Massachusetts Horticultural Society’s wonderful library collection of prints allow us to see some of the early society members’ horticultural endeavors. Three of these fruits appear in the Wellesley Farmers’ Market logo.

General H. A. Dearborn, our first president, fought in the war of 1812 and had an orchard where the Mission Church now stands in Roxbury and he cultivated the Dearborn Pear.

The Williams Apple, introduced by A. D. Williams, originated in a part of Roxbury called Canterbury.

Ephraim Bull developed the Concord Grape. One of the chief aims of horticulture in mid-19th century America was to produce a grape that could thrive in the harsh climate and sandy soil of the northeast and to appear earlier in the summer than the favorite New England grapes. Mr. Bull did just that, cultivating a grape that ripened a full two weeks before other New England varieties. In 1873, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society gave him a lifetime achievement award for the Concord grape, which was proven to be universally adapted to general cultivation throughout the United States.