Pehr Kalm’s Journey to North America 
By Adolph Burnett Benson 
About 1745 the Swedish Academy of Sciences decided to send a 
representative to America to gather seeds of new herbs and plants 
hardy enough to* thrive on Swedish soil. The successful candidate 
for this mission was Pehr Ivalm, a scholar of undisputed ability and 
diplomacy, a pupil of Linne. The fact that he was the first botanist, 
if not the first scientist, of any nationality to conduct comprehensive 
studies in the Colonial settlements has prompted this brief article 
about his work. 
Possessing initiative enough to adapt himself to the changing cir¬ 
cumstances of the journey, Kahn proved to be the right man for the 
undertaking. Nothing worth seeing escaped his eye, and the printed 
record of his trip, En resa 
till Norra America (A 
Journey to North Amer¬ 
ica) became an authorita¬ 
tive source of Colonial 
information for all Eu¬ 
rope. It was written in 
the form of a semi- 
popular diary, with a 
scholarly index and me¬ 
teorological tables, and 
was ultimately translated 
into English, Dutch, Ger¬ 
man, and French. Be¬ 
sides this, his more minute 
studies of the flora and 
fauna of our land were 
embodied in a large num¬ 
ber of treatises and mono¬ 
graphs in Swedish and 
Latin dealing with indi¬ 
vidual specimens, many of 
which were read by all the 
savants of Europe. Any 
up to date work on Amer¬ 
ican Colonial history will 
quote Pehr Ivalm as a re¬ 
liable authority. Inciden¬ 
tally, as a tribute to the 
success of his botanical in- 
lorra America, 
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10 . 
Title Page of Pehr Kalm’s Book ok America 
