulturists who were attracted there as a common meeting place for varied scientific discussions. Here Nuttall, Baldwin, Darlington, and other authorities came to impart or receive scientific information. McMahon took an active part in the discussions occurring in his store and his opinion is said to have been greatly respected. As a consequence of his contacts with McMahon, when Nuttall published in 1818 his Genera of North American Plants, he named an evergreen barberry Mahonia. McMahon early began the collection and exportation of American seeds and he was continually soliciting seed and plant exchanges with his many correspondents in the United States and abroad with the purpose of discovering new plants suited for cultivation in the United States. In his catalogue published in 1804, he lists about a thousand species of such seeds. McMahon was interested in one of the numerous abortive attempts to grow the European wine grape in the eastern United States. In 1806 he gave to America its first notable horticultural book, the American Gardener's Calendar, which was a standard cyclopedic work for more than fifty years, the last edition appearing in 1857. After McMahon's death in 1816 his wife conducted his business for a time and then it passed to other hands.

Achievements

• Bernard McMahon served as one of the stewards of the plant collections from the Lewis and Clark expedition and was the author of The American Gardener's Calendar. He circulated the first extensive gardener's seed list in the United States, which he attached as an appendix to his Calendar.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The American Gardener's Calendar: Adapted To The Climate And Seasons Of The United States (1857)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • McMahon's American gardener: Adapted to the climate and seasons of the United States

    (Sm Quarto, PP.648, Line Drawings, A Classic Text, Sometim...)

  • book

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• William Darlington, the botanist, in a letter written at West Chester, Pa. , on June 15, 1857, says: "In the autumn, I think, of 1799, McMahon passed some weeks at my native village of Dilworthtown, in Chester County, in order to avoid the ravages of yellow fever, in Philadelphia, where he resided; and in that rural retreat I first knew him. I renewed the acquaintance in 1802, 3, and 4, while attending medical lectures in the University of Pennsylvania, by which time he had established his nurseries of useful and ornamental plants: and I ever found him an obliging, intelligent, and instructive friend".
  
  According to Bailey, "M'Mahon and Landreth were instrumental in distributing the seeds which those explorers collected. "

Connections

McMahon was married, but her name is unknown.

Son:

Thomas P. M'Mahon

References

• The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. (3 Vols)