American Horticultural Society History
American Horticultural Society (AHS) and National Horticultural Society (NHS) founded in Washington, D.C., and Henning, Minnesota, respectively. The first edition of The National Horticultural Magazine was published in August. These two organizations would merge four years later into the American Horticultural Society.
The first American Horticultural Congress—a precursor to AHS’s annual conference—was held in Cleveland, Ohio. This meeting also launched “United Horticulture” which came to fruition under the auspices of the American Horticultural Council (AHC), a group affiliated with the AHS. The keynote address was delivered by renowned Cornell University horticulturist Liberty…Read More
AHS hosts the first Children’s Gardening Symposium (later renamed the National Children & Youth Garden Symposium), held in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The symposium was organized by AHS Education Coordinator Maureen Heffernan, and sponsored by the W. Atlee Burpee Company. A series of designed children’s gardens is created at River Farm.
How We Got Started
AS THE American Horticultural Society enters its 100th year, it’s instructive to place the organization’s founding in some historical context. In 1922, insulin was first successfully used to treat diabetes; Benito Mussolini became prime minister of Italy; the Egyptian tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun was opened by British archaeologists; James Joyce’s masterpiece Ulysses was published; and U.S. President Warren G. Harding made the first ever presidential speech broadcast on radio.
It was in this period between the two great wars and prior to the Great Depression that two separate groups of idealistic gardeners— both professionals and amateurs—came together to form an organization dedicated to improving horticulture in America both as a science and an art form. The originating organizations were the American Horticultural Society (AHS) and the National Horticultural Society (NHS), which were founded the same year in Washington, D.C., and Henning, Minnesota, respectively. Continue reading for more of the AHS story.