The Founding Gardeners May 26, 2011

This beautifully illustrated talk looks at the lives of the founding fathers and how their attitude to plants, gardens, nature and agriculture shaped the American nation. George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison regarded themselves foremost as farmers and plantsmen. For them gardening, agriculture, and botany were elemental passions, as deeply ingrained in their characters as their belief in liberty for the nation they were creating. In a unique retelling of the creation of America, award-winning historian Andrea Wulf will show how plants, politics and personalities intertwined as never before.