William Bartram’s Travels records his 1773-77 journey through the American Southeast. Bartram’s text combined multiple ways of understanding nature from science and literature. Using the tools of the taxonomist, he cataloged the American plants and animals that he encountered. These taxonomic lists advanced science but also highlighted potentially profitable natural resources. In addition to cataloging individual plants and animals, William also described the relations between them and their environments—what we would call ecology. Finally, he included poetic passages that described nature as something beyond human comprehension–mysterious, vast, and divine. The Travels shows us Bartram’s many visions of nature.
William Bartram: The Borders of a ‘New’ World
William Bartram (APS, 1768) witnessed the emergence of both the American nation and its scientific community. His father, John Bartram, ran a plant nursery outside Philadelphia and helped found the American Philosophical Society in 1743. William’s major published work, the Travels (c. 1791), was one of the new American republic’s first natural history books.
William Bartram’s work shows us that contemporary views of the American landscape were complex. On the one hand, he describes nature as a source of creative, intellectual, and spiritual inspiration. However, William also presents nature as a source of valuable resources, ripe for development.
William also struggled to articulate a clear position on the competing claims to this landscape. He advocated the equal rights of Native Americans, but ultimately accepted the republic’s occupation of their homelands.
Bartram’s Travels
An Ecological Vision
Throughout his life, William Bartram used many different approaches to representing nature. Sometimes he showed plants and animals isolated from context. In other images, he placed living things in wider environments, or depicted entire ecosystems. Bartram’s drawings also introduced elements that emphasized nature’s awesome vastness or its infinite variety, qualities that he saw as evidence of nature’s divine maker. Through his images, Bartram invited his viewers to approach the natural world in many ways, whether through objective science, appreciation of its beauty, or contemplation.
The Hierarchy of Nature
William Bartram believed nature offered a model for a more equal American society. European taxonomists described the natural world as rigidly hierarchical, with humans at the top, separated from animals and plants. In contrast, Bartram resisted the idea of ‘natural’ hierarchy by blurring these distinctions. He emphasized the human-like reason of animals, and the ability of certain plants to move like animals. Moreover, he saw the peaceful interactions between living things as evidence that harmony and equality were universal ideals. Bartram did not apply these ideals evenly. He enslaved people in the 1760s and 1770s, before adopting an abolitionist position later in life as public sentiment changed.
William Bartram’s Influence
William Bartram instructed many significant early American naturalists, including Benjamin Smith Barton (APS, 1789), Alexander Wilson (APS, 1813), and Thomas Say (APS, 1817). Bartram’s work influenced this generation of naturalists by fostering an emphasis on nature as an element of American identity. He also set an example for the importance of field study and the accurate observation of living things in their natural environments. The literary aspects of his work were not universally accepted, however, as scientists like Say increasingly emphasized professional scientific description and taxonomy.
