artram’s final years were not without importance, however. In 1768 he was made a member of the American Philosophical Society,(62) and in 1812 he was elected to the newly formed Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.(63) Bartram’s generosity and willingness to share information earned him the affection and respect of all who knew him.
Benjamin Smith Barton (1766–1815), often considered the first academic botanist in America (and a member of both of the organizations mentioned above), spent a considerable amount of time in Bartram’s garden studying the plants there and consulting with William. When he published the first American botanical textbook, The Elements of Botany, in 1803, he acknowledged Bartram’s aid in illustrating the book. He then added the following tribute:
“While I thus publically return my thanks to this ingenious naturalist [Bartram} for his kind liberality in enriching my work, I sincerely rejoice to have an opportunity of declaring how much of my happiness in the study of natural history has been owing to my acquaintance with him; how often I have availed myself of his knowledge in the investigation of the natural productions of our native country…”(64)
Physical evidence of Barton’s dependence on Bartram’s botanical garden survives in the form of herbarium sheets from Barton’s collection now at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, while extensive correspondence between the two men is preserved in the library of the American Philosophical Society.(65)
Thomas Nuttall (1786–1859), the botanist who went on to serve as instructor of natural history and botany at Harvard(66) and attain fame as a collector of plants in the Rocky Mountains and on the Pacific coast, received much of his early education in plant identification from Benjamin Smith Barton and William Bartram.(67)
Other notable naturalists called on William Bartram: French botanist Andre Michaux (1746–1802), and his son Francois (1770–1855; author of North American Sylva, 1810), are both known to have made frequent visits to the botanical garden at Kingsessing, (the latter even living with Bartram for a short period in 1807).(68) Botanists Frederick Pursh (1774–1820) and Gotthilf Henry Muhlenberg (1753–1815); naturalist Constantine Rafinesque (1783–1840); and countless foreign visitors of note, all made the trip to Kingsessing to consult with the sage of American naturalists.(69) Explorer Alexander von Humboldt, who met Bartram at a dinner at Charles Willson Peale’s Philadelphia Museum in 1805, may also have paid him a visit, but unfortunately, no evidence of such a trip is known to exist.(70)
The two naturalists whose lives were most directly influenced by William Bartram’s wealth of knowledge and generous proclivity toward sharing were Alexander Wilson (1766–1813) and Thomas Say (1787–1834). That neither was a botanist gives some idea of the scope of Bartram’s interests.
Alexander Wilson, a Scottish immigrant who began his career as a school teacher in Gray’s Ferry, not far from Bartram’s garden, was probably Bartram’s best known student. Often called the father of American ornithology, Wilson would almost certainly never have achieved his preeminence in the field without Bartram’s help.
Prior to the publication of Bartram’s Travels, the only authors to deal with American birds in a scientific way were Europeans, [most notably: Rev. John Clayton (1657–1725); Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1752); Mark Catesby (1679–1749) and George Edwards (1684–1773), all of whom had received much of their information from the Bartrams].(71) It is not surprising, therefore, that at the time of Wilson’s arrival, William Bartram was generally considered the most knowledgeable ornithologist in the United States. Not only was his list of 215 bird species (published in the Travels) the largest of its kind, it was also the most complete, for it was accompanied by extensive observations on migration, song, nesting and other habits not previously discussed.(72)
Intrigued by his famous neighbor’s accounts of bird behavior and beautiful bird drawings, Alexander Wilson asked Bartram to help him learn to identify—and later to depict—the local birds of Pennsylvania. In 1803, Wilson wrote in a letter to William Bartram: “I am sending for your amusement a few attempts at some of our indigenous birds… I have not got my collection of native birds considerably enlarged and shall endeavor if possible to obtain all the smaller ones this summer. Be pleased to mark the names of each with a pencil as, except three or four, I do not know them.”(73)
Bartram’s advice, praise and generous contribution of specimens so encouraged Wilson that the Scotsman soon expanded his vision of creating a catalog of local birds to one of producing an illustrated book on American ornithology. Wilson frequently acknowledged his debt to Bartram:
“[My pictures] may yet tell posterity that I was honored with your friendship and that to your inspiration they owe their existence.,"
he wrote Bartram in 1805.(74)
American Ornithology or The Natural History of the Birds of the United States, first published in 1808, eventually expanded to seven volumes and proved to be the most definitive work on American ornithology prior to John James Audubon. Wilson included many of William Bartram’s ornithological observations and cited entire sections of Bartram’s Travels.
