Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
May 22, 1817
Primary Source Reference:
Peale Museum Accessions Book, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, p. 85
Notes:
Urtica is a genus of flowering plants in the family Urticaceae. Many species have stinging hairs and may be called nettles or stinging nettles.
Charles Whitlow (Whitlaw) was a botanist and inventor who came to America from Great Britain in 1794. By 1809 he was a nurseryman in New York City, selling shrubs and fruit trees imported from London. He claimed to have discovered a new species of Urtica (the witlowi), the fibers of which were considered a superior substitute for hemp. He recceived a patent in 1815 for "working manufactures for certain plants of the genuses Urtica and Ascelpias." Jefferson Papers, Founders Online, National Archives / https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-04-02-0333 ; J. Leander Bishop, A History of American Manufactures from 1608 to 1860, 2 vols. (Philadelphia, 1868), 2: 181-182
