Background
William Dunlop Brackenridge was born on June 10, 1810, in Ayr, Scotland.
(Excerpt from Retail Catalogue for Spring and Fall of 1885...)
Excerpt from Retail Catalogue for Spring and Fall of 1885, of Fruit and Ornamental Trees, Flowering Shrubs, Roots, &C We would respectfully state, that our Catalogue contains no plant or tree that we have not under cultivation and for sale; our aim has been to procure and grow only such kinds of fruits as are good, and known to succeed well in the Middle States. The situation of the Nursery ground is elevated, with a surface soil of what 15 usually termed a gravelly loam, the wet parts of which have been under-drained, and the whole deeply cultivated; trees grown on this land are furnished with numerous healthy roots and robust heads, so that there is little risk 1n transplanting them. The proprietor' 3 long and extensive prae tice in the cultivation and transplanting of. Trees enables him to judge correctly of the care necessary m the lifting and packing of them for transportation and those favoring him with their orders may rely on proper personal attention being paid to this operation, as well as to the correct labeling of all articles sold. Packages of trees and plants ordered will be delivered in Baltimore, free of charge to such Agent or Transportation line as the purchaser may designate, after which they will be at the risk of the purchaser. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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William Dunlop Brackenridge was born on June 10, 1810, in Ayr, Scotland.
Brackenridge began life as a gardener's boy and rose to be head gardener of Dr. Patrick Neill's grounds at Edinburgh. Several years were spent on the Continent, especially in Poland and as a student under Friedrich Otto, the garden director at Berlin.
Brackenridge came to America about 1837 in the employ of Robert Buist, the Philadelphia nurseryman, and in the following year, he seized the incomparable opportunity offered by the fitting out of the expedition that was to explore the Pacific for the United States Government. The places left open for botanists on this trip were naturally coveted.
Nuttall, by his previous travels in the Pacific, was pre-eminently fitted for the position, Rafinesque hinted that he had desired it, and Asa Gray was actually slated to fill the chief berth. But Gray resigned in order to work with Torrey in the publication of a flora of North America, and Brackenridge, then comparatively obscure, was appointed assistant botanist to the eminent Dr. Pickering, chief naturalist of the party. The six sailing vessels left Hampton Roads, Virginia, on August 19, 1838.
Briefly, the itinerary was from Virginia to Madeira, thence to Rio de Janeiro, around the Horn to Chile and Peru, with inland trips, as to Lima in the Andean highlands, and thence among the islands of the Pacific to Tahiti, Samoa, the Fiji Islands, New Caledonia, and Sydney, Australia. Inland trips were made in New South Wales, and thence the party proceeded to New Zealand, the Fijis, the Hawaiian Islands, and back to the North American continent where Washington, Oregon, and the Mt. Shasta country of California were explored.
The party continued past the Hawaiian Islands once more, through the Ladrones to Manila, where interior Philippine trips were made, and then through the Sulu Archipelago to Singapore, the Cape of Good Hope, and St. Helena, till New York was reached on June 9, 1842, after nearly four years of sailing and scientific collecting. Species of plants to the number of 10, 000, representing about 40, 000 specimens, had been collected, besides about a hundred living plants and many seeds. The botanical gleanings of the trip formed the nucleus of the National Herbarium.
In Washington Brackenridge was given a small greenhouse and was entrusted with the growing of the living plants, in addition to the preparation of the report on the ferns of the expedition. He remained in competent charge of the rare living plants even after their removal to the new Botanical Garden, in 1850, at the foot of the Capitol, where to this day many may be seen. But though a good field botanist, Brackenridge lacked training in systematic botany, and the difficulties of making a scientific report on the ferns, with descriptions in both Latin and English, were embarrassing.
In this Asa Gray was of assistance, intimating, indeed, in his letter to Engelmann of December 7, 1853, that most of the valuable work was his own, a claim which overstresses Latinity and nomenclature. Certainly the Filices, Including Lycopodiaceæ and Hydropterides, volume XVI (1854) was Brackenridge's, and his scientific masterpiece. Unhappily, the quarto volume of text and the magnificent folio of plates were practically all destroyed by fire in 1856, so that they are the scarcest of the reports of the expedition, and indeed among the rarest of all modern botanical monographs of value.
In 1855, Brackenridge purchased thirty acres near Baltimore, Maryland, and there spent the rest of his life.
William Brackenridge achieved remarkable success serving for many years as a horticultural editor for the American Farmer, but most of his energy was dedicated to the work as a nurseryman and landscape architect. His influence can be traced in many of the older estates around Baltimore, the city where he lived and died. Another Brackenridge's chief achievement was in his participation in the expedition under the command of Captain Wilkes which went to the Hawaiian Islands and through the Ladrones to Manila, where interior Philippine trips were made, and then through the Sulu Archipelago to Singapore, the Cape of Good Hope, and St. Helena, till New York was reached on June 9, 1842, during which Brackenridge collected species of plants to the number of 10, 000. He represented about 40, 000 specimens, besides about a hundred living plants and many seeds, which later formed the nucleus of the National Herbarium.
(Excerpt from Retail Catalogue for Spring and Fall of 1885...)
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Brackenridge was married to Isabelle. They had at least four children.
Born in 1846.
Born in 1854.
Born in 1847.
Born in 1850.
botanist
American botanist and explorer
