Botanist

Philadelphia.

John Bartram was a farmer who, because of his interests in botany and his tireless fieldwork, became one of America's finest naturalists. Bartram was a simple Quaker who lived at the outskirts of Philadelphia, the scientific center of the middle colonies. Open to new ideas, he allowed some of the greatest minds of the eighteenth century to guide his scientific research. He was friends with the Philadelphia scientists Benjamin Franklin and Joseph Breintnall. James Logan, one of the most influential Philadelphia sponsors of science, introduced Bartram to Latin, the medium of scientific correspondence. Logan loaned science books to Bartram, helped him master the microscope, and turned his attention to the great Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus. Bartram was never a great thinker but rather was an active fieldworker who traveled thousands of miles throughout America collecting specimens of plant life.

Journeys.

There were few...