Thomas Say, Bartram’s great-nephew, is generally considered the father of American conchology (the study of shells) and entomology (the study of insects) because of his important pioneering studies in both fields.(75) There is no doubt these were encouraged by William Bartram, who had dealt with both subjects in a cursory fashion in his own publications. In an 1818 expedition to Florida, Say, William Maclure (the father of American geology and the president of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia), George Ord (author of American Zoology) and Titian R. Peale (son of artist/collector Charles Willson Peale) retraced Bartram’s travels.(76) Ironically, because of the rules of nomenclature, several of the insects and shells Bartram described and illustrated on his four-year southern trip are credited to Thomas Say, who first accurately named them in the scientifically recognized publications of the Academy of Natural Sciences. It is indeed likely that Bartram shared his great-nephew’s pride in rediscovery and publication.
62. Fagin, William Bartram, Interpreter, op. cit., p. 25, based on records of the American Philosophical Society.
63. A letter from Secretary C. M. Mann dated December 17, 1812, informed Bartram of his election to membership. The original is in the Bartram Papers of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
64. Benjamin Smith Barton, Elements of Botany, Philadelphia, 1803. Introduction.
65. A definitive biography of Benjamin Smith Barton by Dr. Joseph Ewan of Tulane University is presently in its final stages of completion. It will discuss the controversial relationship between Barton and Bartram.
66. Nuttall succeeded William Dandridge Peck (1763–1822) as curator of Harvard’s Botanic Garden in 1822 but did not assume Peck’s title as a full professor. For an explanation, see: Kastner, A Species of Eternity, op. cit., pp. 272–274.
67. Harper, Naturalist’s Edition, op. cit., p. xxxiv. For a definitive biography of Thomas Nuttall, see Jeanette Graustein, Thomas Nuttall, Naturalist, Cambridge, 1967.
68. Ewan, Bartram Drawings, op. cit., p. 42.
69. See Earnest, John and William Bartram, op. cit.; Harper, Naturalist’s Edition, op. cit.; Darlington, Memorials, op. cit., and Ewan, Bartram Drawings, op. cit.
70. For a discussion of this possibility, see Ewan, Bartram Drawings, op. cit., p. 41.
71. For an excellent discussion of Ornithology in America, see: Elsa Guerdrum Allen, “The History of American Ornithology Before Audubon,” Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 41, part 3, 1951.
72. So important was Bartram’s Travels in the history of ornithology that Elliott Coues (1842–1899) identified it as “the starting point of a distinctly American school of ornithology.” See Elliott Coues, Key to North American Birds, New York, 1887. Elsa Allen says Bartram “merits the position of the first scientific American Ornithologist” because of his pioneering research on bird migration. See Allen, op. cit. See also: “Bartram’s Diary,” Gardeners’ Monthly and Horticulturist, XI, May 1869, pp. 132–133; and Witmer Stone, “Bird Migration Records of William Bartram, 1802–1822.” Auk: A Quarterly Journal of Ornithology, XXX (July 1913), pp. 325–358.
73. Frank N. Egerton, “Notes Chiefly on the Plates of Wilson’s American Ornithology,” Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History, Vol. 4, part 2, January 1963, p.126. Cited in Helen Cruickshank, “William Bartram’s Contribution to American Ornithology,” Bartram Trail Conference Technical Study, 1978, p. 14.
74. Kaster, A Species of Eternity, op. cit., p. 168. For two excellent biographies of Alexander Wilson, see: Robert Cantwell, Alexander Wilson, Naturalist and Pioneer, Philadelphia 1961; and Emerson Stringham, Alexander Wilson, A Founder of Scientific Ornithology, Kerrsville, 1958.
75. See: Wayne Hanley, Natural History in America, New York, 1977; Charlotte M. Porter, “The Excursive Naturalists,” unpublished Doctorate Thesis, Harvard University, 1976; Arnold Mallis, American Entomologists, Rutgers, 1971; R. Tucker Abbott, American Malacologists...
76. Ewan, Bartram Drawings, op. cit., p. 43; and Porter, “Excursive Naturalists,” op. cit.; also see: Harry Weiss and Grace Ziegler, Thomas Say—Early American Naturalist, Springfield, Illinois, 1931.
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