AIELLO, A.S. 2021. THOMAS MEEHAN: THE HORTICULTURAL POPULARIZER. ARNOLDIA, 78(5-6): 50-61 
Thomas Meehan: The Horticultural Popularizer 
Anthony S. Aiello 
side from details exchanged among hor- 
ticultural history buffs or students of 
botanical Latin (who know Meehania, 
a genus in the mint family), little is widely 
known or remembered of the life and work of 
Thomas Meehan, a Philadelphia nurseryman, 
author, editor, and social reformer who rose 
to prominence in the second half of the nine- 
teenth century.! Meehan immigrated to Phila- 
delphia when it was still a set of disparate and 
unincorporated townships on the cusp of trans- 
formation into a major industrial city. Upon 
his arrival, he inherited a horticultural mantle 
from the Philadelphia Quakers who had studied 
the flora of the eastern United States and built 
notable collections of plants in their gardens. 
Meehan looked to these established collec- 
tions and assumed the role of the horticultural 
popularizer. During his long career, he used his 
nursery and publications to encourage the cul- 
tivation of an ever-widening palette of plants. 
Meehan’s desire to engage a broad horti- 
cultural audience was clear from the start. In 
his first book, The American Handbook of 
Ornamental Trees, published in 1853, Meehan 
described his intention of creating something 
for “extensive popular use.”* This goal per- 
sisted as he continued to write and edit a series 
of prominent horticultural magazines, and 
towards the end of Meehan’s career, Charles 
Sprague Sargent, the director of the Arnold 
Arboretum, described Meehan’s accomplish- 
ments as “a most important factor in increasing 
the cultivation of American trees and shrubs.”° 
In Philadelphia, Meehan led a remarkable life, 
contributing to a staggering array of fields. 
His work is hard to encapsulate, so this article 
will not offer a complete accounting; instead, 
to use Meehan’s own words, it will present “an 
anthology, and will not aim at anything fur- 
ther than to cull the most beautiful, interesting, 
and important.’””* 
At Bartram’s Garden 
Meehan was born in Potter’s Bar near London, 
England, in 1826. From an early age, he was 
trained in horticulture by his father, himself 
a well-known gardener. Meehan held several 
prominent gardener positions as a teenager, 
before pursuing his formal education at the 
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, graduating in 
1848.° Having been refused a gardening posi- 
tion in England based on religious grounds, 
Meehan saw the opportunities offered in the 
United States. By March of the same year, he 
arrived in Philadelphia, where he would spend 
the remaining fifty-three years of his life.° 
Once in Philadelphia, Meehan quickly 
became acquainted with the leading horti- 
culturists of the city. He began by working 
for Robert Buist, who was establishing Rose- 
dale Nursery on what was then the rural edge 
of southwest Philadelphia. The nursery was 
famous for its seed business and its selections 
of fruit and ornamental trees. After one year 
with Buist, Meehan accepted an offer to work 
at Bartram’s Garden.’ At that point, the gar- 
den was transitioning from ownership by the 
Bartram family to Andrew M. Eastwick, a rail- 
road magnate, who had recognized the garden’s 
importance and built an elaborate Victorian 
home there, preserving the original Bartram 
house and its famous plant collection. 
Until 1850, Bartram’s Garden had been oper- 
ated by the founding family. John Bartram, the 
patriarch, had been a royal botanist for the 
king of Great Britain. He and his son William 
explored the eastern United States, collecting 
seeds that they propagated for their garden and 
distributed to other respected horticulturists 
throughout America and Great Britain. William 
maintained the garden upon his father’s death. 
In turn, William’s niece Ann Bartram Carr and 
her husband, Robert, were the third generation 
Facing page: Thomas Meehan was a central booster of American horticulture in the late nineteenth century. 
As a nursery owner, he promoted an ever-widening palette of plants, and as a horticultural writer and editor, he did 
the same. He is photographed here for the Centennial Exposition of 1876. 
PORTRAIT COURTESY OF THE FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA, PRINT AND PICTURE COLLECTION 
