When internationally renowned Downingtown artist Adrian Martinez took a recent stroll through the woods of history, he walked back in time to parts of Chester County as they were in the late 18th century, and he has returned to paint vivid portrayals of what he saw — and who he met.

In a show coming to the Chester County Historical Society Nov. 8 titled “Adrian Martinez Presents the Visionary World of Humphry Marshall 1750-1800,” Martinez aims to unearth the forgotten botanical world of Humphry Marshall, the patriarch of America’s second botanical garden in West Bradford Township’s community of Marshallton and namesake for West Chester’s Marshall Square Park.

“Those attending will see history unfold through the eyes of an artist!” Martinez said. “This show depicts what happens when history collides with art.”

A dozen of the artist’s paintings will put on display the fruition of much investigation into the papers written by Marshall, as well as his home and other related sites, all of which was partially inspired by a mutual interest shared between Martinez and former CCHS President Rob Lukens.

“Rob encouraged me,” Martinez said. “He’d see me in the research library and said I was going through papers that scholars visiting the historical society had not reviewed. Rob felt Marshall had fallen through the cracks of history.”

A tree- and shrub-cataloging Quaker farmer related to noted botanists John and William Bartram, Marshall published “Arbustrum Americanum: the American Grove, an Alphabetical Catalogue of Forest Trees and Shrubs, Natives of the American United States” and became known as the father of American dendrology — the scientific study of trees.

“I felt I was making discoveries about a historical figure,” Martinez added. “The information was there in plain sight, not hidden. Some of his writing sheds light and contradicts some of today’s accepted history. Marshall interacted with many noted individuals of the time, including Ben Franklin and Indian Hannah of the Leni Lenape tribe. Humphrey grew up with native Americans.”

He even caught glimpses of the very leaves that Marshall dedicated his life to.

“I had a number of delightful surprises while doing my research,” he said. “I remember opening one of Humphry Marshall’s journals at the historical society and finding a little plant Marshall had placed between two of the pages. He also did a personalized sketch of the plant.”

Read more about Martinez’s involvement in the local arts scene in previous VISTA Today coverage here, and take another step into his recreation of the world of Humphry Marshall here.