1. John Bartram was an American botanist, horticulturist, and explorer, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for most of his career.
30 Facts About John Bartram
1. 2.
John Bartram started what is known as Bartram's Garden in 1728 at his farm in Kingsessing.
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John Bartram's parents were William Bartram and his first wife Elizabeth.
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Elizabeth, John Bartram's stepmother, brought his half-siblings to Pennsylvania after the family was ransomed by relatives from Philadelphia.
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John Bartram remained in Pennsylvania, while one of his brothers, named William, later went to North Carolina to take care of the estate of their father.
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John Bartram considered himself to be a plain farmer, with no formal education beyond the local school.
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John Bartram had a lifelong interest in medicine and medicinal plants, and read widely.
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John Bartram started his botanical career by devoting a small area of his farm to growing plants he found interesting.
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John Bartram began to travel extensively in the eastern American colonies in order to study and collect plants.
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John Bartram maintained a friendship with Peter Collinson, Alexander Catcot, and others through letter writing between London and the colonies, and he regularly collected specimens for Collinson and others in Europe who were interested in obtaining unfamiliar species from the New World for their gardens and scientific study.
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In 1737 John Bartram travelled by horseback through modern day Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland to Northampton County, Virginia.
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John Bartram proceeded to visit John Clayton in Gloucester County, Virginia, crossed the York River to visit John Custis in Williamsburg, Virginia, and then journeyed up the James River to visit William Byrd II's plantation at Westover.
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John Bartram continued westware to visit Isham Randolph's Dungeness estate, and then continued west to the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Shenandoah Valley.
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John Bartram visited areas along the Ohio River west of the Appalachian Mountains.
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John Bartram, sometimes called the "father of American botany", was one of the first practicing Linnaean botanists in North America.
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John Bartram forwarded plant specimens to Carl Linnaeus, Dillenius, and Gronovius.
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John Bartram was aided in his collecting efforts by other British colonists.
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In 1743, John Bartram was one of the co-founders, along with Benjamin Franklin, of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia.
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John Bartram was particularly instrumental in sending seeds from the New World to European gardeners; many North American trees and flowers were first introduced into cultivation in Europe by this route.
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Early John Bartram collections went to Lord Petre, Philip Miller at the Chelsea Physic Garden, Mark Catesby, the Duke of Richmond, and the Duke of Norfolk.
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John Bartram contributed seeds to the Oxford and Edinburgh botanic gardens.
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John Bartram was buried at the Darby Friends Cemetery in Darby, Pennsylvania.
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John Bartram did not hold Native Americans in high regard, with his views affected by his father being killed while John Bartram was young during the Tuscarora War.
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John Bartram owned, bought, and sold a number of slaves throughout his life, and, to his later regret, helped his son William purchase slaves when he made a failing attempt at being a Florida planter.
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John Bartram wrote a letter criticizing George Whitefield's ambition to educate slaves.
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John Bartram was twice married, in accordance with the discipline of the Society of Friends, of which he was a member until 1758.
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John Bartram was disowned for holding opinions not in accordance with the doctrines of Friends.
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John Bartram's Garden was known as the major botanic garden in Philadelphia until the last John Bartram heirs sold out in 1850.
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John Bartram is best known today for the discovery and introduction of a wide range of North American flowering trees and shrubs, including kalmia, rhododendron, and magnolia species; for introducing the Dionaea muscipula or Venus flytrap to cultivation; and for discovering the Franklin tree, Franklinia alatamaha in southeastern Georgia in 1765, later named by his son William Bartram.
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John Bartram's Garden has been designated as a National Historic Landmark.