SOURCE: Silver, Bruce. “William Bartram's and Other Eighteenth-Century Accounts of Nature.” Journal of the History of Ideas 39, no. 4 (1978): 597-614.

In the following essay, Silver argues that critics have overlooked the contribution of Bartram to the naturalist literary tradition. Also investigated is how the Travels characterize the natural world.

Despite the intellectual productivity of our Bicentennial year, too little was said about colonial Americans whose contributions to our culture were not tied to the decision and struggle for independence. William Bartram (1739-1823), the apolitical son of the Quaker botanist John Bartram (1699-1777), is among those who have been neglected.¹ Bartram's significance as a naturalist and amateur scientist is a matter of record.² He learned about plants from his father and from working with him in their garden on the banks of the Schuylkill river. The combination of William Bartram's botanical knowledge, his talents as an artist - naturalist, and...