Fri • Jun
22

Friday, June 22, 2018

4:00PM-5:00PM

Venue

The New York Botanical Garden, 2950 Southern Blvd., Bronx NY, 10458

Cost

Free, advance registration required.

When Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr met on a dueling ground in July 1804, they chose the same attending physician: David Hosack. Family doctor and friend to both Hamilton and Burr, Hosack is today a shadowy figure at the edge of a famous duel, the great achievements of his life forgotten. In 1801, on twenty acres of farmland, Hosack founded the first botanical garden in the new nation, amassing a spectacular collection of medicinal, agricultural, and ornamental plants that brought him worldwide praise from the likes of Jefferson and Humboldt. Hosack used his pioneering institution to train the next generation of American doctors and naturalists and to conduct some of the first pharmaceutical research in the United States. Today, his former garden is home to Rockefeller Center.

Presented by the Humanities Institute of The New York Botanical Garden and The New York Academy of Medicine Library in conjunction with The Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries Conference.

About the Speaker

Victoria Johnson is Associate Professor of Urban Policy and Planning at Hunter College in New York City. She earned her PhD in sociology from Columbia University and her undergraduate degree in philosophy from Yale University. In 2015-2016, she was the Birkelund Fellow at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, and in the summer of 2016 she was Mellon Visiting Scholar at The New York Botanical Garden’s Humanities Institute, where she conducted research on New York City, its natural environment and David Hosack, resulting in her latest book, American Eden (Liveright Publishing, a division of W. W. Norton & Company, June 2018).

Event series:
History of Medicine and Health