Philadelphia - meeting Mr Dick and Mr Nuttall

Philadelphia, Saturday, November 1st, 1823 – I waited on Mr William Dick, Janitor of the University of Pennsylvania, from whom I had already received sufficient testimony of his ability and will to make himself useful to me. William Dick was yet another of the Scottish diaspora, busy making gardens wherever they went, so it's not surprising that he & Douglas seemed to get on well.  Dick hailed from Renfrew, Scotland before moving to Philadelphia in 1813 with four of their eventual six children.  William Dick started a family tradition by working as a janitor for the Medical Department from 1813-1831, followed in due course by two of his sons.

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I had the pleasure here of meeting Mr Nuttall, whom I found very communicative. We looked round Mr Dick’s garden. [Forgive me, but this sounds to me as though it has been lifted straight out of “David Copperfield”!!]. 

At midday, with Mr Dick, I set out for Messrs Landreths, west of Philadelphia, to whom I am also much indebted for very polite attention. (There is a great similarity of character between Messrs Loddiges [in Hackney, London] and Landreth.)

Landreth’s seed business, visited by Douglas in 1823, was already well-established in Philadelphia, having relocated there from Canada in 1784. Landreth’s is still in business today, familiar I guess to any US readers of this page, and is the fifth oldest corporation in America. 

Douglas’s mention of Loddiges Nursery is also interesting. Their business was very well known and highly prestigious in London at the time Douglas was there. I’ve often wondered whether he visited and this comment of his implies that he did and was familiar with their stock. 

The nursery rose to great prominence during the early nineteenth century under George Loddiges (1786–1846) and it's likely that if Douglas had visited he would have met George

 George Loddiges

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Douglas made another important connection that day. Thomas Nuttall was another famous botanist, plant collector and mineralogist. He was born in Yorkshire; I feel something of a connection with him and have a slow-burning biography project in hand on him.

 

Thomas Nuttall

 
Harvard University Portrait Collection, Gift of Professor Edward Tuckerman to Asa Gray for the University, 1865. Image © President and Fellows of Harvard College