GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
FRIEND JOHN BARTRAM
America’s first systematic plant hunter was John Bartram, born in Darby PA in 1699. His mother died when he was two. His father William Bartram remarried and moved to North Carolina, leaving John in Philadelphia with his grandmother. He would inherit her farm. In 1723 he married Mary Maris and they had two children before she died four years later. In 1728 John bought land on the Schuylkill River at Kingsessing, then about three miles from Philadelphia. You can visit this house as it is a house museum. The garden there is considered to be America’s 1st botanic garden, even though actually it wasn’t. Bartram died in 1777 and this was published by his son William Bartram in 1804: “Mr. Bartram was a man of modest and gentle manners, frank, cheerful, and of great good-nature; a lover of justice, truth, and charity. He was himself an example of filial, conjugal, and parental affection. His humanity, gentleness, and compassion were manifested upon all occasions, and were even extended to the animal creation. He was never known to have been at enmity with any man.”
“NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY
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1699
May 23, Tuesday (Old Style)Friend John Bartram, America’s first white botanist, was born in Darby, Pennsylvania. BOTANIZING
On the following screens is how John F. Watson’s ANNALS OF PHILADELPHIA AND PENNSYLVANIA1 would sum up this Friend’s life:
1. Watson, John Fanning. WATSON’S ANNALS OF PHILADELPHIA AND PENNSYLVANIA, A COLLECTION OF MEMOIRS, ANECDOTES, AND INCIDENTS OF THE CITY AND ITS INHABITANTS AND OF THE EARLIEST SETTLEMENTS OF THE INLAND PART OF PENNSYLVANIA FROM THE DAYS OF THE FOUNDERS INTENDED TO PRESERVE THE RECOLLECTIONS OF OLDEN TIME, AND TO EXHIBIT SOCIETY IN ITS CHANGES OF MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, AND THE CITY AND COUNTRY IN THEIR LOCAL CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS. Written between 1830 and 1850, published 1857 HDT WHAT? INDEX
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John Bartram was a most accurate observer of nature, and one of the first botanists this country ever produced, a self-taught genius, whom Linnæus called “the greatest natural botanist in the world.” He seated himself on the bank of the Schuylkill, below Gray’s Ferry, where he built a comfortable stone house and formed his botanic garden, in which there still remain some of the most rare and curious specimens of our plants and trees, collected by him in Florida, Canada, &c. The garden is still kept up with much skill by Colonel Carr, who married his granddaughter, and is always worthy of a visit. He enjoyed, for many years preceding the Revolution, a salary as botanist to the royal family in England. In the year 1741, a subscription was made, to enable him to travel through Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, to observe and collect plants and fossils. In 1729, James Logan, in a letter to his friend in England, thus writes respecting him, saying, “Please to procure me Parkinson’s Herbal; I shall make it a present to a worthy person, worthy of a heavier purse than fortune has yet allowed him. John Bartram has a genius perfectly well turned for botany; no man in these parts is so capable of serving you, but none can worse bear the loss of his time without a due consideration.” Hector St. John, of Carlisle, has left a picturesque description of things seen and observed of John Bartram and his garden, &c., as they appeared on a visit made to him before the Revolution. There Mr. Bartram, with his visiter, his family and slaves, all sat down to one large table, well stored with wholesome fare. The blacks were placed at the foot — the guest near the host; there was kindness from the master to them, and in return they gave him affection and fidelity. The whole group and manner reminds one of the patriarchal manner of the Old Testament. Some whom he freed still chose to remain with him until their death. Bartram described his low grounds as at first a putrid swampy soil, which he succeeded to reclaim by draining and ditching. {This was then deemed a novel experiment, the first then made in our country. He also led waters from higher grounds through his higher lands which were before worthless; and in both cases succeeded to form artificial grass pastures, by means now common enough — but then deemed wonderful.} Although he was a Friend he had a picture of family arms, which he preserved as a memorial of his forefather’s having been French. In this visit he particularly speaks of noticing the abundance of red clover sowed in his upland fields — an improvement in agriculture, since thought to have not been so early cultivated among us. He spoke of his first passion for the study of botany, as excited by his contemplating a simple daisy, as he rested from his ploughing under a tree; then it was he first thought it much his shame to have been so long the means of destroying many flowers and plants, without ever before stopping to consider their nature and uses. This thought, thus originated, often revived, until at last it inspired real efforts to study their character, &c., both from observation and reading. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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John Bartram was born in the year 1701, in Chester county, in Pennsylvania, being of the second line of descent from his grandfather, John Bartram, who, with his family, came from Derbyshire, England, with the adherents of the justly famed William Penn, proprietor, when he established the colony, and founded the city of Philadelphia, Anno Domini 1682. Thus being born in a newly settled country, at so vast a distance from the old world, the seat of arts and sciences, it cannot be supposed that he could have acquired great advantage from the aids of literature; having acquired, however, the best instruction that country schools at that early time could afford, and at every possible opportunity, by associating with the most learned and respectable characters. With difficulty he obtained the rudiments of the learned languages which he studied with extraordinary application and success. He had a very early inclination and relish for the study of the Materis Medica and Surgery, and acquired so much knowledge in these sciences as to administer great relief to the indigent and distressed. And as the vegetable kingdom afforded him most of his medicines, it seems extremely probable this might have excited a desire and pointed out to him the necessity of the study of botany. Although bred a husbandman and cultivator, as the principal means of providing subsistence for supporting a large family, yet he pursued his studies as a philosopher, being attentive to the economy of nature and observant of her most minute operations. When ploughing and sowing his fields, or mowing the meadows, his inquisitive mind was exercised in contemplating the vegetable system, and of animated nature. He was perhaps the first Anglo-American who imagined the design, or at least carried into operation a botanic garden for the reception of American vegetables as well as exotics, and for travelling for the discovery and acquisition of them. He purchased a convenient place on the banks of the Schuylkill, near Philadelphia, where, after building a house of hewn stone with his own hands, he laid out a large garden, containing six or seven acres of ground, that comprehended a variety of soils and situations, and soon replenished it with a variety of curious and beautiful vegetables, the fruits of his distant excursions; but though highly gratified and delighted with beholding the success of his labours, yet his benevolent mind contemplated more extensive plans, which was to communicate his discoveries and collections to Europe and other parts of the earth, that the whole world might participate in his enjoyments. Fortunate in the society and friendship of many literary and eminent characters of America, namely, Dr. B. Franklin, Dr. Colden, J. Logan, Esq., and several others, who observing his genius and industry, liberally assisted him in establishing a correspondence with the great men of science in England, particularly P. Collinson, whose intimate friendship and correspondence continued unabated nearly fifty years, and terminated only with life, through whose patronage and philosophy his collections, relating to Natural History, Physiological and Philosophical investigations, were communicated to men of science in Europe, and annually laid before their Societies, of which he was in fellowship. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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He employed much of his time in travelling abroad through the provinces then subject to England, during the autumn, when his agricultural avocations least required his presence at home; the object of the peregrination was collecting curious and nondescript vegetables, fossils, and the investigation and economy of nature. His ardour in these pursuits was so vigorous and lively that few obstacles opposed or confined his progress. The summits of our highest mountains are monuments of his indefatigable labours and inquisitive mind. The shores of Lake Ontario and Cayuga contributed through his hands to embellish the gardens and enrich the forests of Europe with elegant flowering shrubs, plants, and useful ornamental trees. The banks and sources of the rivers Delaware, Schuylkill, Susquehanna, and Alleghenny, received his visits at a very early date, when it was difficult and truly perilous travelling in the territories of the aborigines. He travelled many thousand miles into Virginia, Carolina, East and West Florida, in search of materials for natural history, and to enrich the funds of human economy. At the advanced age of near seventy years he performed an arduous and dangerous task — a tour into East Florida. Arriving at St. Augustine, he embarked on board a sail boat, with a hunter to provide flesh meats. From Picolata he proceeded up the east bank to its source — originating from immense inundated marsh meadows, the great nursery of the nations of fish and reptiles, the winter asylum of the northern fowl, ducks and the Anser tribes, in their annual festive visits to their southern friends, but held in awe by the thunder of the devouring alligator; and returning down the west bank to the capes, noting the width, depth and courses of its winding flood, the vast dilatations of the river with its tributary streams, at the same time remarking the soil and situation of the country and natural productions. His stature was rather above the middle size, erect and slender, visage long, his countenance cheerful and gay, regulated with a due degree of solemnity. His manners modest and gentle, yet his disposition active and of the greatest good nature. A lover and practiser of justice and equity. Such a lover of philanthropy, charity and social order, that he was never known to enter into litigious contest with his neighbours, or any one, but would rather relinquish his rights than distress his neighbours. He was through life a rare example of temperance, particularly in the use of vinous and spirituous liquors, as well as other gratifications; not from a passion of parsimony but in a respect to morality; nevertheless he always maintained a generous and plentiful table — annually on a New Year’s day he made liberal entertainment at his own house, consecrated to friendship and philosophy. He was industrious and active, indulging repose only when nature required it, observing that he could never find more time than he could with pleasure employ, either intellectually or in some useful manual exercise, and was astonished when people complained that they were tired of time, not knowing how to employ it, or what they should do. In observing the characters of illustrious men, it is generally an object of inquiry of what religion they were. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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He was born and educated in the Society of Friends, (called Quakers) devoutly worshipped the Supreme Deity, the Creator and Soul of all existence, all goodness and perfection. His religious creed may be seen by any one, sculptured by himself in large characters on a stone in the wall over the front window of his apartment where he usually slept, and which was dedicated to study and philosophical retirement. This pious distich [verse of two lines] runs thus: — “Tis God alone, the Almighty Lord, The Holy One by me adored.” John Bartram — 1770.
He was an early and firm advocate for maintaining the natural and equal rights of man, particularly for the abolition of negro slavery, and confirmed his zeal in these great virtues by giving freedom to a very excellent young man of the African race, at the age of between 20 and 30, whom he had reared in his house from a young child; and affection, for he continued constantly in the family to the end of his life, receiving full wages as long as he was able to perform a day’s work. William Bartram, his son, another distinguished florist and botanist, who succeeded in the same place, died in July 1823, at his garden, at the advanced age of 85 years. His travels, in search of botanical subjects, in the Floridas, &c., were published in 1791 — he preceded Wilson as an ornithologist, and gave his assistance to that gentleman in his celebrated work. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1723
John Bartram married Mary Maris, daughter of Richard & Elizabeth Hayes Maris, sister of Elizabeth Maris who was married by James Bartram, John’s brother, according to the manner of Friends (she would die during April 1727 and John would remarry).
NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT
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1725
Dr. Christopher Witt (1675-1765) had been with the German Pietists at Wissahickon. Two decades before Friend John Bartram, he started the 1st botanical garden in America. He corresponded with Peter Collinson and discoursed with Bartram.
CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT
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1727
April: Mary Maris, 1st wife of John Bartram, died (he would remarry). HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1728
John Bartram purchased the property outside Philadelphia that would become the Bartram Garden.
In Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin and Hugh Meredith opened a printing-office. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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The 22-year-old Franklin wrote his own epitaph (which we all suppose to have been placed on his gravestone at his death although actually, at his own instruction, it was not): HDT WHAT? INDEX
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LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD.
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1729
October 10, Friday (Old Style): Friend John Bartram got married with Friend Ann Medinghall (Mendenhall?). They would get themselves nine more children. One of his sons by this 2d marriage would be the William Bartram (named after his grandfather who had been killed by native Americans) who would become an explorer, naturalist, and man of letters. Over the course of the next two years John would be remodeling a small cabin from the days of the old Swedish colony. He had been teaching himself botany. His 1st wife had not been very supportive of this but his 2d wife would be more so. He seems to have started his garden about the time of his 2d marriage. He would expand his property holdings to 261 acres in all. The Joseph Breintnall of Philadelphia recommended Bartram to Peter Collinson, a wholesale wool merchant of London. Bartram would provide Collinson with boxes of seeds, to introduce several hundred species of plants to England.
BOTANIZING
DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD.
