17 



WILLIAM BARTRAM 



William Bartram, botanist, was born in Kingsessing, 

 Pennsylvania, February 9, 1739, and died there July 22, 

 1823. He engaged in business in Philadelphia, and after- 

 ward in North Carolina. In 1765 he accompanied his 

 father to Florida, and remained on the St John's River 

 for several years cultivating indigo. In 1771 he returned 

 to his father's home and devoted his attention to botany, 

 a love for which he had inherited. He was very fortunate 

 in having at his command the services of so eminent a 

 botanist as his father, John Bartram, and he makes the 

 following acknowledgment of the fact in the introduction 

 to one of his most important works, "from the advantages 

 the journalist enjoyed under his father, John Bartram, 

 botanist to the King of Great Britain, and fellow of the 

 Royal Society, it is hoped that his labors will present new 

 as well as useful information to the botanist and the zool- 

 ogist." 



From 1773 till 1778 he traveled through the Carolinas, 

 Georgia and Florida to examine their natural products and 

 he made many drawings of the specimens he collected. 

 An account of his experiences while on this trip was pub- 

 Hshed under the title, "Travels Through North and South 

 Carolina, Georgia and East and West Florida, the Chero- 

 kee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogulges 

 or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Choctaws. 

 Containing an Account of the Soil and Natural Productions, 

 of those Regions, together with Observations on the Man- 

 ners of the Indians." A copy of the second edition of this 

 work, published in London, 1794, is to be found in the li- 

 brary of the University of South Carolina. The first edi- 

 tion was published in Philadelphia in 1791. The opening 

 lines of the first chapter give us in his own words the 

 motives which prompted him to take this trip: "At the 

 request of Fothergill, of London, to search the Floridas 



