The year 1942 might be said to mark the hundredth anniversary of the United States Botanic Garden. In 99 cases out of 100 a statement of this nature would have no special meaning to men of the Navy. However, in this instance it is that hundredth case, the exception, that is of universal interest, for it was exactly 100 years ago in June that the U. S. Exploring Expedition to the South Seas, under command of Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, returned after four years of explorations and it was due to the work and efforts of this expedition that the Botanic Garden was created as a congressional establishment.
Almost four years before, on August 18, 1838, to be exact, the expedition, consisting of six vessels, had started gaily out from Hampton Roads on the first lap of the long and dangerous voyage. With the U;S.S. Vincennes, a trim sloop of 780 tons which in Lieutenant Wilkes’ own words could “do everything but talk,” as flagship, the vessels making up the exploring squadron were the sloop Peacock, commanded by William L. Hudson, Esq., the supply ship Relief, Lieutenant A. K. Long, the brig Porpoise, Lieutenant Cadwalader Ringgold, and the schooners Sea Gull and Flying Fish, tenders, with Passed Midshipmen James W. E. Reid commanding the former and Samuel R. Knox the latter.
Specifically, the expedition had been given no mean assignment. Instructions, according to a report to the National Institute made by Lieutenant Wilkes on June 20, 1842, 11 days after he had put into New York with the Vincennes, were:
To explore and survey the Southern Ocean, having in view the important interest of our commerce embarked in the whale fisheries, as well as to determine the existence of all doubtful islands and shoals; and to discover and accurately fix the position of those which lie in or near the track pursued by our merchant vessels in that quarter, and may hitherto have escaped the observation of scientific navigators.
Although the primary object of the expedition is the promotion of the great interest of commerce and navigation, yet all occasions will be taken, not incompatible with the great purpose of the undertaking, to extend the bounds of science and to promote the acquisition of knowledge. For the more successful attainment of these, several scientific gentlemen will accompany the expedition, for the departments of philology, zoology, conchology, geology, mineralogy, and botany, with suitable artists, and a horticulturist, and are placed under your direction. The astronomy, hydrography, geography, terrestrial magnetism, meteorology, and physics, are confided to yourself and the officers of the Navy, in whose zeal and talents the Department confidently rely.
During the four years of explorations the expedition had circumnavigated the globe. It had more or less intensively surveyed vast portions of the Pacific Ocean lying south of a line that extended roughly from Puget Sound to Manila. Stowed away on the ships that returned were 10,000 species of seeds, nuts, and plants, besides other collections of great scientific value that had been gathered by members of the expedition, particularly the “scientific gentlemen” detailed to make the voyage.
While absent from home the expedition and braved innumerable perils. Two extensive cruises had been made along the icy barrier of the Antarctic where a vast new continent, now known as Wilkes Land, had been discovered between 160 and 97 degrees east longitude. It had explored, made soundings and other measurements, and charted islands, reefs, harbors, and their approaches, not by the scores but by the hundreds. Two ships had been lost, the Sea Gull with all hands during the first year of the voyage off Cape Horn, the Peacock without loss of life on July 18, 1841, in the Columbia River, Oregon. Two officers of the expedition had been killed by native treachery in the Fiji Islands, Lieutenant J. A. Underwood and Midshipman Wilkes Henry.
While in Oahu one of the king’s palaces had been turned over to the expedition the better to do its work. Specimens of seeds, plants, fossils, minerals, shells, and many varieties of insect, animal, and marine life had been gathered at every opportunity. Great numbers of drawings had been made by the artists who took part in the voyage. The departments of history and philology had at no time been idle, every effort having been made to ascertain the origin and study the languages of the South Sea Islands people, and among the prized possessions that were being brought back was an old edition of a Tagalog grammar that had been presented to the expedition at Manila by one of the padres there, while at Singapore the American Mission had presented an important collection of Malay manuscripts.
Hundreds of charts had been brought back to be prepared for the engraver along with descriptions of landmarks, harbors, provisions to be obtained, and the attitude of natives. In fact, four years of hard and perilous work, research, investigations, and explorations, enough to fill some 20 printed volumes besides many manuscripts, lay behind the voyage.
During the years of its absence reports of the expedition’s explorations along with portions of the collections that were being made had found their way back to Washington in sufficient volume to keep public interest alive. Although there were those who endeavored to detract from the undertaking and some of its officers, now that it had returned undoubtedly stories and rumors traveled like wildfire through the city of Washington. The glamour of the South Seas clung about the heads and shoulders of the returning explorers. Aside from their contributions to science and discovery, their investigations were to add immeasurably to our knowledge of navigation, commerce, and the whaling industry. But perhaps most important of all, in spite of a slow start the expedition and its attendant success had roused a feeling of pride on the part of Americans, and of increased respect on the part of others.
Undoubtedly these stories and rumors reached the ears of the statesmen on Capitol Hill even before many of the official reports were received. The interest thus raised was sufficiently keen that before the month of June was up it was arranged to place the plants on exhibit in the so-called National Gallery on an upper floor of the old Patent Office. This building now forms a part of the structure housing the Civil Service Commission in Washington.
At the same time Congress, with a speed that seems somewhat astonishing, even in these days, and which can only be explained by the fact that the members of the Senate and House were measurably impressed by the accomplishments of the expedition, voted an appropriation for the construction of a series of greenhouses on the lot behind the Patent Office so that the collection of plants might be more fittingly housed. Mr. W. D. Brackenridge, who had accompanied the expedition as horticulturist, fell naturally into the job of caring for and supervising the collection and propagating the seeds and cuttings, acting under the Commissioner of Patents who was in general charge.
Thus the United States Botanic Garden of today, lying at the foot of the western slope of Capitol Hill and housing many fine and rare collections, the Mecca of thousands of visitors to Washington, traces its origin directly to the United States Navy and those intrepid seamen and scientists who, a century ago, were willing to forego the comforts of a berth at home for four years of perilous explorations in unknown lands and seas.