CHAPTER I 



THE COLUMBIAN INSTITUTE FOR THE PROMO- 

 TION OF ARTS AND SCIENCES (1816-1837) AND 

 THE FIRST BOTANIC GARDEN 



The Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and 

 Sciences, in creating the first national botanic garden 

 in America, established the precedent for the present 

 United States Botanic Garden at the foot of Capitol Hill. What 

 link today's Botanic Garden with the one started by the Co- 

 lumbian Institute in 1820 are a similarity of purpose, a com- 

 mon site, and the national character of the two organizations. 



Although the development of a botanic garden was the 

 institute's most fully realized objective, this was far from its 

 only purpose or achievement. An examination of the Insti- 

 tute's accomplishments is useful for understanding the set- 

 ting in which the first national botanic garden was conceived. 



FOUNDING 



The Columbian Institute evolved from the Metropolitan So- 

 ciety founded on June 15, 1816, which, it was hoped, would 

 become the "Washington equivalent of the American 

 Philosophical Society in Philadelphia ." 2 Credit for the So- 

 ciety's formation goes to two of its founding members, Dr. 

 Edward Cutbush of Pennsylvania and Thomas Law of En- 

 gland. 3 Dr. Cutbush, a Navy surgeon stationed in Washing- 

 ton, was the Society's most zealous exponent and the leading 

 spirit behind its establishment. He authorized its organiza- 

 tional plans, was a member of the committee that drafted 

 the successor Columbian Institute's constitution, 



2 Constance McLaughlin Green, Washington: Village and Capital, 

 1800-1878, 2 Vols. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1962, 

 v. 1, p. 69. 



3 Biographical sketches of Edward Cutbush and Thomas Law are found 

 in G. Brown Goode, The Genesis of the National Museum, in Annual 

 Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institute for the Year 

 Ending June 30, 1891, Washington: U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1892, pp. 

 276n-282n. 



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