Ashmolean Museum
John Tradescant
the Elder
attrib. Cornelius de Neve
Portraits
John Tradescant the Elder (c.1577 - 1638) became, in 1609, gardener to Robert Cecil, the first Lord Salisbury, at Hatfield House in Hertfordshire. He worked subsequently for the Duke of Buckingham at New Hall in Essex. After the Duke's assassination John Tradescant became gardener to King Charles 1 and Queen Henrietta Maria (known as the Rose and Lily Queen).He moved to Lambeth, in London, where he propagated the plants, flowers and trees he had brought in for his various patrons and exhibited his 'rarities' in his house, which was known as 'The Ark', and which became the first museum in England open to the public.
John
Tradescant the Younger (1608-1662) followed in his father's footsteps
as Royal Gardener. He travelled three times to Virginia (1637, 1642 and
1654) to collect plants and 'all manner of curiosities' for the garden and
the Tradescant 'museum' at his house in Lambeth. John Tradescant made over
the 'Closett of Rarities' to Elias Ashmole in 1659.
Ashmolean Museum
Elias Ashmole (1617 - 1692) helped John Tradescant the Younger
to catalogue his father's collection (to which he had added extensively).
The Musaeum Tradescantianum was published in 1656. After the death
of John Tradescant the Younger, and with the Tradescant collection at
its heart, Ashmole founded the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. It was housed
in a building designed by Sir Christopher Wren. Now the Museum of the
History of Science, it still stands, next to the Sheldonian Theatre.
Ashmolean Museum
Hester Tradescant - attrib. Thomas De Critz 1645Hester Pooks was John Tradescant the Younger's second wife. She is pictured with her stepson John Tradescant the Third who died at 19. After her husband's death she was embroiled in dispute with Elias Ashmole over the fate of the Tradescant Collection. The matter was resolved when she was found drowned in her garden pond.
Ashmolean Museum
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