A Proper Female Pursuit for Columbia's Daughters in a Patriarchal Society
Early botanist Jane Colden Farquher (1724-66) came from a traditional patriarchal family. Her physician father Cadwallader Colden (1688-1776) sailed to New York in 1710, He was Lt. Governor of New York from 1761 until his death; member of the Council of New York; & Surveyor General for New York. His scientific curiosity included a personal correspondence between 1749-1751 with Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778).
Colden thought women should study botany because of "their natural curiosity & the pleasure they take in the beauty and variety of dress seems to fit them for it." Moreover, he viewed such study as an ideal substitute for idleness among his female children, when he moved his family to the country in 1729.
He believed gardening and botany "an Amusement which may be made agreable for the Ladies who are often at a loss to fill their time." He went so far as to recommend that perhaps from Jane's example "young ladies in a like situation may find an agreable way to fill up some part Of their time which otherwise might be heavy on their hand May amuse & please themselves & at the same time be usefull to others."
Jane Colden far surpassed her father's amusement theory. She was the first scientist to describe the gardenia. Although she had to read the works of Carolus Linnaeus in translation, she mastered the Linnaean system of plant classification perfectly. She catalogued, described, and sketched at least 400 plants. She actively collected seeds & specimens of New World flora & exchanged them with others on both sides of the Atlantic.
Peter Collinson (1694-1768) wrote Linnaeus that Jane Colden “is perhaps the first lady that has so perfectly studied your system. She deserves to be celebrated.” The South Carolina scientist Dr. Alexander Garden (1730-1791) wrote that Jane Colden “is greatly master of the Linnaean method, and cultivates it with assiduity.” Her work on plant classification was in a Scottish scientific journal in 1770, four years after her death.
Irish immigrant gardener, seed dealer, & writer Bernard M'Mahon (1775-1816), noted nearly the exact sentiments as father Colden in his 1806 Phildadelphia book The American Gardener's Calendar, "The innocent, healthful, and pleasing amusement that Botanical studies might afford to the fair daughters of Columbia, who have leisure time to devote to such, is also a very important object, as in that way, many happy and enchanting hours might be delightfully spent to useful and salubrious purposes, which othecwise would hang heavily or be trifled away perhaps to disadvantage."
Rosalie Stier Calvert (1778–1821), who lived near Washington D. C. just when it was becoming both a political & social capitol, thought women should hold themselves above an discussion of politics, especially during the mud-slinging surrounding Thomas Jefferson's personal life & loves. She called gardening her “greatest diversion.”
Rosalie Stier Calvert and her daughter.In 1807, she observed, "I see so many women making themselves ridiculous by discussing politics at random without understanding the subject that I am disgusted with all controversy except about flowers! Their culture absorbs me more every day, for as I go out rarely, it is my chief amusement."
In South Carolina, Eliza Pinckney (1722-1793), who was responisble for profitably changing the economy of South Carolina by introducing indigo agriculture, wrote in 1760, “I love a garden & a book; & they are all my amusement.”
1805 Salem Girls School later Salem College.Salem College began in 1766, when the Moravians, established the village of Salem. Among the town's early residents were 16 girls & women who walked more than 500 miles from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to join the new community. Salem Girls School, later Salem College, was run by the unmarried women, the Single Sisters, of the Moravian community, who were economically self-sufficient, a rare condition for women of the 18th century. Moravian records show that Salem educated African American girls as early as 1785. The gardens at the Girls’ School in Salem, were described as “designed for literary repast, & evening amusement.”
1912 Photo of Tableau on the Lower Pleasure Grounds at Salem College.In 1858, Principal Robert deSchweinitz transformed the Lower Pleasure Grounds from a heavily-wooded ravine barrier between Salem Academy & Salem College into a beautifully landscaped garden, creating rose gardens & pavilions. An amazing photo of this area, where amusement & theater weere still a serious components, from 1912 exists at the College.
Outdoor literary repast. 1798 William Clarke. Mrs William Frazer. Delaware.The Rev. Mr. John Bennett, a clergyman interested in the appropriate behavior (especially the conduct of women) for a moral society whose 1803 Letters to a young lady...calculated to improve the heart, to form the manners and to enlighten the understanding circulated throughout Great Britain & the United States, wrote, Attention to a garden is A truly feminine amusement. If you mix it with a taste for botany, and a knowledge of plants and flowers, you will never be in want of an excellent restorative.
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