Lot 6: Bartram, William

Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogulges or Creek Confereracy, and the Country of the Choctaws. Philadelphia: Printed by James and Johnson, 1791; London: Reprinted for J. Johnson, 1792 8vo (8 1/4 x 5 1/4 in.; 210 x 133 mm). Engraved frontispiece portrait of Mico Chtucco, engraved folding map of the coast of East Florida, 7 engraved plates (one folding); light foxing and browning. Contemporary calf gilt; worn, spine and endleaves renewed.

DAB II, pp. 28-9; Evans 23159; Howes B223; Sabin 3870

First English edition of "a work of high character well meriting its wide esteem" (Howes); written in a style that Ralph Waldo Emerson referred to as having "biblical grandeur." Bartram was commissioned by his good friend, Dr. John Fothergill, to travel through the South and make records of its flora and fauna. His significance in the field of ornithology is great. William Coues called Bartram and his book the starting point of a distinctly American school of ornithology. His principal contribution lies in the catalogue of North American birds (pp. 281-300), of which he lists 215 species, with considerable observation on migration.