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Jun 14, 2020 · Assistant Archivist Luke Thorne writes about his work cataloguing the "commonplace books" of 18th-century botanist, Peter Collinson. Although he was a cloth merchant by trade, Peter Collinson (1694-1768) had an immense passion for the natural world and scientific enquiry.
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English Quaker merchant Peter Collinson (January 28, 1694–August 11, 1768) traded seeds and plants with colleagues across the Atlantic Ocean, especially John Bartramof Philadelphia. Collinson is credited with introducing at least 150 species, mostly from British North America, to English gardens during the 18th century.
Peter Collinson was a passionate amateur gardener and significant importer of American exotics into England throughout the middle of the 18th century [Fig. 1]. Although he never traveled to North America, he maintained an active correspondence with American colonists and traded seeds and plants with associates across the Atlantic Ocean for more tha...
Collinson, Peter, October 6, 1721, in a letter to George Robins of Talbot County, MD (quoted in O’Neill and McLean 2008: 12)
Unknown, “Helleborine America (Bletia purpurea) with Peter Collinson’s coat-of-arms,” in John Martyn, Historia Plantarum Rariorum(1728).G. D. Ehret (artist), J. Wandelaar (engraver), “Collinsonia,” in Carl Linnaeus, Hortus Cliffortianus(1737), plate V.John or William Bartram, "A Draught of John Bartram’s House and Gardenas it appears from the River", 1758.J. Miller (engraver), “Peter Collinson,” in John Fothergill, Some Account of the Late Peter Collinson(1770), frontispiece.Peter Collinson FRS (January 1694 – 11 August 1768) was an English gardener, botanist and horticulturist. A Fellow of the Royal Society and an avid gardener, Collinson served as the middleman for an international exchange of scientific ideas in Georgian era London .
Peter Collinson is best known for the introduction of many important ornamentals to cultivation in England, particularly species from North America which he obtained through a long-term correspondence with collector John Bartram.
Jan 28, 2021 · Peter Collinson introduced nearly 200 species of plants to British horticulture - importing many from his friend John Bartram in America. And when the American gardener John Custis learned that Peter was looking for the mountain cowslip (Primula auricula), he happily sent him a sample.
Peter Collinson was a botanist and a member of the Royal Society. Through his connection with the Royal Society, he became a close enough friend of Sir Hans Sloane to expect that he might have been made curator of Sloane’s collection after his death, an expectation in which he was let down in as he was passed over for the role.
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In 1765, Collinson secured for Bartram the position of king’s botanist in North America. Collinson had botanical contacts in many other countries, including China, Russia and Europe, with whom he exchanged trees, plant cuttings, seeds and bulbs.