John Bartram “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1731
The raw beginnings of the garden by John Bartram that eventually would become the historic Bartram’s Garden, 15 minutes from the city hall of Philadelphia on the banks of the Schuylkill at 54th and Lindbergh, the first US botanical garden, date back to this point in time. Although Linnaeus would refer to Bartram as the world’s “foremost natural botanist,” George Washington, with an aristocratic eye for the tidy and the dignified, would refer to his garden as a “heap of things.” On the greenhouse wall Bartram had inscribed “Slave to no sect, who takes no private road / But looks through Nature up to Nature’s God!”
THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT
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1733
John Bartram and Peter Collinson began corresponding. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1734
Friend John Bartram began collecting plants. He would elaborate and elaborate his botanical garden on a plot of ground along the Schuylkill River outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which is now a part of that city’s park system.2
2. According to Joseph Kastner’s A SPECIES OF ETERNITY (NY: 1977, page 49), of the nominal 8,000 plant species unique to the eastern seaboard of the North American continent, six were taken to Europe before the 17th Century, another fifty during the first half of the 17th Century, and, by 1734, the total had reached 300. Although the American revolution would temporarily interrupt the flow, by 1776 the number of plants transported by Bartram and others like him would reach about 600. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1735
Augustus Gootlieb Spangenberg established near Savannah the 1st Moravian community in America (it would relocate to Pennsylvania in 1741).
Either in this year or in the following one, Friend John Bartram journeyed up the Schuylkill River to its source. BOTANIZING
THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT
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1736
Spring: John Bartram began his travels in search of plants and seeds (his first excursion outside the environs of Philadelphia was to Cedar Swamp in New Jersey). BOTANIZING
Fall: John Bartram traveled toward the headwaters of the Schuylkill River in the Pennsylvania mountains. BOTANIZING
Over this period until the following spring in Philadelphia, of the 129 persons who had been inoculated against small pox only one, a child, would die.
This situation did not, however, obtain among Philadelphians who had elected not to seek inoculation: • un-inoculated whites under 12 years of age 63 deaths • un-inoculated adult white men and women 33 deaths • un-inoculated negroes young and old 28 deaths • un-inoculated mulattoes 4 deaths HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1737
February 27, Sunday (1736, Old Style): Friend John Bartram wrote to Friend Peter Collinson about the noxious rattlesnake, admiring “the goodness of Providence” in “preserving a balance” despite the fact that these snakes are “great increasers, breeding of sixty at a time,” “by preventing their increase by providing animals to destroy them.” Clearly, the concept OTHER-LIMITATION was one that was well-understood long before Charles Darwin!
Fall: John Bartram botanized throughout the eastern shore of Maryland and Virginia. BOTANIZING
December: Peter Collinson wrote to John Custis, future father-in-law of Martha Dandridge Custis and a major gardener, indicating that he was sending Friend John Bartram to visit. BOTANIZING HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1738
May: John Bartram discovered North American ginseng (Panax quinquefolium) on the Susquehanna River. BOTANIZING
September 25, Thursday (Old Style): From this point until October 26, John Bartram would be botanizing along the western shore of Virginia, up the Shenandoah Valley, and in the Blue Ridge Mountains. BOTANIZING HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1739
Friend John Bartram traveled to the Catskills. He met Dr. Cadwallader Colden (1688-1766), Surveyor General of the Colonies and a member of the King’s Council of New York, who lived in Coldingham, nine miles north of Newburgh, New York, along the Hudson River. Dr. Colden had served as the state’s Lieutenant Governor, and temporary as its Governor, and had actively opposed the large landowners of the state, which had brought him into open conflict with many famous families. He was introducing the Linnaean system in America, and furnishing Linné with descriptions of several hundred American plants. He had written several medical works, and in 1727 had authored a HISTORY OF THE FIVE INDIAN NATIONS OF CANADA. A plant, our “Missouri railroad weed,” was named Coldenis for him by Linné. Jane Colden, his daughter, was America’s first woman botanist. She was written about as one of the charming examples of what women in the New World could accomplish. Linné himself received approving reports of her efforts. She used the Linnaean system to classify her wildflowers. She had been born in 1724, and in 1759 had married a Dr. Farquhar. She would die in 1766. She wrote an article on the subject of St. Johnswort, Hypericum virginicum, about which she and Dr. Garden of South Carolina had corresponded. She wanted it named for him, but John Ellis, also acquainted with Dr. Garden, had already decided to name the cape jasmine, Gardenia jasminoides, for him. John Clayton and Bartram were both Jane Colden’s contemporaries and acquaintances. BOTANIZING HDT WHAT? INDEX
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The Finnish/Swedish Peter Kalm (Pietari Kalm) was one of Linné’s students, particularly involved with medicinal and dye-yielding plants. In this year he landed in Philadelphia, visiting Benjamin Franklin and Friend John Bartram. At Raccoon (now Swedesboro), New Jersey, Kalm would preach when no regular clergyman was available, and he would marry this town’s pastor’s widow. In 1757 he would receive a doctor’s degree in theology from the University of Lund and in 1777 would be elected a member of the Swedish Academy of Sciences. BOTANIZING
Franklin would advise this visitor from Finland that his father Josiah Franklin had introduced herring into a river where they had never before propagated themselves. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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Franklin evidently also related this story to the Reverend Joseph Morgan, for we find the reverend passing it along it in an essay on fish ladders and other ways of making fish more plentiful in rivers and streams, in The Pennsylvania Gazette for June 8, 1732: “There is a Pond and Brook from it, nigh Plymouth in N.E. (as I am informed) where never Herring had been seen, while other Brooks were full; but a certain Man carried a Tub full of Water with a Number of them newly taken, and emptied ’em into that Pond; and ever after they went up that Brook.”
2 mo. 9: “William and Elizabeth the son and daughter of John Bartram and Ann his wife was born the 9 day of the 2d month.” (This date is commonly now read as April 9th, but by the Quaker calendar then in use it indicated instead April 9th, which by our modern calendar is April 20th.) Of the non-famous female fraternal twin born on this day at Kingsessing on the Shuylkill River, west of Philadelphia, Elizabeth, we know little besides the facts that she was born, that her father called her Betty, that she would get married with a William Wright in 1771, and that she would relocate to Lancaster County, dying there in 1824. About the male fraternal twin William Bartram biographers presume to know quite a bit more — including the content of his spirit. John Bartram, who was orphaned as a child, was hopelessly insecure as an adult; his ambitious, acquisitive, and sensitive nature grew from an insatiable need for reassurance that his life had meaning as measured by the father figures whom he collected. William suffered from an unresolved crisis in his teen years, when he felt betrayed by adults who had encouraged his artistic talents and then wanted him to abandon his art for a more “practical” career. He may also have endured attacks of HDT WHAT? INDEX
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melancholia, what we call depression, which made it impossible for him to fulfill the expectations of his father and of himself. — Slaughter, Thomas P. THE N ATURES OF J OHN AND WILLIAM B ARTRAM. NY: Vintage Books, 1996, page xviii. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1740
February: John Bartram began a correspondence with Mark Catesby.
September: John Bartram botanized north of Philadelphia, into the blue Mountains, and to the Delaware Water Gap. BOTANIZING HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1741
May 20, Saturday (Old Style): John Bartram would be botanizing in the Catskills, until an early summer arriving in Albany, New York. BOTANIZING
July: John Bartram began a correspondence with Hans Sloane. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1743
The American Philosophical Society (“philosophical,” at this point, meant precisely what we now mean by “scientific”) was founded by Benjamin Franklin, John Bartram, and others, who also were proposing a plan for an Academy which would be adopted in 1749, and eventually would develop into the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Cadwalader Colden, another of the founding members of the Society, would be responsible for introducing the Linnaean system of plant and animal species classification to America — he would never, however, be fully happy with that system, preferring one that would be more natural. BOTANIZING
Printed in Philadelphia, by Benjamin Franklin, CATO MAJOR. This was prepared in the types of John Caslon, which have proved perhaps the most durable of all typefaces (Caslon had issued his first specimen sheet in HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1734).
Printed in Germantown, Pennsylvania, by Christopher Sauer (1693-1758), the First Germantown BIBLE. Sauer had left his native Germany at the age of 31 to settle in the New World. Sauer at the time was classed as an “arch separatist.” In the year 1740, no one had the right or could obtain the necessary royal license to print a Bible, and Sauer was risking prosecution and bankruptcy. He met with the most bitter opposition from the Reverend Henry Muhlenberg, strong leader of the German Lutheran Church, and the Reverend Casper School of the German Reformed Church. To please all factions of the German population, Sauer made his Bible a composite of Luther’s Bible with Berleberg’s Bible, himself preparing an appendix to the new Testament. It would require three years to print this edition and then it would require twenty years before all of the 1,200 copies had been sold. “The price,” as Sauer wrote, “of our early finished Bible in plain binding with clasp will be eighteen shillings, but to poor and needy we have no price.” HISTORY OF THE PRESS HDT WHAT? INDEX
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July 3, Wednesday (Old Style): At the age of 44, Friend John Bartram departed for his travels in Canada, sent with Conrad Weiser by James Logan on a peace mission to negotiate with the Iroquois at Onondaga on Lake Ontario after a skirmish between them and some Virginian backwoodsmen. They would reach Shamokin (now Sundbury) where they would pick up Headman Shikillamy. On this trip Bartram would discover “a great mountain Magnolia, three feet in diameter, and above an hundred feet high.” This was the Cucumber Tree (Magnolia acuminata). By this point people were referring to his garden outside Philadelphia as the finest collection of wild plants in North America. BOTANIZING HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1748
Michel Adanson, a student of Bernard de Jussieu, arrived in Africa to collect until 1754.
Professor Peter Kalm of London disembarked in Philadelphia, as the locals were coming on board his vessel to inquire if it carried any letters addressed to them. He noted that, strangely, the unclaimed letters from abroad were then dropped off at the local coffee-house — it did not seem to have occurred to these Philadelphians as yet, that such unclaimed correspondence from abroad should be being distributed by the local postoffice. “Kalm, in his travels in this country in 1748-9, writes, ‘On my travels through the country of the Iroquois, they offered me, whenever they designed to treat me well, fresh maize bread, baked in an oblong shape, mixed with dried huckleberries, which lay as close in it as the raisins in a plumb pudding.’”Friend John “HUCKLEBERRIES”
Bartram, tongue in cheek, informed the visiting Swedish botanist that when an American bear catches a cow, it kills the cow by biting a hole in its hide and blowing with full force into the hole, “till the animal swells excessively and dies, for the air expands greatly between the flesh and the hide.” (Kalm turned out to be so credulous, that he actually would print this preposterous jape by his “American cousin” as if it were fact.) HDT WHAT? INDEX
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CAPE COD: It is generally supposed that they who have long been conversant with the Ocean can foretell, by certain indications, such as its roar and the notes of sea-fowl, when it will change from calm to storm; but probably no such ancient mariner as we dream of exists; they know no more, at least, than the older sailors do about this voyage of life on which we are all embarked. Nevertheless, we love to hear the sayings of old sailors, and their accounts of natural phenomena, which totally ignore, and are ignored by, science; and possibly they have not always looked over the gunwale so long in vain. Kalm repeats a story which was told him in Philadelphia by a Mr. Cock, who was one day sailing to the West Indies in a small yacht, with an old man on board who was well acquainted with those seas. “The old man sounding the depth, called to the mate to tell Mr. Cock to launch the boats immediately, and to put a sufficient number of men into them, in order to tow the yacht during the calm, that they might reach the island before them as soon as possible, as within twenty-four hours there would be a strong hurricane. Mr. Cock asked him what reasons he had to think so; the old man replied, that on sounding, he saw the lead in the water at a distance of many fathoms more than he had seen it before; that therefore the water was become clear all of a sudden, which he looked upon as a certain sign of an impending hurricane in the sea.” The sequel of the story is, that by good fortune, and by dint of rowing, they managed to gain a safe harbor before the hurricane had reached its height; but it finally raged with so much violence, that not only many ships were lost and houses unroofed, but even their own vessel in harbor was washed so far on shore that several weeks elapsed before it could be got off.
