SOURCE: Moore, L. Hugh. “The Aesthetic Theory of William Bartram.” Essays in Arts and Sciences 12, no. 1 (March 1983): 17-35.

In the following essay, Moore argues that Bartram is a prime example of a writer trying to describe nature within the context of eighteenth-century aesthetic theory.

From its publication in 1791, William Bartram's Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida has been praised for its scientific and literary merit. Francis Harper and Joseph Ewan, among others, have demonstrated the value of Bartram's contributions to zoology, botany, and ethnology, the precision of his observations, and the logic of his speculations. Harper, for example, verified the combat and bellowing of alligators from his own observations.¹ Bartram's list of birds is the most complete prior to Alexander Wilson's, whom he tutored. The Travels, according to Witmer Stone, is “The first ornithological contribution worthy of the name written by a native...