Item 90: Bookplate, Bookplate, Library of the University of Pennsylvania, Gift of Mr. Robert Buist, no date

Item — Box: 20, Folder: 90

Staff Only

Bookplate, Library of the University of Pennsylvania, no date

Dates

Created: no date

Disclaimer for Name and Subject Authorities

Some of the name and subject authority tags have been assigned by educated guessing and estimation of persons and subjects by region, age, profession, and familial relationships. They have been thoroughly researched by using primary and secondary sources available digitally, and named in each description, or in some cases linked directly to the person tag.

Access:

All series and subseries within this collection are open for research, with the exception of a few files within the Academia series that are restricted. The Academia series contains financial and sensitive institutional records from Wilkes College, and financial report records from Princeton University that will remain restricted for 80 years upon creation.

Extent

1 items

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

Additional Description

Type of Material:

Bookplate

Condition Note:

Good, no issues.

Measurements:

4 in. x 2 11/16 in.

Title:

Library of the University of Pennsylvania

Description:

A bookplate being a gift of Mr. Robert Buist. The bookplate features a keystone with the Earth above a grail. The keystone is surrounded by the text “Library of the University of Pennsylvania.” Robert Buist was born on November 14, 1805 in Cupar Fyfe, Scotland. He was a nurseryman and seedsman who lived in Philadelphia. “Through his businesses and garden manuals, he became one of the most influential figures in American horticulture during the 19th century.” He learned gardening with William McNab who was the main gardener of the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh. McNab is remembered for moving the garden to Inverleith between 1821 and 1823 while Bruist was working there. “He relocated to Derbyshire to work in General Charles Stanhope’s garden who was the 3rd Earl of Harrington at Elvaston Castle before moving to Philadelphia in 1828.” When he got to Philadelphia, he instantly fit in with the horticulture community. He was employed at David Landreth’s nursery in Moyamensing prior to being the gardener of Henry Pratt’s Lemon Hill. “In June 1829, he participated in the first exhibition of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, with which he maintained a lifelong affiliation.” In September 1830, Buist had stopped working at Lemon Hill and started working with a nurseryman named Thomas Hibbert. Because Buist owned some of the greenhouses that he ran with Hibbert, he had some control that he didn’t have at his previous jobs. “He described his situation at Landreth’s, where he was relegated to hoeing weeds, as especially dismal.” Over the course of the first year of working with Hibbert, they made the nursery larger through buying Brenard M’Mahon’s garden, Upsall. Buist went back to Scotland and England “to make arrangements… to receive continued supplies of all kinds of new and desirable plants and flowers.” While he was traveling, he also went to see John Cladius London, one of the best horticulturists in England, and came back to Philadelphia with architect John Notman, a good friend of his. While he was away, he was able to collect a good amount of plants, most of which were delilahs, “which was described in the May 15, 1832, issue of the National Gazette and Library Register as “upwards of fifty of the most distinct [dahlias] in color and the largest in size; some of the Glob[e]-flowered, and Anemone-flowered, which are considered beautiful and rare.” Hibbert and Buist’s collaboration worked well, but didn’t last very long because of Thomas Hibbert’s death on May 11, 1833. Hibbert’s wife continued her late husband’s business. Meanwhile, Buist continued his own, and used part of the stock he earned with his partner to open a nursery, and a seed store. “R. Buist’s Exotic Nursery featured a greenhouse 150 feet in length, 18 feet wide, and 15 feet high” it was split into five parts to make room for all the plants he had. The front part was known as the “New-Holland House” that had plants from Australia, “including species of Banksia - which Buist likely learned to cultivate while working with McNab, who specialized in the plant. Another section was called the hothouse, which had the “canary bird flower (Tropaleum peregrinum), petunias, ficuses,” and some other obscure plants. Near the end of the building, Buist made sections that were for special types of flowers, “including the Geranium House, the Camellia House, and the Rose House.” He stopped working with nurseries in 1876, and died on July 13, 1880 when he was 74.