( 266 ) 

 THE TRADESCANT MUSEUM. 



BY 

 W. H. MULLENS, M.A., LL.M., F.L.S. 



In these daj^s, when every town of any importance in 

 this country boasts of a more or less well-equipped 

 museum, it seems somewhat strange that the first English 

 museum of which we have an}' knowledge or account 

 was formed less than two hundred and seventy years 

 ago, and that it owed its inception, not to a native of 

 these islands, but to the enterprise of a Hollander and 

 his son who had settled in this countr3\ 



This was the famous Tradescant Museum, an account 

 of which was published in 1656 entitled : — 



Musseum Tradescantianum : / or, / a Collection / of / Rarities./ 

 Preserved / at South-Lambeth neer London / By / John 

 Tradescant./ 



This small duodecimo work has now become very 

 scarce owing to the fact that " Prefixed to it were prints 

 of both father and son, which from the circumstance of 

 being engraved by Hollar, has unfortunately rendered 

 the book well kno\vn to collectors of prints,* by whom 

 most of the copies have been plundered of the impres- 

 sions." Of the two Tradescants but little is known, 

 and that partly conjectural. John Tradescant the elder 

 was, according to Anthony Wood, a Dutchman by birth, 

 and seems to have settled in this country during the 

 reign of James I. As a young man he is said to have 

 travelled and collected in Europe and Asia, and to have 

 accompanied a fleet which sailed against the Algerines 

 in 1620, and some few years after this we find him settled 

 at South Lambeth, where he had " a Physic Garden 

 of the greatest extent." In 1629 he obtained the 

 appointment of gardener to Charles I., and seems to have 

 died about 1650. He left a son of the same name, who 

 inherited his father's tastes, voyaged to Virginia, returned 



* Facsimile reproductions of the title page and the two Hollar 

 prints accompany this article. 



