John Bartram
| John Bartram | |
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John Bartram by Howard Pyle
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| Born | March 23, 1699 Darby, Pennsylvania Colony |
| Died | September 22, 1777 (aged 78) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Colony |
| Resting place | Darby Friends Cemetery, Darby, Pennsylvania |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | botanist |
John Bartram (March 23, 1699 – September 22, 1777) was an early American botanist, horticulturist and explorer. Carl Linnaeus said he was the "greatest natural botanist in the world."
Bartram was born into a Quaker farm family in colonial Pennsylvania. He considered himself a plain farmer, with no formal education beyond the local school. He had a lifelong interest in medicine and medicinal plants, and read widely. His botanical career started with a small area of his farm devoted to growing plants he found interesting; later he made contact with European botanists and gardeners interested in North American plants, and developed his hobby into a thriving business.
He came to travel extensively in the eastern American colonies collecting plants. In 1743 he visited the shores of Lake Ontario in the north, and wrote Observations on the Inhabitants, Climate, Soil, Rivers, Productions, Animals, and other Matters Worthy of Notice, made by Mr. John Bartram in his Travels from Pennsylvania to Onondaga, Oswego, and the Lake Ontario, in Canada (London, 1751). During the winter of 1765/66 he visited East Florida in the south, and an account of this trip was published with his journal (London, 1766). He also visited the Ohio River in the west. Many of his acquisitions were transported to collectors in Europe. In return, they supplied him with books and apparatus.
Bartram, sometimes called the "father of American Botany", was one of the first practicing Linnaean botanists in North America. His plant specimens were forwarded to Linnaeus, Dillenius and Gronovius, and he assisted Linnaeus' student Pehr Kalm during his extended collecting trip to North America in 1748–1750.
Bartram was aided in his collecting efforts by colonists. In Bartram's Diary of a Journey through the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida, a trip taken from July 1, 1765, to April 10, 1766, Bartram wrote of specimens he had collected. In the colony of British East Florida he was helped by Dr. David Yeats, secretary of the colony.
His 8-acre (32,000 m2) botanic garden, Bartram's Garden in Kingsessing on the west bank of the Schuylkill, about 3 miles (5 km) from the center of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is frequently cited as the first true botanic collection in North America. He was one of the co-founders, with Benjamin Franklin, of the American Philosophical Society in 1743.
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