Travels, and Other Writing

by Bartram, William

• ISBN13: 9781883011116
• ISBN10: 1883011116
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1996-03-01
• Publisher: Library of America

Summary

Artist, writer, botanist, gardener, naturalist, intrepid wilderness explorer, and self-styled "philosophical pilgrim," William Bartram (1739-1823) was an extraordinary figure in eighteenth-century American life. The first American to devote his entire life to what we would now call the environment, Bartram was the most significant American nature writer before Thoreau and a nature artist who rivals Audubon. He was also a pioneering ethnographer whose works are a crucial source for the study of the Indian cultures of southeastern America. Here is the first collection of his writings and the largest gathering of his remarkable drawings ever published.
Long recognized as an American classic, Bartram's Travels Through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida (1791) recounts his journeys through the wilderness from 1773 to 1776 in prose famous for its celebratory intensity and lyrical profusion. In the forests, rivers, swamps, and savannahs of the South, Bartram collected botanical specimens and made wildlife drawings, observing the natural abundance around him with a vision shaped by both science and Quaker spirituality.
Also included is the sparer and more factual original report of Bartram's southern travels that he sent to his English patron, John Fothergill, as well as a comprehensive collection of his scientific and ethnographic papers. Some of the most beautiful are reproduced in full color. Extensive notes, a glossary of botanical terms, a newly researched chronology of Bartram's life, a map tracing the route of his travels, and an index help guide the reader.

Table of Contents

Travels Through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogulges or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Chactaws	p. 3
Travels in Georgia and Florida 1773-74: A Report to Dr. John Fothergill	p. 427
Observations on the Creek and Cherokee Indians	p. 527
Account of the Species, Hybrids, and Other Varieties of the Vine of North-America	p. 568
Anecdotes of an American Crow	p. 573
Some Account of the Late Mr. John Bartram, of Pennsylvania	p. 577
Description of an American Species of Certhia, or Creeper	p. 582
Conjectures Relative to the Scite of Bristol, in Pennsylvania	p. 584
Preface to A Catalogue of Trees, Shrubs, and Herbaceous Plants, Indigenous to the United States of America	p. 585
Observations on the Pea Fly or Beetle, and Fruit Curculio	p. 588
Chronology	p. 595
Map: Travels of William Bartram, 1773-77	p. 608
Note on the Texts	p. 610
Notes	p. 614
Glossary	p. 639
Index	p. 691
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