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"Gardening in the United States, 1794-1821: A Bibliographic Essay"
By Jill F. Reilly
At the urging of her father, Henri Joseph Stier, Rosalie Stier Calvert
developed her knowledge about landscape design, horticulture, and practical
gardening. The correspondence between father and daughter is filled with
discussions and references to gardening. In Mistress of Riversdale:
The Plantation Letters of Rosalie Stier Calvert, 1795-1821 (Baltimore:
The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991), editor Margaret Law Callcott
illuminates the emotional importance of gardening to Rosalie and her father.
Henri Stier sent seeds and often recommended the purchase of specific
books on horticulture to his daughter.
Studying and practicing the art of gardening was common among members
of Rosalie's social class in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries. Europeans, including the Stiers, considered the practice of
gardening to be more developed on the continent and in England. The Stiers,
however, were delighted by the interest in gardening that developed in
the United States at the turn of the nineteenth century. In American
Gardens in the Eighteenth Century: "For Use or For Delight"
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976), Ann Leighton explores the cultural significance
of gardening among colonial Americans of different classes. While both
urban and rural inhabitants maintained simple, practical kitchen gardens,
only members of the upper class who owned country estates practiced ornamental
horticulture and landscape design. In Kitchen Gardening in America:
A History (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1993), David M. Tucker
touches upon women's contributions to ornamental and kitchen gardening.
In Horticulture in America to 1860 (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1950; reprint, Portland, Or.: Timber Press, 1988), U. P. Hedrick
and Elisabeth Woodburn trace horticultural developments in the American
colonies and early national period. Rather than studying the social context
of botanical cultivation, the authors focus on the plants: botanical discoveries,
developments, and challenges involved in bringing the European art and
science of horticulture to a new continent. The Pennsylvania Horticultural
Society's From Seed to Flower: Philadelphia, 1681-1876: A Horticultural
Point of View (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, 1976)
offers a complimentary perspective, providing a survey of horticultural
literature during this period.
Leighton's American Gardens in the Nineteenth Century: "For Comfort
and Affluence" (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1987)
traces the growing interest in gardens that took place in the early republic.
Women of the upper classes in particular became involved in gardening
as a virtuous and healthy pastime. They enjoyed the social dimensions
of trading seeds and visiting friends' gardens as well. Another perspective
on women's personal gardening experiences is Buckner Hollingsworth's Her
Garden Was Her Delight (New York: Macmillan, 1962).
While many women tended gardens, few had any influence over the design
of the grounds. In this, Rosalie was exceptional. She employed the services
of Philadelphia artist and architect William Russell Birch for assistance
in designing the grounds and gardens of Riversdale Plantation. The details
of Rosalie's vision for the garden are described in Susan C. Buonocore's
"Within Her Garden Wall": The Meaning of Gardening for the
Republican Woman, Rosalie Stier Calvert and the Gardens of Riversdale
(1803-1821) (Columbia: South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and
Anthropology, University of South Carolina, 1996). Buonocore argues that
by designing the plantation's grounds Rosalie combined her own personal
taste and preferences with the contemporary landscape design trends of
Europe and America. "Within Her Garden Wall" emphasizes
the intellectual, psychological, and spiritual benefits Rosalie derived
from her Riversdale garden.
Barbara Wells Sarudy's study of gardening in the Chesapeake region, Gardens
and Gardening in the Chesapeake, 1700-1805 (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins
University Press, 1998), opens with a narrative portrait of William Faris,
an innkeeper, clockmaker, and passionate gardener, and provides a fascinating
glimpse into the personal and social meanings of flower and tree cultivation
during this period. As a bourgeois urban-dweller, Faris was not a typical
amateur horticulturalist. He, nevertheless, maintained connections to
wealthy, landed gardeners, including Henri Stier. In Gardens and Gardening
in the Chesapeake, Sarudy describes the aesthetic and practical elements
of various types of gardens common in the colonial and early republic
Chesapeake. She also explores some economic factors related to gardening
- the seed and nursery trade and the labor of slaves and white servants.
The book concludes by focusing on the social, intellectual, and spiritual
aspects of gardening. Sarudy explores what motivated individuals like
William Faris, Henri Stier, and Rosalie Calvert in their passionate interest
in and practice of gardening.
