Some Early American Ornithologists 



III. BENJAMIN SMITH BARTON 

 By WITMER STONE 



BIRD -STUDY has been the hobby and pastime of many kinds of men. 

 Some have made it their life-work and sacrificed everything to its 

 pursuit, while others have reserved it for moments of relaxation from 

 the cares of business. Some of our ornithologists have possessed an inborn 

 love of nature but little or no education, while others have been scholars 

 of broad learning and marked literary attainments. 



The first of the latter type to figure in the history of American orni- 

 thology was Benjamin Smith Barton, a Philadelphian and an associate of 

 William Bartram, though the difference in their ages placed the latter more 

 in the light of a teacher than of a fellow student. 



Barton was born in 1766, at Lancaster, Pa., the son of Rev. 

 Thomas Barton, from whom he inherited, in some degree at least, his love 

 of nature. His mother came, also, of a scientific family, being the sister of 

 the famous astronomer, David Rittenhouse. 



Young Barton was left an orphan at the age of fourteen, and removed to 

 Philadelphia, to the home of his elder brother. He studied for a time at the 

 College of Philadelphia, and then turned his attention to medicine, under 

 the guidance of Dr. William Shippen, and later completed his education at 

 Edinburgh and Gottingen. He returned home in 1789 and practised medi- 

 cine in Philadelphia, where he was shortly elected to fill the recently cre- 

 ated professorship of botany and natural history at the University of 

 Pennsylvania, apparently the first of its kind in America. His reputation as 

 a physician increased rapidly, and he was chosen professor of materia medica, 

 at the university. His health, however, had never been good, and the con- 

 stant application to his profession and his studies weakened his constitution 

 to such an extent that he was compelled to take a sea voyage to France. 

 This, however, proved of little benefit, and soon after his return, in the 

 year 1815, his career came to an end. 



Such is an outline of the man's life as the world saw it, but there was 

 another side that commands our interest. From early life Barton was a 

 student; he seems to have read all the principal works on natural history, 

 while he spent much time in original investigation. In 1785, as a mem- 

 ber of the commission to survey the western boundary of Pennsylvania, he 

 made personal acquaintance with the Indians, and their history and ways 

 of living constituted a favorite subject for future study. Botany, however, 

 was Barton's chief pursuit, and most of his contributions to natural history 

 were in this field, while his name is fittingly perpetuated in that of one of 

 our most delicate wild flowers, Bartonia virginica. 



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