September 5, Friday, 1851: … It is remarkable that Kalm says in 1748 (being in Philadelphia)– “Coals have not yet been found in Pensylvania; but people pretend to have seen them higher up in the country among the natives. Many people however agree that they are met with in great quantity more to the north, near Cape Breton” As we grow old we live more coarsely–we relax a little in our disciplines–and cease to obey our finest instincts. We are more careless about our diet & our chastity. But we should be fastidious to the extreme of Sanity. All wisdom is the reward of a discipline conscious or unconscious.3
3. This thought would be put into Henry Thoreau’s early lecture “WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT” as:
[Paragraph 93] As we grow old, we live more coarsely—we relax a little in our disciplines, and to some extent cease to obey our finest instincts. We are more careless about our diet and our chastity. But we should be fastidious to the extreme of sanity. All wisdom is the reward of a discipline conscious or unconscious. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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Kalm visited Albany, New York, and discovered the water supply there to be inferior. He would remain, however, in the area, into the next year. Until the year 1751, Kalm would be collecting plant specimens in northeastern North America. His botanical collections would be extensively cited by Professor Carolus Linnaeus in 1753 in SPECIES PLANTARUM, and would constitute nomenclatural types for many of our northeastern US and southeastern Canadian species.
WHAT I’M WRITING IS TRUE BUT NEVER MIND YOU CAN ALWAYS LIE TO YOURSELF
John Bartram “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1750
Fall: John Bartram botanized in the Delaware Water Gap. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1751
Benjamin Franklin, and eight other Commissioners, were appointed to examine the River Schuylkill from Peters’ Island to John Bartram’s botanical garden, for the most suitable place for a bridge, and they reported in favour of Market Street. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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J. Whiston & B. White of Fleet-Street in London published the results of Friend John Bartram’s trip to Lake Ontario as OBSERVATIONS ON THE INHABITANTS, CLIMATE, SOIL, RIVERS, PRODUCTIONS, ANIMALS, AND OTHER MATTERS WORTHY OF NOTICE MADE BY MR. JOHN BARTRAM, IN HIS TRAVELS FROM PENSILVANIA TO ONONDAGO, OSWEGO AND THE LAKE ONTARIO, IN CANADA: TO WHICH IS ANNEX’D A CURIOUS ACCOUNT OF THE CATARACTS AT NIAGARA BY MR. PETER KALM, A SWEDISH GENTLEMAN WHO TRAVELLED THERE. NIAGARA FALLS
(Thus was initiated the scientific and literary writing about nature in America.)
CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE
JOHN BARTRAM’S BOOK HDT WHAT? INDEX
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Bartram’s diagram of an Iroquois longhouse and the town of Oswego. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1752
April: Dr. Alexander Garden, a Scotsman, had been invited to Charles Town, South Carolina by Dr. William Rose. Dr. William Bull lent him John Clayton/Gronovius’s Flora Virginica. PLANTS
He visited Dr. Cadwallader Colden. While he was there John Bartram arrived. He went to Philadelphia and saw Bartram and Benjamin Franklin. BOTANIZING HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1753
Carolus Linnaeus issued MUSEUM TESSINIANUM, and in SPECIES PLANTARUM he named the plant genus of tobacco, Nicotiana, and described two species of this genus, Nicotiana rustica and Nicotiana tabacum.
SPECIES PLANTARUM would establish a new standard for plant classification as well as nomenclature. This treatise eventually would be recognized as the beginning-point for today’s binomial nomenclature.
From 1748 to 1751 Peter Kalm had collected plant specimens in northeastern North America. His botanical collections were at this point extensively accessed by this Swedish botanist Linné as nomenclatural types for many of our northeastern US and southeastern Canadian species.
Linné also classified cannabis sativa. PLANTS
John Bartram and William Bartram went to Connecticut. BOTANIZING
Summer: Little “Billey,” Friend John Bartram’s 13-or14-year-old son William Bartram, received a recognition from England for a sketch he had made of a small brown American bird. (We cannot now tell for sure from this sketch, signed “Wm. Bartram His Performance,” whether the bird was a creeper or a sparrow.) HDT WHAT? INDEX
JOHN BARTRAM JOHN BARTRAM GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
September: John Bartram took his 14-year-old son William Bartram along on a botanizing trip in the Catskills, and again visited Dr. Cadwallader Colden. BOTANIZING HDT WHAT? INDEX
JOHN BARTRAM JOHN BARTRAM GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
1754
Late Summer: John Bartram and William Bartram botanized in the Catskill Mountains and met Dr. Alexander Garden at the home of Cadwallader Colden. BOTANIZING HDT WHAT? INDEX
JOHN BARTRAM JOHN BARTRAM GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
1755
John Bartram created a botanical garden on a plot of ground along the Schuylkill River outside Philadelphia, which is now a part of the city’s park system.
Spring: John Bartram decided while his son Billie was sixteen that he didn’t want the boy to be turned into a gentleman through education, but wanted him to find some way “to get his living by.” However, when he attempted to apprentice his son to a local physician, the teenager balked. He would also balk at the idea suggested by Benjamin Franklin, that he become an engraver.
In this timeframe, when Franklin offered to take the son as a printer’s apprentice, the father declined because he thought that trade was too often unprofitable. Also, when Dr. Alexander Garden offered to take the son as a physician’s apprentice, the father declined because he suspected William was interested only in Garden’s botanical knowledge.
William’s drawings were sent to Peter Collinson and shown to his circle of friends.
Late Summer-Fall: John Bartram and William Bartram botanized in New York and Connecticut. BOTANIZING HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1756
February 21, Saturday: While William Bartram always admired native Americans inordinately, his father John Bartram harbored a lifelong race hatred for them. The root of this may be in how cruelly John’s father had been killed. For instance, on this day the elder Bartram wrote to his friend Peter Collinson: O Pennsylvania, you that was the most flourishing and peaceable province in North America is now scourged by the most barbarous creatures in the universe. All ages, sex, and stations, have no mercy extended to them. The young man with vigor and activity perhaps with hasty steps, heart filled with raptures of love, is going to visit his intended, is unexpectedly pierced by a silent ball shot by a distant secreted enemy, his active arms unbraced, his vigorous sinews relaxed, his body rouled [sic] in blood and exposed to the fouls [sic] of the air. Our tender infants have their brains dashed out; our wives big with child have their bellies ripped open. Those killed within their houses [are] mostly burned with them. The beautiful and modest virgin obtains no more mercy than indeed a decrepit.
Before the end of the year the father would apprentice his son to James Child, Philadelphia merchant. The son would remain in service until he reached the age of 22 in 1761. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1757
When the Monthly Meeting of John Bartram began an inquiry into whether they ought to alert non-Quakers in Darby, Pennsylvania that he was not in unity with his meeting (such an alert to the general surrounding community is technically referred to as a “Disownment,” and does not ever mean that the individual would be discouraged from continuing to attend worship, with his family), they did not focus upon his various problematic attitudes but instead upon what they rightly or wrongly took to be the underlying cause for those problematic attitudes: PAGE 14 He wasn’t so enlightened on the humanity of Indians as were the Friends’ teachings; he wasn’t so quick to abandon the practice of buying and selling humans as some others were; and his personal testimony on peace wasn’t so pacific in wartime as the discipline prescribed. Yet what led to Darby Meeting’s disownment of John had nothing to do with the social expression of religious beliefs; it bore no relation to his actions or inactions in the world. The issue that led to over a year of deliberation, of gentle attempts to persuade John of the error of his ways, was heresy, a most unusual charge for the Quakers of his day. John didn’t believe in the divinity of Christ. What did this have to do with a book which Friend John Bartram was reading at the time? We know that he made three pages of notes while perusing a book about THE MORALS OF CONFUCIUS that had been recently acquired by the Library Company of Philadelphia. Taking a look at these notes, we discover that he had been attempting to “Bartramize” what he had been reading (we have all been guilty of this sort of error), distilling from the book a sort of corroboration for truths of which he already was convinced: PAGE 17: The Confucius of John’s notes might have been a Quaker, except for one thing. Confucius, just as John Bartram, believed that God “is one,” not two or three. Indeed, it may even have been the reading of this book that prompted John to share his views on God’s unitary nature with the Darby Quakers, to deliver a message in Meeting for Worship about the parallels between the lives and teachings of Confucius and Jesus, and his estimation that they were comparably great men. It’s unclear whether John read the book before the enquiry started or after it had already begun, or what prompted him to read it, to take such notes, and to what end. The connection between the two events seems more than a coincidence in time, so the story I tell is that John read the book first and his enthusiasm for the wisdom of Confucius is what got him in trouble with Darby Meeting’s Overseers. The introduction to THE MORALS OF CONFUCIUS makes explicit the translators’ perceptions of identities between the teachings of Confucius and Christ. John’s notes show that he saw these parallels, too. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1758
Friend John Bartram was disowned by his Darby Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, for refusing to acknowledge the divinity of Jesus. (He and all his family would, of course, continue to worship with the Friends on every First Day, but since he was no longer considered “in unity” with the meeting, any leadings he would have during their monthly Meeting for Business would not be binding upon them. They would labor with him, but would not need any longer to be blocked in any way from collective action by any disagreement which he personally might express.)
On a following screen is a drawing he made of his garden during this year. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1759
Late October: John Bartram and John Bartram, Jr. botanized in the Shenandoah Valley and the blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. BOTANIZING HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1760
John Bartram botanized in Virginia and South Carolina.
BOTANIZING In Charleston he stayed with Dr. Alexander Garden, whose acquaintance he had made when Garden was passing through Philadelphia five and a half years before. He met the celebrated horticulturist Martha Logan who afterwards would be sending him many seeds and plants. Earlier in life, kicked in the back by a horse, he had been able to make a full recovery, but at this point he had reached the age of 62, and when he fell heavily out of the top of a tree, one arm would remain “so weak that I can hardly pull off my clothes.” Then later this year he strained his hip while lifting a large box packed with soil and plants.
March: John Bartram sailed to Charleston.
April: John Bartram sailed to the Wilmington River and traveled up it to his brother William Bartram’s home, then returned to Philadelphia through Virginia. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1761
John Bartram traveled through Pittsburgh and down the Ohio River. He corresponded about his activities with Fothergill in London and with Carl Linné. BOTANIZING
Having satisfactorily completed his apprenticeship to the Philadelphia merchant James Child, Friend William Bartram chose the Cape Fear region of North Carolina to begin a slave plantation bankrolled by his father. (At this point, at home outside Philadelphia, the disowned Friend John Bartram was constructing a greenhouse with, inscribed on its door lintel, a quote from Alexander Pope: Slave to no sect, who takes no private road, But looks through Nature up to Nature’s God.
Summer: William Bartram initiated a mercantile enterprise near his uncle William Bartram’s plantation on the Cape Fear River in North Carolina.
September: John Bartram traveled to Pittsburgh. HDT WHAT? INDEX
JOHN BARTRAM JOHN BARTRAM GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
1762
June: William Bartram reappeared at his father John Bartram’s home outside Philadelphia, from North Carolina, “to settle his affairs.”
September: John Bartram and his sons Billie and Moses left Philadelphia for North Carolina. At the Yadkin river the sons went back to the coast while the father remained inland. BOTANIZING HDT WHAT? INDEX
JOHN BARTRAM JOHN BARTRAM GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
1764
March: John Bartram felt disappointed in the activities of his son William Bartram: “He will be ruined in Carolina. Everything goes wrong with him there.”
Fall: John Bartram formed the idea of again making use of his son William Bartram’s ability to draw. BOTANIZING HDT WHAT? INDEX
JOHN BARTRAM JOHN BARTRAM GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
1765
William Bartram the failed Charleston merchant persuaded his father John Bartram to allow him to try once again to establish himself, this time as a rice planter along the St. Johns River just north of Fort Picolata about 24 miles from St. Augustine. Billey would work hard, at least until he had his slave infrastructure firmly in place, both workers and overseers, and the plantation was running itself smoothly. Only then would he relax and begin to lead the life of a pampered Southern aristocrat! Despite the fact that his father was terrified that his “negroes will run away or murder thee,” he bankrolled the son with twenty acres of marshland and a year’s worth of provisions, and of course the slaves. The father chose and purchased six slaves, with the help of three of his friends, and his personal physician verified their general healthiness. His biographer Thomas P. Slaughter makes a very good case that what was inspiring William to attempt to become a provident Southern plantation owner was a love affair with a cousin near Charleston, named Mary. Billey was trying to set himself up to become a husband. (Finally he would get a commission to draw illustrations for Dr. Fothergill and return to his uncle’s home on the Cape Fear River in North Carolina. When he would write Dr. Fothergill about financing an extended trip, Fothergill would agree. So he would travel from the Cape Fear River to Charleston to Savannah to the St. Mary’s River and then back to Altamaha River and back to Savannah, and send his collections to Fothergill.) HDT WHAT? INDEX
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While acting as a tutor at the dissenting Warrington Academy in Lancashire since 1761, the Reverend Joseph Priestley had been writing LIBERAL EDUCATION FOR CIVIL AND ACTIVE LIFE. This book stressed the importance of science, arts, modern languages, and history and argued they were better suited than the classics for those students who wanted a career in industry and commerce.
