Mulford B. Foster

Mulford Bateman Foster was a botanist known by many as the 'Father of the Bromeliad' as he was instrumental in the discovery and introduction of many new species of Bromeliad to the United States. He also devoted his life to hybridizing and contributed widely to the knowledge of the plant species. He was a man of many talents including naturalist, explorer, writer, photographer, artist, horticulturist and a well-respected landscape architect in Florida. Numerous bromeliad plants found today are named after various Foster family members and the genus Fosterella is named in honor of his work.


He was born in Elmer, New Jersey to Samuel Preston Foster, Editor of the Elmer Times and Fannie Bateman a housewife with a green thumb and artistic leanings. He grew up exploring the woods around his New Jersey home under the guidance of his mother. With her inspiration, Mulford grew up making his own small gardens with the wild plants that he had gathered. He eventually started collecting snakes, lizards and other reptiles whenever he could. He attended school and graduated in 1905 as salutatorian from Elmer High School spending his free time out of doors.


Mulford's father encouraged him to become educated in business, being concerned that his love of nature would not be profitable. To satisfy this urging, he attended and graduated from a Philadelphia business school. He worked for 5 years in the top 2 Philadelphia banks during this training and in the year following graduation. In 1910 he decided to leave Philadelphia and took a job with his father's newspaper as Associate Editor back in Elmer, NJ. but within a year, he was back in Philadelphia.


After his 1911 marriage he and his wife purchased land north of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania at Cold Springs. It was a large tract of land. Mulford and Fridel lived in a multi-story home with the basement and an outbuilding devoted to his snakes. It was remote, connected to services only by a train with a depot near their house and walking path. He had plans of refurbishing one of the old farmhouses on the property although this never transpired. According to historians the farmhouse likely burned down sometime in 1919 and the family left Cold Springs sometime after this. During his years at Cold Springs Mulford kept busy on the property developing the former hotel grounds, growing an orchard, raising fruits and vegetables, his reptiles and squab as well as involved in some fashion with the bottling and selling of the spring water which came from underground sources. In Mulford's time, the collected spring water and squab would eventually find their way to tables as far away as Harrisburg and Philadelphia. Additional information has been collected on the Cold Springs inhabitants of the early 1900s including the Fosters and can be found in the book Cold Spring Hotel Site.


Mulford also worked elsewhere for extra money. He worked as a camp Naturalist and instructor for Camp Kenebec in Maine where he would go in mid-summer. In the winter he lectured to schools, colleges and Boy Scout groups as well as the YMCA. He was already renowned as both a Naturalist and lecturer. The New Jersey State Board of Agriculture had realized the value of his work and arranged to send him on a lecture tour around the state to discuss the value of snakes, lizards and turtles at the Farmer's Institutes held at the various counties during the winter shortly after his marriage. He was known to many as the 'Snake Man' having specialized in the reptiles and for that matter all forms of nature for many years. He was a charismatic speaker and always pleased his audiences with his enthusiasm and accentuation of humorous and interesting facts. Newspaper articles stated that he had in his possession the largest private collection of living reptiles in the state.


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