William Bartram

William Bartram ( born April 20, 1739 Kingsessing, Pennsylvania (now part of Philadelphia ); † July 22, 1823 ) was an American naturalist. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " W.Bartram ".

Life

William Bartram was the son of John Bartram. He accompanied his father on many of his trips to the Catskill Mountains and to Florida. From a young age he was known for the quality of the drawings which he created from the collecting pieces of his father. He also worked with more and more in the care of his father's show garden and contributed a number of rare plants in this.

In 1773 he set out alone on a four-year journey through eight southern colonies. He made many drawings and notes on the out native flora and fauna and the Indians. Another expedition through Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas dragged on for most of the 1780s. On this journey he presented the complete list at that time American birds together.

After his return in 1791 Bartram published his journal under the title Traveling through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, etc.. Was viewed at the time as the leading work on the American natural history. In addition to his contributions to scientific knowledge the work is famous for its faithfulness to the original descriptions of the American landscape. It influenced many romantic writers of that time: We know of William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge, that they read the book, and his influence is felt in many of their works.

1802 Bartram met the teacher Alexander Wilson and earned him the rudiments of Ornithology at. Wilson's ' American Ornithology ' contains many references to Bartram and the area around Bartram's Gardens.

For most of the last decades of his life spent with Bartram quiet work at his house and garden in Kingsessing. Various offers to teach botany, he declined the offer as well as how to participate in the Lewis and Clark Expedition ( 1804-1806 ).

He died aged 84 at his home.

After Bartram named taxa

In his honor, the genera Bartramia and Bartramidula were named, both from the plant family of Bartramiaceae.

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