John Bartram went from Philadelphia to Charleston (where he again visited Dr. Garden), to the Cape Fear River of North Carolina, and back to Charleston. On this trip he traveled from Savannah up the river to Augusta, then back to Ebenezer and south to Fort Barrington on the Altamaha River. It was here the father and son found Franklinia altamaha (the Franklin tree) and Nyssa sylvatica (the Tupelo). They went back to St. Augustine in Florida and then explored the St. Johns River. They traced this for 400 miles until their way was blocked by water plants. They would turn not back until January of the following year.Not until another trip, BOTANIZING
in 1773, would the son collect seed in the only known population of Franklin tree, near Fort Barrington, Georgia. In 1774 the supporter of this trip, John Fothergill, would present Franklinia altamaha seedlings to the royal botanical garden at Kew. Publication of William Bartram’s travel accounts would be completed by 1781, but awaited identification of plants from specimens he had sent to Fothergill. At Fothergill’s death in 1780, his herbarium would be purchased by Joseph Banks. PLANTS HDT WHAT? INDEX
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Spring: J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur visited the home of Friend John Bartram near Philadelphia.
He found his host alongside the Schuylkill River, directing a work party of neighboring farmers that was creating “a new-made bank, which seemed greatly to confine its stream.” He recorded that “Bertram” seemed eager enough to discontinue toiling at an alteration of nature’s course in order to display hospitality by offering a meal, and engage in discourse. His biographer, Friend Thomas P. Slaughter, has commented, that this account by Crèvecoeur sounds “more like John Bartram than the portrait he drew of himself.” Crèvecoeur remarked upon the eating arrangements, which were utterly novel for that epoch: BOTANIZING We entered into a large hall, where there was a long table full of victuals; at the lower part sat his Negroes; his hired men were next, then the family and myself; and at the head, the venerable father and his wife presided. Each reclined his head and said his prayers, divested of the tedious cant of some and of the ostentatious style of others. — LETTERS, Penguin Classics 1986, pages 188-9 HDT WHAT? INDEX
JOHN BARTRAM JOHN BARTRAM GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
Actually, only one of the black Americans whom Crèvecoeur observed had been purchased outright by the Bartrams: his name was Harvey. Also, one of the things we know about John Bartram, out of his own mouth, was that he was utterly opposed to any educating or encouraging of blacks “to think themselves as good or better than their masters and too good for servants.” Friend Thomas P. Slaughter, himself a Quaker, observes in this connection that Friend John simply cannot be considered to have been an exemplar of true “Quaker liberalism.”
When Crèvecoeur marveled at the coat of arms mounted in a gilt frame in John Bartram’s library, it would appear that Friend John dissembled. He represented that the object was his father’s, when clearly he had obtained it for himself or had his Billey draw it for him, and also he seems to have represented falsely that his father had come over from France rather than from England. In the writeup that Crèvecoeur would make of his visit, he is clearly saying to us that “this American original may not be everything he represented himself to me as being.” However, since Crèvecoeur clearly was fabricating a larger-than-life image of his “Bertram” for his own purposes, perhaps the author was merely protecting his authorial self from accusations of puffery! HDT WHAT? INDEX
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April 9, Tuesday: Friend John Bartram received a letter from Peter Collinson informing him that he had gotten an “appointment” for him as a King’s Botanist with a salary of 50 pounds a year. (Actually, King George III of England took no interest whatever in botany and the Queen’s patronage of botanists was fully committed to John Hill and to his protègé William Young.) BOTANIZING
Bartram would, out of his personal insecurity and need for the recognition of others, expand this very modest thingie into a published claim that he was the only such person, that his charter was wider than his North American seaboard — that indeed he had been appointed “King’s Botanist to the World.” He would need to be warned that if he persisted in such exaggeration, the King might not be trifled with, indeed, might withdraw this trifling annuity of which in all likelihood he was entirely unaware.
June 7, Friday: John Bartram wrote Billie informing him that he had been appointed by the King and would be traveling south. He asked his son to “sell of all thy goods at a public vendue” so as to be prepared to travel with his father. BOTANIZING HDT WHAT? INDEX
JOHN BARTRAM JOHN BARTRAM GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
July: When John Bartram received the 1st payment of his £50 annual stipend from the King, he and his son Billie sailed from Philadelphia to the port of Charleston, and traveled northeast along the coastline through Georgetown to the Ashwood Plantation up the Cape Fear River. BOTANIZING
July 7, Sunday: John Bartram arrived in Charleston.
July 16, Tuesday: John Bartram left Charleston and traveled to Ashboro.
August: John Bartram and Billie traveled from the Ashwood Plantation on up the Cape Fear River of North Carolina, and then back through the plantation and southwest along the coastline through Brunswick and Georgetown to Charleston. BOTANIZING
August 6, Tuesday: John Bartram and Billie returned to Charleston.
August 29, Thursday: John Bartram and Billie left Charleston.
September: John Bartram and Billie traveled southwest through South Carolina to Savannah, Georgia, and then up the Savannah River past Galphins Store to Augusta. They then during the month returned to the coast at Savannah by way of Brier Creek as well as the river. BOTANIZING HDT WHAT? INDEX
JOHN BARTRAM JOHN BARTRAM GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
September 4, Wednesday: John Bartram and Billie arrived in Savannah. They lodged with James Habersham and met with Governor Wright. They left Savannah the next day and traveled north along the Augusta Road. On the way they visited Silver Bluff and Shell Bluff. They explored the Savannah River with George Galphin. BOTANIZING
September 12: John Bartram and Billie arrived in Augusta.
September 18, Wednesday: John Bartram and Billie left Augusta.
September 24, Tuesday: John Bartram and Billie dined with Governor James Wright.
September 25, Wednesday: John Bartram and Billie visited Bethesda.
September 29, Sunday: John Bartram and Billie spent the evening at Beverly, James Habersham’s country home.
September 30, Monday: John Bartram and Billie began their trip to East Florida and crossed the Ogeechee River. They lodged near Riceboro. HDT WHAT? INDEX
JOHN BARTRAM JOHN BARTRAM GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
October: John Bartram and Billie sailed from Savannah, Georgia to St. Augustine, Florida.
October 1, Tuesday: John Bartram and Billie reached Fort Barrington where they discovered Franklinia, fevertree, and Ogeechee lime. BOTANIZING
October 5, Saturday: John Bartram and Billie left the Altamaha River and traveled south on the Old Post Road, then known as the Savannah to Saint Augustine Road.
October 7, Monday: The Stamp Act Congress met at New-York’s City Hall to organize resistance. Delegates from nine colonies attended. They would issue a Declaration of Rights and Grievances which claimed that the colonists were due the complete rights of English citizens.
John Bartram and Billie crossed the Satilla River.
October 11, Friday: In a dim warehouse on the island of Antigua, four more of the slaves from the cargo of the Sally succumbed. At this point the death total stood at 92.
John Bartram and Billie arrived in Saint Augustine.
October 12, Saturday: John Bartram and Billie dined with Governor James Grant in Saint Augustine. In this timeframe John contracted malaria. HDT WHAT? INDEX
JOHN BARTRAM JOHN BARTRAM GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
November: John Bartram and Billie spent the month in St. Augustine. BOTANIZING
November 16, Saturday: John Bartram and Billie attended the Indian conference at Picolata.
December: John Bartram and Billie traveled through Florida from St. Augustine north to Fort George (returning to St. Augustine the following February). BOTANIZING
December 22, Sunday: John Bartram and Billie set out on their trip up the St. Johns River.
BOTANIZING
December 26: John Bartram and Billie visited Charlotia and Murphy Island. BOTANIZING
December 31: John Bartram and Billie reached Spalding’s Lower Store near Palatka. BOTANIZING HDT WHAT? INDEX
JOHN BARTRAM JOHN BARTRAM GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
1766
A Journal Kept by John Bartram of Philadelphia, Botanist to His Majesty for the Floridas. BOTANIZING
William Young was back in Philadelphia, with the gossip suggesting that he had left the European scene under a cloud. Some of his reputation rested on his introduction of the Venus Fly-trap (originally John Bartram’s discovery), which had not previously been seen alive in Europe. BOTANIZING
January 12, Sunday: John Bartram and Billie reached their farthest point near the headwaters of the St. Johns River, near Titusville. BOTANIZING
January 13, Monday: John Bartram and Billie began to make their way back down the St. Johns River.
January 19, Sunday: John Bartram and Billie arrived at Spalding’s Upper Store.
January 23, Thursday: An earthquake table lists the quake on this day as “1766JAN23 1000 43.70 70.30 5 ME PORTLAND.”
John Bartram and Billie botanized around Silver Glen Springs. BOTANIZING
Early February: John Bartram and Billie botanized along the lower St. Johns River. BOTANIZING
Mid-February: John Bartram and Billie returned to Saint Augustine. William Bartram decided to remain in Florida and become the master of his own slave plantation. Hey, that would be the life for him! He took a land grant near Fort Picolata. HDT WHAT? INDEX
JOHN BARTRAM JOHN BARTRAM GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
March: John Bartram and Billie sailed back from St. Augustine to Charleston.
March 22, Saturday: John Bartram and Billie arrived in Charleston and spent several weeks preparing his specimens for shipping. With the advice of Henry Laurens John purchased slaves, supplies, and seeds to send to William.
April: John Bartram and Billie sailed back from Charleston to Philadelphia.
April 22, Tuesday: John Bartram and Billie arrived home in Philadelphia.
Anne-Louise-Germaine Necker was born in Paris.
Melancholy Summer: William Bartram and his friend Henry Laurens wrote separate letters from Charleston to William’s father John Bartram outside Philadelphia, attempting to explain William’s bad state of mind and consequent inattention to business: [Henry] Laurens and his source are on to something here; they have provided a glimpse of one battle in William [Bartram]’s lifelong war against what was then called melancholia — what we term depression, a despondency that drove him to the greatest depths of mental anguish that a person can know. Laurens suggests suicidal tendencies. I suspect this wasn’t the only time that William balanced unsteadily on the brink of self- destruction. Whether melancholia was the cause or the consequence of his failures is difficult to say; quite possibly it was both, but at most his problems were triggers rather than HDT WHAT? INDEX
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explanations for what he went through. Depression, a mysterious disease in our day, was even less comprehensible in the Bartrams’. A sense of self-hatred is common to those enduring the illness; a failure of self-esteem is sometimes precipitated by difficulties, but depression often lays sufferers low at what, for others, would be the most joyous of occasions. William suffered, at times, from an inability to make active decisions and from disrupted sleep patterns; he appeared lethargic when energy was called for, and was unable to connect with others or even to communicate for months on end. Symptoms show themselves early, in his inability to make choices about a career as part of the teenage crisis that so thoroughly depressed him. Others found William’s behavior frustrating and blamed him for lethargy, unresponsiveness, irresponsibility, and rudeness; he blamed himself, too. As William Styron writes eloquently about his own case, I was feeling in my mind a sensation close to, but indescribably different from, actual pain. This leads me to touch again on the elusive nature of such distress. That the word “indescribable” should present itself is not fortuitous, since it has to be emphasized that if the pain were readily describable most of the countless sufferers from this ancient affliction would have been able to confidently depict for their friends and loved ones (even their physicians) some of the actual dimensions of their torment, and perhaps elicit a comprehension that has been generally lacking; such incomprehension has usually been due not to a failure of sympathy but to the basic inability of healthy people to imagine a form of torment so alien to everyday experience. For myself, the pain is most closely connected to drowning or suffocation — but even these images are off the mark. William couldn’t explain; others couldn’t comprehend, weren’t sympathetic. For some reason, people of an artistic bent, such as William, suffer disproportionately from melancholia, from what Styron describes as a helpless stupor in which cognition is replaced by “positive and active anguish.” William simply wasn’t fit for the world in which other men lived. Now he knew that for sure, if he hadn’t known it before. — Slaughter, Thomas P. THE N ATURES OF J OHN AND WILLIAM B ARTRAM. NY: Vintage Books, 1996, pages 161-2. HDT WHAT? INDEX
JOHN BARTRAM JOHN BARTRAM GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
July 6, Sunday: Alexander Wilson was born in Paisley, Scotland in the family of an illiterate distiller.
