Abstract
THE son of John Bartram, botanist to His Majesty for the Floridas, William Bartram (1739–1823) shared his father's interest in Nature, and in 1773–74 carried out an extensive survey in Georgia and Florida. The results of his "Travels" he communicated in two manuscript volumes to his patron, Dr. John Fothergill, an Edinburgh medical graduate who had settled, and made a fortune, in London. After the death of Fothergill, the manuscripts came into the possession of Sir Joseph Banks, and they are now in the library of the British Museum (Natural History). Through the generosity of the American Philosophical Society and the John Bartram Association, this interesting record, thoroughly annotated by Francis Harper, has just been published (Trans. Atner. Phil. Soc., N.S., 33, 121; Nov. 1943). It gives a picture of the primeval wilderness of the south-east of North America, of the beauties of scenery and the wonders of plants and animals, of the Creek, Cherokee and Seminole Indians, until then largely unspoilt by the 'civilization' of white men. It is true that many of the wonders described by Bartram were regarded with scepticism in later years by those whose authority gave them some claim to pronounce judgment; but it is one of the gratifying features of the investigations of Mr. Harper, who followed the Bartram trails over some ten thousand miles, that the authorities have been confounded and Bartram's accuracy vindicated, even in the much-disputed matters of the painted vulture of Florida and the bellowings of the alligators of St. John's, Florida, so circumstantially figured in the traveller's drawing, reproduced as Plate xiv in this paper.
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William Bartram of Philadelphia: Naturalist and Traveller. Nature 153, 648 (1944). https://doi.org/10.1038/153648b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/153648b0