Item #50689 Fragments of the Natural History of Pennsylvania. Benjamin Smith BARTON.

Fragments of the Natural History of Pennsylvania.

Item #50689

BARTON, Benjamin Smith. Fragments of the Natural History of Pennsylvania. Phila.: Printed, for the Author, by Way & Groff, 1799. 1st ed. xvii, 24 pp. Folio. Bound in later wrappers. This copy has been washed and the title page repaired, but still a very good copy in morocco-backed marbled-paper covered custom clamshell box. Evans 35159. Pritzel 436. Meisel III, 361. MacPhail, Benjamin Smith Barton and William Paul Crillon Barton 2. An important early American natural history, mostly on migratory birds, by the well-known Philadelphia doctor and naturalist. Benjamin Smith Barton, MD, (1766-1815) was professor of materia medica, natural history, and botany at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the American Philosophical Society and the Linnaeen Society among others. Barton's Elements of Botany (1804) is the first botany text published in the U.S. His writings show his wide ranging interests in, besides medicine, Indian languages, birds, rattlesnakes, botany, and a other aspects of natural history. "This work deals predominantly with the migratory birds, arranged according to the dates throughout the year 1791 on which they were first seen in the neighborhood of Philadelphia . . . Barton also notices and describes the concurrent state of the vegetation" MacPhail. Although the title page states "Part First," this is all that was published. A handsome book.

Price: $3,000.00

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