William Bartram was visited by Henry Laurens. Laurens reported to John Bartram that his son’s prospect as a planter looked dim and advised that he be encouraged to abandon this scheme. Sometime in the late summer Billie did sell out, and was put to work for William De Brahm surveying the land for a colony of New Smyrna (sometime around December he would be shipwrecked just off the New Smyrna Beach). HDT WHAT? INDEX
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July 30, day: William Pitt, Earl of Chatham replaced Charles Watson-Wentworth, Marquess of Rockingham as Prime Minister of Great Britain.
August 9, Saturday: When a friend of the Bartram family visited William Bartram on his 20-acre “plantation” in Florida, it was discovered that he wasn’t doing well there at all. The visitor thought the land which the father John Bartram had selected to be a rather poor choice. The small garden the settlers had begun for their personal provisions had been destroyed by the excessive rains, and William himself was feverish:4 Possibly, sir, your son, though a worthy, ingenious man, may not have resolution, or not that sort of resolution, that is necessary to encounter the difficulties incident to, and unavoidable in his present state of life.... I have been informed, indeed, before my visit to Mr. W.B., that he had felt the pressure of his solitary and hopeless condition so heavily, as almost to drive him to despondency. — Henry Laurens to John Bartram
4. The biographer Thomas P. Slaughter suggests clinical depression. HDT WHAT? INDEX
JOHN BARTRAM JOHN BARTRAM GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
1767
William Bartram was shipwrecked during his return to Philadelphia from his failed plantation along the St. Johns River of Florida, and came very close to losing his life. Having returned to his father’s house a disgraced business failure, he would for a period be unfit for anything but work as a common agricultural laborer. But, he continued to draw. He attempted to write to his cousin Mary in Charlestown, of whom he had become enamored. We still have some of the paper on which he made the attempt: Dear D D Dear Cozen Dear Cozin D Dear I write a few lines Dear Cozen I write a few BC Lines Dear cozen Cozin I write a few D Deare Cozen I wright a few lines 8 888888888888 D Dear Cozen I write Mary Like Thoreau, William would reach his midlife with just this, unconsummated, love affair and would look ahead, when he looked, to an inward retreat. That’s how William became the first native-born American to devote his life, his entire life, to the study of nature. Out of an unresolved teenage crisis, failure, depression, a lost love, and a sense that he didn’t fit and had to follow his own light rather than that of his father or anyone else, William transformed himself from a failed man of commerce and commercial agriculture into the saintly eccentric that he would become. That’s where he turned from the broad avenues of civilization, from the clear lane of his father’s long journey, down a path of his own: that of the nature artist, botanist, explorer, gardener, and “philosophical pilgrim,” as he called himself. There just wasn’t anything else he could be. That’s the way he went even though there was no career pattern for such things or any good way to make his way in the world as a pilgrim to nature.... Eventually, William would make a virtue of his failures, congratulate himself for being different, develop a stinging critique of those who pursued the main chance that eluded him. But his theory of nature and human nature was more than a rationalization for what he couldn’t be; it was a way of life that he achieved with struggle over time, a better self that he labored hard to become. HDT WHAT? INDEX
JOHN BARTRAM JOHN BARTRAM GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
Only one actual letter to this “cozen” Mary in the South survives: Please present my regard to all the families of the Black People; they were kind and very serviceable to me; I wish it were in my power to reward their fidelity and benevolence to me. I often remember them; these acknowledgement [sic] at least, are due from me to them, altho [sic] they are Negroes and Slaves. HDT WHAT? INDEX
JOHN BARTRAM JOHN BARTRAM GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
1769
April 26, Wednesday: John Bartram was elected to the Royal Academy of Science of Stockholm. BOTANIZING HDT WHAT? INDEX
JOHN BARTRAM JOHN BARTRAM GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
1770
John Bartram, at the age of 71, set an inscribed stone beneath the 2nd-story window of his library, attesting that “IT IS GOD ALONE ALMYTY LORD THE HOLY ONE BY ME ADORD 1770 JOHN BARTRAM.” (So, who was he trying to impress, was it God he was trying to impress? –Go figure.)
September 30, Sunday: William Bartram, after being threatened by a creditor, disappeared from the Bartram home near Philadelphia, no one knew whither.
December: The Bartrams in Philadelphia received a letter from William Bartram, informing them that he had gone to stay with their North Carolina relatives.
Joseph Nichols died. When asked for final comments he explained that he could think of nothing to add to what he had been saying, and closed his eyes. HDT WHAT? INDEX
JOHN BARTRAM JOHN BARTRAM GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
1771
John Bartram released control of his home and garden to his firstborn son John Bartram, Jr. The family business in plant and seeds would continue — and improvident brother William Bartram would always have a place to lay his ignoble head. BOTANIZING
July: The Bartram family informed William Bartram that all his debts and obligations had been settled by them, and that he no longer need fear any personal attack from “that troublesome man who threatened thee.” HDT WHAT? INDEX
JOHN BARTRAM JOHN BARTRAM GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
1772
It has been alleged that at some point John Bartram manumitted his slaves, who ate at table with his 11 children, and put them on salary. We have no indication that if this happened, the action had been ideology- driven, that is, that it was due to any growing distaste for human slavery, or commitment to an ideal of freedom, or religious sentiment on the part of the elder Bartram, or pressure from other Quakers — this may indeed have been the case but there’s an entire absence of evidence. It is within the bounds of possibility that the manumission described was entirely practical. It is also within the bounds of possibility that this account that has grown up represents a considerable exaggeration. What William Bartram would write about his father was simply that “he gave liberty to a most valuable male slave, then in the prime of his life, who had been bred up in the family almost from his infancy.” One event, one person. Various members of the Bartram family in fact bought and sold slaves up to within three years of the point at which the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends began to censure members who continued to own slaves.
What Friend John Fothergill had in mind, in his patronage of William Bartram, was a two-or-three-year expedition for the collection of rare plant specimens and their seeds, more or less a replay of what William’s father John Bartram had accomplished on behalf of Friend Peter Collinson, deceased, before advancing age had deprived him of his eyesight. He wanted “plants remarkable for their beauty, fragrance, singularity of appearance or known usefulness.” He really wouldn’t get this from the son at all. He wouldn’t get one cutting, he wouldn’t receive as much as one seed. All he would get was drawings, and travel accounts not remarkable for their accuracy, and over a greater period of years than he had bargained for. Well, but his patronage wouldn’t cost him very much, either. In one of the years of Bartram’s TRAVELS, for instance, his position as patron would cost him a mere £12. BOTANIZING HDT WHAT? INDEX
JOHN BARTRAM JOHN BARTRAM GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
1773
William Bartram collected Jenny, a slave woman, in lieu of payment of some money owed him, and then his cousin and his brother sold Jenny so William could pay a few of his many bills. The sale papers for Jenny are still in existence among the Bartram papers. His biographer Thomas P. Slaughter comments that: It is perplexing to a late-twentieth-century reader that a man who could feel so poignantly the heartbreak of an orphaned bear, who made such an impassioned plea for the life of a rattlesnake, could buy and sell people.
Speaking both of the father John Bartram and of the son William Bartram, he comments: Simply put, they were no more morally consistent than any of the rest of us are.
Note that the lunar eclipse which William Bartram described as having occurred in this year actually occurred in 1776. This should warn us not to assume this author to be truthful. In regard to William’s frightening encounter with a native, for instance, although William reports to us that he had been alone during this encounter, in fact he had not been alone. William isn’t above claiming to be alone when he really was not.
His biographer also notes that William also isn’t above telling us, to heighten our tension, that he is unarmed, when in fact he is packing a rifle: I saw at once, that, being unarmed, I was in his power.
The TRAVELS is a complicated story told by a person who wanted to tell the truth, but who didn’t always know what it was; it was written by a man who didn’t let smaller truths obscure larger ones that he wanted to share. William Bartram was a persona, a character in a book whom the author imagined back in his plantation swamp and whom he became over the course of his travels, in writing his TRAVELS, in the garden after his traveling was done. The personal transformation was a self-conscious act, but the creation of the pilgrim’s persona was not, so the book is richly autobiographical in ways that William never intended, didn’t recognize, would never know, and would have denied. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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JOHN BARTRAM JOHN BARTRAM GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
1776
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK, OR, LADY’S AND GENTLEMAN’S DIARY FOR 1776. By Benjamin West, A.M. Providence, Rhode Island: John Carter. It contains a list of the Public offices of Rhode Island and an account of the Post service.
WEST’S ALMANACK, FOR THE YEAR 1776. By Benjamin West. Providence: John Carter. This was issued as a sheet almanac. The only known copy, now in the New York Public Library, has been cut up into twelve leaves and bound as a book. These leaves are printed on one side only. The title at the top and the notes about eclipses at the bottom of the original broadside, now continue across eight pages (four successive leaves). There is a photostat copy at the American Antiquarian Society.
AN ALMANACK AND EPHEMERIS FOR 1776. By John Anderson, Philom. Newport, Rhode Island: Solomon Southwick.
(Same) Second edition. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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In a rare-books catalog we find Samuel Stearns’s THE NORTH AMERICAN’S ALMANACK, AND GENTLEMAN’S AND LADY’S DIARY, FOR THE YEAR OF OUR LORD CHRIST 1776, With 12 Page Account of the Beginning of the Revolutionary War in Massachusetts: HDT WHAT? INDEX
JOHN BARTRAM JOHN BARTRAM GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
This was printed by I. Thomas in Worcester, B. Edes in Watertown, and S.&E. Hall in Cambridge, and bears an asking price of “6 Coppers.” Besides the usual monthly calendars, this publication offered a 2-page history of the charters of the British colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut, a list of the Governors of Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, and Connecticut, from the first settlements up to the time they surrendered their charters, and the Reverend William Gordon of Roxbury’s “An Account of the Commencement of Hostilities between Great Britain and America, in the Province of Massachusetts Bay.” HDT WHAT? INDEX
JOHN BARTRAM JOHN BARTRAM GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
NOTE: William Bartram ascribed the lunar eclipse of this year to the year 1773, a fact which, even if we had no other such warnings in regard to his accounts of his travels, would have forced us to beware of a too-literal acceptance of them as reported.5
5. William Bartram tells us he is alone when he is not alone, and tells us he is unarmed when in fact he is packing a rifle. He isn’t even to be trusted in regard to names, alleging for instance that his father John Bartram and his martyred-by-the-Indians grandfather had the same name, John Bartram, when in fact he himself had been named after this grandfather, William Bartram! — Was he stoned when he wrote this? — Go figure. HDT WHAT? INDEX
JOHN BARTRAM JOHN BARTRAM GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
1777
September 22, Monday: John Bartram, while anxious that British soldiers would destroy his garden, died. (His worries were groundless, as the only relict of the war in his garden would be a solitary cannonball that would lie there for at least a couple of generations. This would be published in 1804: “Mr. Bartram was a man of modest and gentle manners, frank, cheerful, and of great good-nature; a lover of justice, truth, and charity. He was himself an example of filial, conjugal, and parental affection. His humanity, gentleness, and compassion were manifested upon all occasions, and were even extended to the animal creation. He was never known to have been at enmity with any man.” Famous Last Words:
“What school is more profitably instructive than the death-bed of the righteous, impressing the understanding with a convincing evidence, that they have not followed cunningly devised fables, but solid substantial truth.” — A COLLECTION OF MEMORIALS CONCERNING DIVERS DECEASED MINISTERS, Philadelphia, 1787 “The death bed scenes & observations even of the best & wisest afford but a sorry picture of our humanity. Some men endeavor to live a constrained life — to subject their whole lives to their will as he who said he might give a sign if he were conscious after his head was cut off — but he gave no sign Dwell as near as possible to the channel in which your life flows.” —Thoreau’s JOURNAL, March 12, 1853
1681 Headman Ockanickon of the Mantas are the “Leaping Frogs” “Be plain and fair to all, both Indian the Mantas group of the Lenape tribe and Christian, as I have been.”
