Two John Tradescants, father and son, were among the earliest English botanists and plantsmen, travellers, collectors and all around polymaths. Botany is the scientific study of plant life. ... Renaissance man links here. ...

John Tradescant the elder (ca 1570s - 15/16 April, 1638) was an English naturalist, gardener, collector and traveller, probably born in Suffolk, England. He began his career as head gardener to the Earl of Salisbury at Hatfield House, who initiated Tradescant in travelling by sending him to the Low Countries for fruit trees. Later, Tradescant was gardener to the royal favorite George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham. John Tradescant travelled to Arctic Russia in 1618, to the Levant and to Algiers, collecting seeds and bulbs everywhere and assembling a collection of curiosities of natural history and ethnography housed in a large house -- "The Ark" -- in Lambeth, London. The Ark was the prototypical "Cabinet of Curiosity" or Kunst- und Wunderkammer[1], a collection of rare and strange objects, that became the first museum open to the public in England, the Musaeum Tradescantianum. From their botanical garden in Lambeth, on the south bank of the Thames, he and his son, John, introduced many plants into English gardens that have become part of the modern gardener's repertory. A genus of plants (Tradescantia) is named to honour him. Events March 29 - Swedish colonists establish first settlement in Delaware, called New Sweden. ... Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury (June 1, 1563 -May 24, 1612), son of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley and half-brother of Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter, statesman, spymaster and minister to Elizabeth I of England and James I of England. ... Hatfield House, located to the east of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, was built in 1611 and is the family seat of Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 7th Marquess of Salisbury. ... George Villiers (August 28, 1592 - August 23, 1628) was the 1st Duke of Buckingham of the second creation (1623) of that title and a favourite of King James I of England and then of Charles I. He was born in Brooksby, Leicestershire, the son of the minor noble Sir George... A museum is typically a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and of its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits, for purposes of study, education enjoyment, the tangible and intangible evidence of people and their environment. ... Inside the United States Botanic Garden Botanical gardens (in Latin hortus botanicus) grow a wide variety of plants both for scientific purposes and for the enjoyment and education of visitors. ... Lambeth is a place in the London Borough of Lambeth. ... Binomial name Tradescantia pallida (Rose) D. Hunt // Meaning of the name Wandering Jew is the colloquial name used to refer to three separate (but related) species of spiderwort. ...

