When you planned your visit to Bartram’s Garden, you probably told yourself you were just another
tourist. Maybe here for a quiet afternoon among America’s first cultivated plants.
But you already know that isn’t why you came.
You came because of a single line buried in an old article:
“On the banks of the Schuylkill River...”
A story dating back to the 1700s has obsessed collectors and historians for generations. Some say
it refers to an original ledger, a record of hidden revolutionary funds entrusted to the Bartram
family by Washington and Franklin themselves.
John Bartram, often called America’s first botanist, built this garden with his own hands. Though he traded
plants across continents, family always came before anything else important. His son William followed in his
footsteps as a naturalist. Some believe that’s why he hid the ledger here, trusting it would stay safe in their
care.
They searched the shoreline and the water, finding nothing.
A century-old brochure surfaced in Eastwick’s archives. It was a simple catalog of thirteen flowers, each
noted with a Latin name and curious figures. At first glance, it seems like any naturalist’s
record.
But historians have argued for years whether it was a genuine record by William Bartram himself, or
a faithful copy made by Eastwick’s gardener, Thomas Meehan based on the annotations added. Either way, its survival suggests someone
believed these pages were more than a botanical curiosity.
Maybe you came here to have a picnic. Maybe you came to walk the paths. Or maybe you came to finish
a search that began before the Republic itself.
Bartram’s Garden awaits.