1692 Massachusetts Bay being pressed to death for refusing to “Add more weight that my misery colonist Giles Corey cooperate in his trial for witchcraft may be the sooner ended.”
1777 John Bartram during a spasm of pain “I want to die.”
1790 Benjamin Franklin unsolicited comment “A dying man can do nothing easy.” HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1793 Louis Capet, being beheaded in the Place de la Con- “I die innocent of all the crimes laid to my King Louis XVI of corde charge; I Pardon those who have occasioned France my death; and I pray to God that the blood you are going to shed may never be visited on France.”
1793 Jean-Paul Marat reviewing a list of names “They shall all be guillotined.”
1793 Citizen Marie Antoinette stepping on the foot of her executioner “Pardonnez-moi, monsieur.” ... other famous last words ... HDT WHAT? INDEX
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One version of the cannonball story has it that after the battle, General Washington sat under a weeping ash chatting with the French ambassador, and the Frenchman gestured toward the spent cannonball and went “What kind of nut is that?” and Washington quipped back, “It is a nut too hard for John Bull to crack.” Another version of the cannonball story has it that Washington was at the moment consuming one of John Bartram’s famous pears and the French ambassador gestured toward the spent cannonball and went “What kind of fruit is this?” — “Ah, count, that is a fruit hard of digestion.” (We don’t have such a story from either the general or the ambassador.)
[When George Washington visited the garden of the Bartrams, he was horrified to discover that the Bartrams did not believe in pulling the weeds. This challenged all his notions or order and propriety. Not only did they not pull weeds, but also, for religious, philosophical, and environmental reasons, they were opposed to the indiscriminate killing of poisonous snakes!]
Concord sent 46 of its citizen soldiers to assist for 41 days at the taking of General Burgoyne, at an expense of £640 plus an enlistment bounty of £16. 6 TABLE OF REVOLUTIONARY CAMPAIGNS
WHEN REQUIRED MEN TIME WHERE EMPLOYED BOUNTY AMOUNT
January 26, 1777 44 3 years Continental Army £20 £880
These [the above] were the first three-year men enlisted. Col. James Barrett mustered all the men from this county. Ephraim Wood paid the bounty of those enlisted in Concord. Nathan Wheeler, Ephraim Wheeler, Ephraim Minott, and Wareham Wheeler, were Lieutenants in the three years’ service. The forty-four names follow. Thomas Wood, Matthew Jameson, Amos Nutting, Job Spaulding, John Hodgman, William Wil- son, Josiah Blood, Patrick Neiff, David Jenners, Abraham Davis, Thomas B. Ball, Pomp Cady, James Bray, Daniel Brown, James Barrett, Edward Butt, Edward Wilkins, John Sherwin, Samuel Dutton, John Corneil, Samson Yammon, Daniel Stearns, Amos Darby, William Wheeler, Nathaniel Draper, Oliver Rice, Stephen Stearns, James Melvin, James Allen, Richard Anthony, Oliver Barnes, John McGath, Thomas Fay, Cesar Minott, Samuel Butler, Francis Legross, Charles Swan, James Marr, Nathaniel Taylor, Tilly Holden (died), Samuel Blood, Daniel Cole.
April 12, 1777 11 Rhode Island 6 66
This [the above] was a detachment to reinforce General Spencer. Amos Hosmer and Thaddeus Hunt were Lieutenants.
April 30, 1777 5 6 months Continental Army 8 40
July 1777 29 Rhode Island 10 290 HDT WHAT? INDEX
JOHN BARTRAM JOHN BARTRAM GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
WHEN REQUIRED MEN TIME WHERE EMPLOYED BOUNTY AMOUNT
Abishai Brown was Captain [of the above]; Daniel Davis, of Acton, 1st Lieutenant; James Brown, of Lexington, 2d Lieutenant; Thaddeus Blood, Orderly Sergeant; Abel Davis, Drummer. They left about the 1st of June. Dr. Isaac Hurd was Surgeon of the regiment, which was com- manded by John Jacobs and Lt. Colonel Robinson, and was under Gen. Spencer. Abishai Brown was appointed Major in this campaign. The town estimate gives fourteen only in this campaign, but is probably incorrect. Dea. White’s MS. says, “July 23, 1777, an alarm, — draughted the fol- lowing persons to go to R. Island [Rhode Island],” and gives the names of twenty-nine.
August 9, 1777 16 5 months Northward 35 560
These [the above] constituted one sixth of the militia. George Minott was Captain. They were at the battle of Saratoga, and at the taking of Burgoyne. They subsequently marched to New Jersey.
September 22, 1777 46 41 days Taking of Burgoyne 16 640
This [the above] was a volunteer company of sixty-three men from Concord and Acton, com- manded by John Buttrick. John Heald and Silas Mann, were Lieutenants; John White, Samuel Piper, Reuben Hunt, and Peter Wheeler, Sergeants. They were under Colonel Reed. They left Concord, October 4th, passed through Rutland, Northampton, &c., and arrived at Saratoga on the 10th, where they encamped two days. The 13th they went to Fort Edward. The 14th and 15th, went out on a scout, and the 16th brought in fifty-three Indians, several Tories (one of whom had 100 guineas), and some women. The 17th “we had an express,” says Deacon White’s Journal, “to return to Saratoga, and had the pleasure to see the whole of Burgoyne’s army parade their arms, and march out of their lines; a wonderful sight indeed; it was the Lord’s doing, and it was mar- vellous in our eyes.” They guarded the prisoners to Cambridge. $206 were subscribed to encour- age these men, beside the bounty specified in the table. Samuel Farrar commanded a company from Lincoln and Lexington in this campaign.
November 28, 1777 23 5 months Guard at Cambridge 9 207
Capt. Simon Hunt, of Acton, commanded the company [above] to which most of the Concord men were attached, under Col. Eleazer Brooks and Gen. Heath. Nine companies guarded Bur- goyne’s troops down, five marching before and four behind.
6. Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;.... Boston: Russell, Odiorne, and Company; Concord MA: John Stacy (On or about November 11, 1837 Henry Thoreau would indicate a familiarity with the contents of at least pages 2-3 and 6-9 of this historical study.) HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1784
Ann Mendenhall Bartram died. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1785
Antoine-Auguste Parmentier embarked on a campaign to persuade the French to rely upon the potato. King Louis XVI allowed him to plant potatoes on a hundred abandoned acres outside Paris, and he kept the field under heavy guard. Then, one night, this cunning fellow allowed this guard to go off duty — and so of course as expected the local peasants sneaked over and stole his entire crop, to plant on their own farms. He persuaded the king to throw a banquet at which only potatoes were served, and persuaded Marie Antoinette to put potato blossoms in her hair. What an operator! Benjamin Franklin attended that banquet.
Humphry Marshall, cousin of William Bartram and the younger John Bartram, who had a large arboretum at Marshallton in Chester County, Pennsylvania, in this year published a catalog ARBUSTRUM AMERICANUM in which he accounted for many of the species in his collection. BOTANIZING
Beginning in this year André Michaux and his son François André Michaux were making their initial tour of the US, not only introducing plants from France and her colonies but also setting up nurseries from which they might export American plants to France. In southeastern North America they encountered wild populations of Cherokee rose, which were believed to be native. (The plant appears to have come to North America with early Spanish explorers or settlers, as it is native to China, and had been cultivated in Moslem countries. Similarly, when William Penn acquired Penn’s Woods from the Indians, he found they were already cultivating the peach, native to Persia, in their gardens.) This visit would continue into the year 1796. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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May 13, Friday: Captain John Byron married Catherine Gordon of Gight. GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON
At his brother Isaac Bartram’s home on 3rd Street in Philadelphia, the debtor William Bartram finally addressed all his creditors, who had been summoned by the following newspaper advertisement, and dispensed himself of what bequests he had received from his father John Bartram: Whereas William Bartram, of the township of Kingsessing, and state of Pennsylvania, being duly sensible of the signal indulgence shown by his creditors in forbearing to distress him, thinks it his duty, in this public manner, to acknowledge the same, and to make them all the compensation in his power; that having lately received a legacy left him by his father, John Bartram, he is desirous of discharging the remainder of what is so justly their due; and, though he is fearful his whole property will not be sufficient to satisfy all that may be demanded of him, is yet anxious that an equal distribution should be made as far as the same will hold out. HDT WHAT? INDEX
JOHN BARTRAM JOHN BARTRAM GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
1787
June 10, Sunday: George Washington took a break from governmental proceedings and rode out “to see the Botanical Garden of Mr. Bartram, which though stored with many curious plants, shrubs and trees, many of which are exotics, was not laid off with much taste nor was it large.” BOTANIZING
July 14, Saturday: The Bartram Garden, which had so disappointed George Washington, received a visit from Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, George Mason, John Rutledge, and other members of the Constitutional Convention. HDT WHAT? INDEX
JOHN BARTRAM JOHN BARTRAM GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
1792
George Washington put in two substantial orders to the nursery of John Bartram, son of the 1st John Bartram. HDT WHAT? INDEX
JOHN BARTRAM JOHN BARTRAM GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
1804
William Bartram’s “Anecdotes of an American Crow,” whom he had reared from the nest and who had the run of William’s library and garden, appeared in the THE PHILADELPHIA MEDICAL AND PHYSICAL JOURNAL. COLLECTED AND ARRANGED BY BENJAMIN SMITH BARTON, MD. William would whip Tom with a twig when the crow became too mischievous. ABOUT TOM THE CROW Anecdotes of an American Crow It is a difficult task to give a history of our Crow. And I hesitate not to aver, that it would require the pen of an very able biographer to do justice to his talents. Before I enter on this subject minutely, it may be necessary to remark, that we do not here speak of the crow, collectively, as giving an account of the whole race (since I am convinced, that these birds differ as widely as men do from each other, in point of talents and acquirements), but of a particular bird of that species, which I reared from the nest. He was, for a long time, comparatively a helpless, dependent creature, having a very small degree of activity or vivacity, every sense seeming to be asleep, or in embryo, until he had nearly attained his finished dimensions, and figure, and the use of all his members. Then, we were surprised, and daily amused with the progressive development of his senses, expanding and maturing as the wings of the youthful phalaena, when disengaged from its nympha-shell. These, senses, however, seemed, as in man, to be only the organs or instruments of his intellectual powers, and of their effects, as directed towards the accomplishment of various designs, and the gratification of the passions. This was a bird of a happy temper, and good disposition. He was tractable and benevolent, docile and humble, whilst his genius demonstrated extraordinary acuteness, and lively sensations. All these good qualities were greatly in his favor, for they procured him friends and patrons, even among men, whose society and regard contributed to illustrate the powers of his understanding. But what appeared most extraordinary, he seemed to have the wit to select and treasure up in his mind, and the sagacity to practice, that kind of knowledge which procured him the most advantage and profit. He had great talents, and a strong propensity to imitation. When I was engaged in weeding in the garden, he would often fly to me, and after very attentively observing me in pulling up the small weeds and grass, he would fall to work, and with his strong beak, pluck up the grass; and the more so, when I complemented him with encouraging expressions. He enjoyed great pleasure and amusement in seeing me write, and would attempt to take the pen HDT WHAT? INDEX
JOHN BARTRAM JOHN BARTRAM GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
out of my hand, and my spectacles from my nose. The latter article he was so pleased with, that I found it necessary to put them out of his reach, when I had done using them. But, one time, in particular, having left them a moment, the crow being then out of my sight, recollecting the bird’s mischievous tricks, I returned quickly, and found him upon the table, rifling my inkstand, books, and paper. When he saw me coming, he took up my spectacles, and flew off with them. I found it vain to pretend to overtake him; but standing to observe his operations with my spectacles, I saw him settle down at the root of an apple tree, where, after amusing himself, for awhile, I observed, that he was hiding them in the grass, and covering them with chips and sticks, often looking round about, to see whether I was watching him. When he thought he had sufficiently secreted them, he turned about, advancing towards me, at my call. When he had come near me, I ran towards the tree, to regain my property. But he, judging my intentions, by my actions, flew, and arriving there before me, picked them up again, and flew off with them, into another apple tree. I now almost despaired of ever getting them again. However, I returned back to a house, a little distance off, and there secreting myself, I had a full view of him, and waited to see the event. After some time elapsed, during which I heard a great noise and talk from him, of which I understood not a word, he left the tree, and with my spectacles dangling in his mouth, and alighted, with them on the ground. After some time, and a great deal of caution and contrivance in choosing and rejecting different places, he hid them again, as he thought very effectually, in the grass, carrying and placing over them chips, dry leaves, &c., and often pushing them down with his bill. After he had finished this work, he flew up into a tree, hard by, and there continued for a long time, talking to himself, and making much noise; bragging, as I supposed, of his achievements. At last, he returned to the house, where not finding me, he betook himself to other amusements. Having noted the place, where he had hid my spectacles, I hastened thither, and after some time recovered them. This bird had an excellent memory. He soon learned the name which we had given him, which was Tom; and would commonly come when he was called, unless engaged in some favorite amusement, or soon after correction: for when he had run to great lengths in mischief, I was under the necessity of whipping him; which I did with a little switch. He would, in general, bear correction with wonderful patience and humility, supplicating with piteous and penitent cries and actions. but sometimes, when chastisement became intolerable, he would suddenly start off, and take refuge in the next tree. Here he would console himself with chattering, and adjusting his feathers, if he was not lucky enough to carry off with him some of my property, such as a penknife, or a piece of paper, in this case, he would boast and brag very loudly. At times, he would soon return, and with every token of penitence and submission, approach me for forgiveness and reconciliation. On these occasions, he would sometimes return, and settle on the HDT WHAT? INDEX
