Dialogue with Nature: The Bartram Contribution

Dialogue with Nature: The Bartram Contribution. . , Search for Knowledge , Although he lacked a formal education, John Bartram contributed more than anyone else in America at that time to the development of an international science of natural history. His work describing the documenting American flora aided Linnaeus's pioneering efforts to develop a modern classification system for plants and animals. Linnaeus called him the "greatest botanist in the world". John and his son, William are credited with introducing more than 200 species of American plants to science., In addition to plants, Bartram was also a keen observer of rock formations, fossils, shells, insects, snakes, birds, and other animals. He was among the first to speculate about the "balance" of nature., The Romance of Nature , Armed with the knowledge gained through the empiricism of his father's world, William Bartram came to represent the spirit of a new age. In his book, Travels, William achieved a balance between the 18th century standard of objectivity and science and the new emphasis on the subjective and spiritual which was to characterize the Romantic movement of the early 19th century. Travels not only had a great influence on contemporary European writers including Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Chateaubriand, but also later generations of naturalist writers like Henry Thoreau of Walden Pond and John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club.,

"The waters like a cataract descend from his opening jaws. Clouds of smoke issue from his dilated nostrils. The earth trembles with his thunder". , from William Bartram's "Travels", 1791