His son, John Tradescant the Younger (1608 - 1662), botanist and gardener, born in Meopham, Kent, made three trips to Virginia between 1637 and 1662 to collect plants. Among the seeds he brought back, to introduce to English gardens were great American trees, like Magnolias, Bald Cypress and Tulip tree, and garden plants such phlox and asters. He also added to the cabinet of curiosities his American acquisitions such as the ceremonial cloak of Chief Powhatan, one of the most important Native American relics. When his father died, he succeeded as head gardener to Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria, making gardens at the Queen's House, Greenwich, designed by Inigo Jones, from 1638 to 1642, when the queen fled the Civil War. He published the contents of his father's celebrated collection as Musaeum Tradescantianum-- books, coins, weapons, costumes, taxidermy, and other curiosities-- dedicating the first edition to the Royal College of Physicians (with whom he was negotiating for the transfer of his botanic garden), and the second edition to the recently-restored Charles II. Tradescant bequeathed his library and museum (or some say it was swindled) to Elias Ashmole (1617 - 1692), whose name it bears as the core of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford where the Tradescant collections remain largely intact. For this Tradescant, the standard botanical author abbreviation Trad. is applied to species he described. Events March 18 - Sissinios formally crowned Emperor of Ethiopia May 14 - Protestant Union founded in Auhausen. ... Events March 18 – Short-timed experiment of the first public buses holding 8 passengers begins in Paris May 3/May 2 - Catherine of Braganza marries Charles II of England – as part of the dowry, Portugal cedes Bombay and Tangier to England May 9 - Samuel Pepys witnessed a Punch and Judy... Meopham (pronounced Mep-um) is a village lying south of Gravesend, in Kent. ... Kent is a county in England, south-east of London. ... State nickname: Old Dominion Other U.S. States Capital Richmond Largest city Virginia Beach Governor Mark R. Warner (D) Tim Kaine (D-Governor Elect) Senators John Warner (R) George Allen (R) Official language(s) English Area 110,862 km² (35th)  - Land 102,642 km²  - Water 8,220 km² (7. ... Species See text Magnolia is a large genus of about 120 flowering plant species in the subfamily Magnolioideae of the family Magnoliaceae. ... Binomial name Taxodium distichum (L.) Rich. ... Species Liriodendron chinense (Hemsl. ... The Powhatan (also spelled Powatan and Powhaten) were a very powerful confederacy of Native American tribes, speaking an Algonquian language, who lived in what is now Virginia at the time of the first English-Native encounters. ... Assiniboin Boy, an Atsina Native Americans in the United States (also Indians, American Indians, First Americans, Indigenous Peoples, Aboriginal Peoples, Aboriginal Americans, Amerindians, Amerinds, or Original Americans) are those indigenous peoples within the territory which is now encompassed by the continental United States, and their descendants in modern times. ... Henrietta Maria Henrietta Maria (November 25, 1609 - September 10, 1669) was Queen Consort of England, Scotland and Ireland (June 13, 1625 - January 30, 1649) through her marriage to Charles I. The U.S. state of Maryland (in Latin, Terra Maria) was so named in her honour by Cæcilius Calvert... The Queens House, Greenwich The Queens House, Greenwich, (designed by architect Inigo Jones for Anne of Denmark (the queen of King James I of England) and afterwards used by Queen Henrietta Maria) is one of the most important buildings in British architectural history. ... Inigo Jones, by Sir Anthony van Dyck Inigo Jones (July 15, 1573–June 21, 1652) is regarded as the first significant English architect. ... The Royal College of Physicians of London is the oldest medical institution in England, and among the most active of all medical professional organisations. ... Charles II (29 May 1630–6 February 1685) was the King of England, King of Scots, and King of Ireland from 30 January 1649 (retrospectively de jure) or 29 May 1660 (de facto) until his death. ... Elias Ashmole by an unknown hand (detail), after a portrait by John Riley, c. ... Events Change of emperor of the Ottoman Empire from Ahmed I (1603-1617) to Mustafa I (1617-1623). ... Events February 13 - Massacre of Glencoe March 1 - The Salem witch trials begin in Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony with the charging of three women with witchcraft. ... The Ashmolean Museum (in full the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology) in Oxford, England is the worlds first university museum. ... Oxford is a city and local government district in Oxfordshire, England, with a population of 134,248 (2001 census). ... In biology, binomial nomenclature refers to the formal method of naming species. ... In biology, the most commonly used definition of species was first coined by Ernst Mayr. ...

Tradescant father and son were buried in the churchyard of St-Mary-at-Lambeth which is now established as the Museum of Garden History. The Museum of Garden History is based in the deconsecrated parish church of St Mary-at-Lambeth adjacent to Lambeth Palace on the south bank of the River Thames in London. ...

They are the subjects of two novels by Philippa Gregory, Earthly Joys and its sequel Virgin Earth.

The Tradescant collection is the earliest major English Cabinet of Curiosities. Other famous collections in Europe preceded it, for example Emperor Rudolf II's Kunst- und Wunderkammer was well-established at Prague by the end of the 16th Century. Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II Rudolf II Habsburg was an emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, king of Bohemia, and king of Hungary. ... Prague (Czech: Praha, see also other names) is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. ...

References

• Prudence Leith-Ross, The John Tradescants: Gardeners to the Rose and Lily Queen 1984. ISBN 0720606128 Sounder than its title suggests.

• Arthur MacGregor (Editor), Tradescant's Rarities: Essays on the Foundation of the Ashmolean Museum 1983. ISBN 0198134053

External link

• Tradescant Collection at the Ashmolean Museum
• John Tradescant - biographical information from the Gardens Guide