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ground, near my feet, and diffidently advance, with soft soothing expressions, and a sort of circumlocution; and sit silently by me for a considerable time. At other times he would confidently come and settle upon my shoulder, and there solicit my favour and pardon, with soothing expressions, and caressing gesticulation; not omitting to tickle me about the neck, ear, &c. Tom appeared to be influenced by a lively sense of domination (an attribute prevalent in the animal creation): but, nevertheless, his ambition, in this respect, seemed to be moderated by a degree of reason, or reflection. He was, certainly, by no means tyrannical, or cruel. It must be confessed, however, that he aimed to be master of every animal around him, in order to secure his independence and his self- preservation, and for the acquisition and defense of his natural rights. Yet, in general, he was peaceable and social with all the animals about him. He was the most troublesome and teasing to a large dog, whom he could never conquer. This old dog, from natural fidelity, and a particular attachment, commonly lay down near me, when I was at rest, reading or writing under the shade of a pear tree, in the garden, near the house. Tom (I believe from a passion of jealousy) would approach me, with his usual caresses, and flattery, and after securing my notice and regard, he would address the dog in some degree of complaisance, and by words and actions; and, if he could obtain access to him, would tickle him with his bill, jump upon him and compose himself, for a little while. It was evident, however, that this seeming sociability was mere artifice to gain an opportunity to practice some mischievous trick; for no sooner did he observe the old dog to be dozing, than he would be sure to pinch his lips, and pluck his beard. At length, however, these bold and hazardous achievement had nearly cost him his life; for, one time, the dog being highly provoked, he made so sudden and fierce a snap, that the crow narrowly escaped with his head. After this, Tom was wary, and used every caution and deliberation in his approaches, examining the dog’s eyes and movements, to be sure that he was really asleep, and at last would not venture nearer than his tail, and then by slow, silent, and wary steps, in a sideways, or oblique manner, spreading his legs, and reaching forward. In this position, he would pluck the long hairs of the dog’s tail. But he would always take care to place his feet in such a manner as to be ready to start off, when the dog roused and snapped at him. It would be endless (observes my ingenious friend, in the conclusion of his entertaining account of the crow) to recount instances of this bird’s understanding, cunning, and operations, which, certainly, exhibited incontestible demonstrations of a regular combination of ideas, premeditation, reflection, and contrivance, which influenced his operations. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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Also appearing in this issue was his “Some Account of the Late Mr. John Bartram, of Pennsylvania.” LATE MR. JOHN BARTRAM Some account of the late Mr. John Bartram, of Pennsylvania. By William Bartram. RICHARD BARTRAM, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, came from England to America with the adherents of the famous William Penn, proprietor of Pennsylvania; towards the close of the seventeenth century. He settled a plantation in the township of Marpole, and county of Chester, at the distance of twelve miles from Philadelphia. From Richard descended two sons, John and Isaac. The former inherited the paternal estate in Marpole, and the latter settled upon another plantation in Darby, at a few miles distance. John, the elder, had two sons by his first marriage, namely, James and John, early in the beginning of the eighteenth century; and, by his second marriage, a son and a daughter, named William and Elizabeth. Soon after his second marriage, he removed to North- Carolina, where he settled a plantation at a place called Whitoc, and there, with the greatest part of the settlement, fell a victim to the rage of the Whitoc-Indians. The widow and her two children [William and Elizabeth] were carried away captives by the Indians, but were afterwards redeemed, and returned to Pennsylvania. John, the celebrated botanist and naturalist, inherited the estate in Darby, which was left to him by his uncle Isaac. Being born in a newly-settled colony,7 of not more than fifty years’ establishment, in a country where the sciences of the old continent were little known. it cannot be supposed, that he could derive great advantages or assistance from school-learning or literature. He had, however, all or most of the education that could, at that time, be acquired in country-schools; and whenever an opportunity offered, he studied such of the Latin and Greek grammars and classics, as his circumstances enabled him to purchase. And he always sought the society of the most learned and virtuous men. He had a very early inclination to the study of physic and surgery. He even acquired so much knowledge in the practice of the latter science, as to be very useful; and, in many instances, he gave great relief to his poor neighbours, who were unable to apply for medicines and assistance to the physicians of the city (Philadelphia). It is extremely probable, that, as most of his medicines were derived from the vegetable kingdom, this circumstance might point out to him the necessity of, and excite a desire for, the study of Botany.8 He seemed to have been designed for the study and contemplation 7. My learned friend Dr. James Edward Smith, seems to speak of Mr. Bartram as an Englishman. “Bartram (he says) was sent to America for the purpose of supplying our gardens with plants; and we are much indebted to him, as well as to Houstoun, who discovered many rare vegetables in South-America and the West-Indies,” &c. Discourse on the Rise and Progress of Natural History, &tc. See Tracts relating to Natural History, p. 123. London: 1798. But Bartram was a native of Pennsylvania, and never visited any part of the old world. EDITOR. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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of Nature, and the culture of philosophy. Although he was bred a farmer or husbandman, as a means of procuring a subsistence; he pursued his avocations as a philosopher, being eyer attentive to the works and operations of Nature. While engaged in ploughing his fields, and mowing his meadows, his inquisitive eye and mind were frequently exercised in the contemplation of vegetables; the beauty and harmony displayed in their mechanism; the admirable order of system, which the great Author of the universe has established throughout their various tribes, and the equally wonderful powers of their generation, the progress of their growth, and the various stages of their maturity and perfection.9 He was, perhaps, the first Anglo-American, who conceived the idea of establishing a BOTANIC GARDEN, for the reception and cultivation of the various vegetables, natives of the country, as well as of exotics, and of travelling for the discovery and acquisition of them. He purchased a convenient piece, of ground, on the banks of the Schuylkill, at the distance of about three miles from Philadelphia; a happy situation, possessing every soil and exposure, adapted to the various nature of vegetables. Here he built, with his own hands, a large and comfortable house, of hewn stone, and laid out a garden containing about five acres of ground. He began his travels at his own expence. His various excursions rewarded his labours with the possession of a great variety of new, beautiful, and useful trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants. His garden, at length, attracting the visits and notice of many virtuous and ingenious persons, he was encouraged to persist in his labours. Not yet content with having thus begun the establishment of this school of science and philosophy, in the blooming fields of FLORA, he sought farther means for its perfection and importance, by communicating his discoveries and collections to the curious in Europe and elsewhere, for the benefit of science, commerce, and the useful arts. Having arranged his various collections and observations in natural history, one of his particular friends [Joseph Brentnal, Merchant, of Philadelphia] undertook to convey them to the celebrated Peter Collinson, of London. This laid the foundation of that friendship, and correspondence, which continued uninterrupted, and even increasing, for near fifty years of the lives of these two eminent men. Collinson, ever the disinterested friend, communicated, from time to time, to the learned in Europe, the discoveries and observations of Bartram. It was principally through the interest of Collinson, that he became acquainted, and entered into a correspondence, with many 8. Dr. Haller speaks of Mr. Bartram as a physician: “Johannes Bartram, Medicus Americanus.” Bibliotheca Anatomica. Tom. II. p. 323. 9. At an early period, but not, I believe, until after James Logan had made his celebrated experiments upon the generation of the Zea Mays, or Indian-corn, Mr. Bartram had made some experiments relative to the generation of the Lychnis dioica (Red-Campion, and White-Campion), a vegetable which has since solicited the attention of other botanists or naturalists, among whom I may mention Dr. John Hope, Dr. Daniel Rutherford, and Mr. William Smellie. Mr. Bartram’s experiments were highly favourable to the truth of the doctrine of the sexes of vegetables. EDITOR. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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of the most celebrated literary characters in Europe,10 and was elected a member of the Royal Society of London, of that of Stockholm, &c. He employed much of his time in travelling through the different provinces of North-America, at that time subject to England. Neither dangers nor difficulties impeded or confined his researches after objects in natural history. The summits of our highest mountains were ascended and explored by him. The lakes Ontario, Iriquois, and George; the shores and sources of the rivers Hudson, Delaware, Schuylkill, Susquehanna, Allegeny, and St. Juan were visited by him, at an early period, when it was truly a perilous undertaking to travel in the territories, or even on the frontiers, of the aborigines. He travelled several thousand miles in Carolina and Florida. At the advanced age of near seventy years, embarking on board of a vessel at Philadelphia, he sat sail for Charleston, in South- Carolina. From thence he proceeded, by land, through part of Carolina and Georgia, to St. Augustine, in East-Florida. When arrived at the last-mentioned place, being then appointed botanist and naturalist for the King of England, for exploring the provinces, he received his orders to search for the sources of the great River St. Juan. Leaving St. Augustine, he travelled, by land, to the banks of the river, and, embarking in a boat at Picolata, ascended that great and beautiful river (near 400 miles), to its sources, attending carefully to its various branches, and the lakes connected with it. Having ascended on one side of the river, he descended by the other side, until the confluence of the Picolata with the sea. In the course of this voyage or journey, he made an accurate draught and survey of the various widths, depths, courses, and distances, both of the main stream, and of the lakes and branches. He also noted the situation and quality of the soil, the vegetable and animal productions, together with other interesting observations, all of which were highly approved of by the Governor, and sent to the Board of Trade and Plantations, in England, by whose direction they were ordered to be published, for the benefit of the new colony. Mr. Bartram was a man of modest and gentle manners, frank, cheerful, and of great good-nature; a lover of justice, truth, and charity. He was himself an example of filial, conjugal, and parental affection. His humanity, gentleness, and compassion were manifested upon all occasions, and were even extended to the animal creation. He was never known to have been at enmity
10. It is believed, that there have been but two or three native Americans whose correspondence with the learned men of Europe was so extensive as that of Mr. Bartram. The mere catalogue of his correspondents would fill a page. A few of the principal ones are mentioned: Linnaeus, Gronovius, Dalibard, Sir Hans Sloane, Catesby, Dillenius, Collinson, Fothergill, George Edwards, Philip Miller, and Targioni. He likewise lived in habits of intimacy and friendship, or corresponded, with most of the distinguished literary characters at that time in North-America, among whom I may mention Dr. Franklin, Dr. Garden, Mr. Clayton, and Governor Colden. His large collection of letters to these, and many other, celebrated men, is in the possession of the Editor. Extracts from some of them have already been printed in the present number of the Journal, and many more will be given in subsequent numbers. It is much to be regretted, that many of the letters are so injured by the ravages of time, that they cannot, in many places, be read at all; or at least, only with extreme difficulty. Parts of some of them are irrecoverably lost. EDITOR. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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with any man. During the whole course of his life, there was not a single instance of his engaging in a litigious contest with any of his neighbours, or others. He zealously testified against slavery; and, that his philanthropic precepts, on this subject, might have their due weight and force, he gave liberty to a most valuable male slave, then in the prime of his life, who had been bred up in the family almost from his infancy.11 He was, through life, a striking example of temperance, especially in the use of vinous and spirituouS liquors: not from a passion of parsimony, but from a principle of morality. His common drink was pure water, small-beer, or cyder mixed with milk. Nevertheless, he always kept a good and plentiful table. Once a year, commonly on new year’s day, he made a liberal entertainment for his relations, and particular friends. His stature was rather above the middle size, and upright. His visage was long, and his countenance expressive of a degree of dignity, with a happy mixture of animation and sensibility. He was naturally industrious and active, both in body and mind; observing, that he never could find more time than he could employ to satisfaction and advantage, either in improving conversation, or in some healthy and useful bodily exercise: and he was astonished to hear men complaining, that they were weary of their time, and knew not what they should do. He was born and educated in the sect called Quakers. But his religious creed may, perhaps, be best collected from a pious distich, engraven by his own hand, in very conspicuous characters, upon a stone placed over the front window of the apartment, which was destined for study and philosophical retirement. ‘Tis God alone, Almighty lord, The Holy One by me ador’d. J.B. 1770. This may show the simplicity and sincerity of his hears, which never harboured, or gave countenance to, dissimulation. [The distich, however, gave offence to many of Mr. Bartram’s friends. EDITOR.] His mind was frequently employed, and he enjoyed the highest pleasure, in the contemplation of Nature, as exhibited in the great volume of Creation. He generally concluded the narratives of his journeys with pious and philosophical reflections upon the Majesty and Power, the Perfection and the Benefience, of the Creator. He had a high veneration for the moral and religious precepts of the Scriptures, both old and new. He read them often, particularly on the sabbath-day; and recommended to his children and family the following precept, as comprehending the great principles of moral duty in man: “Do Justice, love Mercy, and Walk Humbly before God.” He never coveted old age, and often observed to his children and 11. Mr. Bartram was, certainly, one of the earliest espousers of the cause of the Blacks, in Pennsylvania. In point of time, however, he must yield the precedence to some other persons, particularly to Benjamin Lay, of whom it is to be regretted, that so few *written* memorials are preserved. EDITOR. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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friends, that he sincerely desired, that he might not live longer than he could afford assistance to himself: for he was unwilling to be a burthen to his friends, or useless in society; and that when death came to perform his office, there might not be much delay. His wishes, in these respects, were gratified in a remarkable manner: for although he lived to be about eighty years of age, [He was born about the year 1700, and died in the year 1778. EDITOR] yet he was cheerful and active to almost the last hours. His illness was very short. About half an hour before he expired, he seemed, though but for a few moments, to be in considerable agony, and pronounced these words, “I want to die.” N.B. A Supplement to this sketch, containing some account of Mr. Bartram’s writings, and an estimate of his services as a discoverer and collector of natural objects, will be printed in a subsequent number of this Journal. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1812
John Bartram, Jr. died. The Bartram Garden was left to his daughter Ann and her husband Robert Carr.
The Academy of Natural Sciences was founded in Philadelphia and William Bartram was elected to membership. THE SCIENCE OF 1812 HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1818
April 18, Saturday: It was established that the US flag was to acquire a star for each state added to its Union. (This convention of course would create a curious form of symbolic confusion during the our civil war.)
Jever was ceded to Oldenburg.
Friend William Bartram made an entry in his garden diary, about his beloved nephew James: “NB. died this morning Dr. James Bartram of Kingsess, grandson of the celebrated John Bartram the Botanist & naturalist.” (No other human death had ever been or would ever be recorded by William among his garden notes.)
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 18th of 4 M / This Afternoon my beloved friend Thos Anthony came down from Greenwich to attend our Meeting tomorrow we were very glad of his company & He took tea & Lodged with us. - RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1849
Professor Sir William Jackson Hooker’s A CENTURY OF ORCHIDACEOUS PLANTS, and his NIGER FLORA. From this year until 1857, the 9 volumes of his Journal of Botany and Kew Garden Miscellany.
William Lobb was sent to the Pacific coast of America by Veitch & Sons to collect plants for their horticultural trade.
William Darlington’s and Peter Collinson’s MEMORIALS OF JOHN BARTRAM AND HUMPHRY MARSHALL; (Philadelphia, Lindsay & Blakiston). BARTRAM AND MARSHALL HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1856
March 26, Wednesday: Alice Reynolds was born, daughter of the Reverend Grindall Reynolds and Lucy Maria Dodge Reynolds.
Having already perused the volumes for the years 1633-1642, Henry Thoreau checked out, from Harvard Library, for the 2d time, the JESUIT RELATION volume for the years 1639, and the volume for 1642-1643.12
http://www.canadiana.org
He also checked out Friend John Bartram’s botanical OBSERVATIONS ON THE INHABITANTS, CLIMATE, SOIL, RIVERS, PRODUCTIONS, ANIMALS, AND OTHER MATTERS WORTHY OF NOTICE. MADE BY MR. JOHN BARTRAM, IN HIS TRAVELS FROM PENSILVANIA TO ONONDAGO, OSWEGO AND THE LAKE ONTARIO, IN CANADA: TO WHICH IS ANNEX’D A CURIOUS ACCOUNT OF THE CATARACTS AT NIAGARA. BY MR. PETER KALM, A SWEDISH GENTLEMAN WHO TRAVELLED THERE (London: printed for J. Whiston & B. White, in Fleet-Street, 1751). JOHN BARTRAM’S BOOK
12. Cramoisy, Sebastian (ed.). RELATION DE CE QUI S’EST PASSÉ EN LA NOUVELLE FRANCE IN L’ANNÉE 1636: ENVOYÉE AU R. PERE PROVINCIAL DE LA COMPAGNIE DE JESUS EN LA PROVINCE DE FRANCE, PAR LE P. P AUL LE JEUNE DE LA MESME COMPAGNIE, SUPERIEUR DE LA RESIDENCE DE KÉBEC. A Paris: Chez Sebastian Cramoisy..., 1637 HDT WHAT? INDEX
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He would make notes on this reading in his Indian Notebook #10,13 and refer to it in CAPE COD.
13. The original notebooks are held by the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York, as manuscripts #596 through #606. There are photocopies, made by Robert F. Sayre in the 1930s, in four boxes at the University of Iowa Libraries, accession number MsC 795. More recently, Bradley P. Dean, PhD and Paul Maher, Jr. have attempted to work over these materials. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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CAPE COD: This spirit it was which so early carried the French to PEOPLE OF the Great Lakes and the Mississippi on the north, and the Spaniard CAPE COD to the same river on the south. It was long before our frontiers reached their settlements in the west, and a voyageur or coureur de bois is still our conductor there. Prairie is a French word, as Sierra is a Spanish one. Augustine in Florida, and Santa Fé in New Mexico [1582], both built by the Spaniards, are considered the oldest towns in the United States. Within the memory of the oldest man, the Anglo-Americans were confined between the Apalachian Mountains and the sea, “a space not two hundred miles broad,” while the Mississippi was by treaty the eastern boundary of New France. (See the pamphlet on settling the Ohio, London, 1763, bound up with the travels of Sir John Bartram.) So far as inland discovery was concerned, the adventurous spirit of the English was that of sailors who land but for a day, and their enterprise the enterprise of traders. Cabot spoke like an Englishman, as he was, if he said, as one reports, in reference to the discovery of the American Continent, when he found it running toward the north, that it was a great disappointment to him, being in his way to India; but we would rather add to than detract from the fame of so great a discoverer.
Bound up with this Bartram volume, as Thoreau indicated, was Anselm-Yates Bayly’s THE ADVANTAGE OF A SETTLEMENT UPON THE OHIO IN NORTH AMERICA (London: J. Riddley, 1763). HDT WHAT? INDEX
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Thoreau commented in his journal on the snow wheels of his era, which were used to tamp down the snow on the roads so they were passable by sleigh. Here are some photographs of typical snow wheels: HDT WHAT? INDEX
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Mar. 26th ’56 to Cambridge — I hear that Humphrey Buttrick found a whole covey of quails dead under the snow — At (He tells me that his dog found 4 in the winter) as other coveys are missing thinks they have starved) Philadelphia a month or 2 since they offered a reward for live ones more than market price — to preserve them. We have heard of an unusual quantity of ice in the course of the Liverpool packets this winter — Perhaps the Pacific has been {sunk} by one, as we hear that some other vessels have been — Yet the papers say it has been warmer about Lake Superior than in Kansas — & that the Lake will break up earlier than usual. They are just beginning to use snow wheels in Concord — but only in the middle of the town — where the snow is at length worn & melted down to bare ground in the middle of the road from 2 to 10 feet wide — Sleighs are far the most common even here In Cambridge there is no sleighing — for the most part the middle of bare & even the road from Porters to the College is dusty for 20 to 30 feet in width — the College Yard is one half bare — So if they have had more snow than we, as some say, it has melted much faster — There is also less in the towns between us & Cam. than in Concord. The snow lies longer on the low level plain surrounded by hills — in which Concord is situated. I am struck by the more wintry aspect — almost entirely uninterrupted snow fields — on coming into Concord in the cars. The Romans introduced husbandry into England, where but little was practiced before — & the English have introduced it into America — so we may well read the Roman authors for a history of this art as practiced by us. I am sometimes affected by the consideration that a man may spend the whole of his life after boyhood in accomplishing a particular design — as if he were put to a petty & special use — without taking time to look around him & appreciate the phenomenon of his existence — If so many purposes are thus necessarily left unaccomplished — perhaps unthought of — we are reminded of the transient interest we have in this life — Our interest in our country in the spread of liberty &c strong & as it were, innate as it is- -cannot (learn) (this learn gets omitted by the Dover editors) be as transient as our present existence here. It cannot be that all those patriots who die in the midst of their career have no further connexion with the career of the country. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1993
June: John Bartram, who had during his lifetime in the 18th Century been “read out” of the Darby monthly meeting of the Religious Society of Friends for refusing to assent in the divinity of Jesus Christ but had continued to be an attender at that meeting’s First Day silent worship, was reinstated posthumously as a full member of that monthly meeting.
“MAGISTERIAL HISTORY” IS FANTASIZING, HISTORY IS CHRONOLOGY
“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project John Bartram HDT WHAT? INDEX
JOHN BARTRAM JOHN BARTRAM GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others, such as extensive quotations and reproductions of images, this “read-only” computer file contains a great deal of special work product of Austin Meredith, copyright 2014. Access to these interim materials will eventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup some of the costs of preparation. My hypercontext button invention which, instead of creating a hypertext leap through hyperspace —resulting in navigation problems— allows for an utter alteration of the context within which one is experiencing a specific content already being viewed, is claimed as proprietary to Austin Meredith — and therefore freely available for use by all. Limited permission to copy such files, or any material from such files, must be obtained in advance in writing from the “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Please contact the project at
“It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.” – Remark by character “Garin Stevens” in William Faulkner’s INTRUDER IN THE DUST
Prepared: May 13, 2014 HDT WHAT? INDEX
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ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT
GENERATION HOTLINE
This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a human. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested that we pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of the shoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (as above). What these chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by ARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term the Kouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such a request for information we merely push a button. HDT WHAT? INDEX
JOHN BARTRAM JOHN BARTRAM GO TO MASTER HISTORY OF QUAKERISM
Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obvious deficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored in the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we need to punch that button again and recompile the chronology — but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary “writerly” process you know and love. As the contents of this originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves, and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.
First come first serve. There is no charge. Place requests with