By the time of his death at age 49, Benjamin Smith Barton (1766-1815) had become one of the best known citizens in the city of Philadelphia, one of the leaders in American medical education, and one of the more controversial figures in American natural history.

Although it is clear, as he maintained, that Barton received training in medicine at elite European universities, the details of his medical education are at best murky. In 1786, Barton entered Edinburgh University under the recommendation of his mentors in Philadelphia, including Benjamin Rush. Ingratiating himself personally and distinguishing himself professionally, Barton joined both the Edinburgh Natural History Society and the Royal Medical Society, receiving the latter's Harveian Prize for his work on Hyosciannus niger, the black henbane. Such early signs of success, however, soon turned sour. By the winter of 1788, Barton withdrew from Edinburgh, claiming that he had been neglected by his professors, although it is equally plausible that he had worn out his welcome through his penchant for borrowing, and not readily repaying, money from colleagues, and perhaps from the Royal Medical Society.

Whatever the cause of Barton's departure from Edinburgh, depart he did, winding up in either the Netherlands or Germany by the fall of 1788 with no medical degree in hand. Later in life, Barton claimed to have taken a degree at the prestigious University of Göttingen, and when he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in January 1789, he was listed as Benjamin Smith Barton, M.D. However Göttingen has no record of granting a degree to Barton, and the timing makes it unlikely that he did: Barton returned to America during the fall of 1789 to become Professor of Botany at the College of Philadelphia. He received an M.D. from the University of Kiel in 1796.

In Philadelphia, Barton rapidly established a reputation as one of the preeminent botanists in the nation. His interest in systematic botany, materia medica, and Native American uses of plants blossomed into his best known and most popular work, The Elements of Botany; or, Outlines of the Natural History of Vegetables (Philadelphia, 1803), the first American botanical textbook. Impressed with the broad range of scholarship in the book, Thomas Jefferson asked Barton to assist Meriwether Lewis in his scientific preparation for the Corps of Discovery, and after Lewis' untimely death in 1809, Barton assisted in analyzing the natural historical results of the expedition. He was frequently engaged as a public lecturer on scientific topics during the first decade and a half of the 19th century.

From his days at Edinburgh, Barton's interests were never strictly confined to botany nor contained within the walls of the academy. Throughout his tenure at the College of Philadelphia, he offered public lectures on all aspects of natural history, tailoring some to a specifically female audience. His research was both creative and original, reflecting an advanced understanding of the current state of Anglo-American scholarship. His brilliant Memoir Concerning the Fascinating Faculty Which Has been Ascribed to the Rattle-Snake (Philadelphia, 1796), for example, was an examination of the reputed power of rattlesnakes to fascinate their prey, and as such touched not only upon anatomy and zoology, but upon the nature of perception and the relation of body and mind. He turned his attention, as well to the mastodon, chemistry, mineralogy, meteorology, and electricity.

Most famously, Barton followed his mentor Benjamin Rush in becoming an important early national theorist of race, and became consumed by his research into the culture, history, archaeology, and biology of American Indians. His Hints on the Etymology of Certain English Words and on Their Affinity to Words in the Languages of Different European, Asiatic and American (Indian) Nations, in a Letter... to Thomas Beddoes (Philadelphia, 1803) was an early effort in comparative linguistics that drew comparisons between American Indian languages and Welsh, and his New Views of the Origin of the Tribes and Nations of America (Philadelphia, 1798) was well received.

Even as his scientific and academic reputations burgeoned, Barton maintained an active medical practice as a member of the staff of the Pennsylvania Hospital. Perhaps his major contribution to medicine was as editor of the Philadelphia Medical and Physical Journal (1804-1809), one of the nation's earliest medical journals and an important source for scholarly work in natural history.

Barton drew accolades for his work, beginning with his election to the American Philosophical Society in 1789 (vice president, 1802-1815). He was also inducted as a member of the Linnaean Society of London, the Swedish Royal Academy of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Philadelphia Linnaean Society (president, 1806), and the Philadelphia Medical Society. He died from tuberculosis in New York City in 1815, leaving behind his wife of 18 years, Mary Penington.

A rich resource for the study of American natural history during the early national period, the Benjamin Smith Barton Papers contain approximately ten linear feet of correspondence, notes, diaries, essays and lectures. The collection is organized broadly into five series: I. correspondence; II. Subject files; III. Bound volumes; IV. Graphic Materials; and V. Printing Plates.

The Barton Papers document the professional interests of the botanist and physician Benjamin Smith Barton from the time of his return from Europe in 1789 until his death in 1815. Series I consists of incoming and outgoing correspondence arranged alphabetically. Series II is comprised of notes and manuscripts by Barton or collected by Barton relating to his research in Botany, Indians, Medicine, and Miscellaneous other subjects. The series is arranged by topic. Series III is made up of 32 bound volumes of manuscript notes on various scientific topics, including a commonplace book, generation, fevers, mineralogy, and journals of trips taken by Barton to New York state, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.

Although Series IV contains a number of works attributed to Barton himself, the majority consists of illustration of botanical, medical, and natural historical illustrations collected or commissioned by Barton from other artists. The bulk are botanical illustrations used by Barton in his publications or for reference, including numerous pen and ink and watercolor sketches by William Bartram, Pierre Turpin, Frederick Pursh, and Benjamin Henry Latrobe. Among the Pursh illustrations are several that depict plants collected by Lewis and Clark, while the Bartram illustrations include the portrait of Mico-Chlucco, King of the Muscogulges (used as a frontispiece to Bartram's Travels), his drawing of Arethusa divaricata with a view of Philadelphia from Bartam's Garden in the background, and his figurative map of the Great Alachua Savana in Florida. Series VI includes a number of printing plates used in Barton's publications and elsewhere, some based on the original artwork in Series V.

The series are:

Provenance

Acquired, 1970.

Preferred citation

Cite as: Benjamin Smith Barton Papers, American Philosophical Society.

Alternate formats available

Images of most sketches are available for purchase by contacting the Manuscripts Department.

Related material

The Boston Public Library contains an important collection of the papers of Benjamin Smith Barton.

Bibliography

The Printed Materials Department of the APS Library contains the majority of Barton's publications, including the following:

Early American History Note

The extensive Benjamin Smith Barton collection contains six sections: Correspondence, Bound Volumes (including notebooks), Subject Files, and Graphic Materials. The material includes numerous images, sketches, notes, printed material, and other correspondence. The collection also has numerous copper plates that were used to print images drawn by Barton. Although a collection this large touches on a variety of interesting and important subjects, the collection’s strength is its wealth of data on nineteenth century medical, botanical, and Native American studies.

Correspondence: Barton’s correspondence, which consists of seven boxes, has a wide range of correspondents and subject matter. The letter writers reflect Barton’s international network of contacts with letters coming from Europe – often from scientists and doctors – as well as from Americans. Much of this correspondence comes after Barton was a professor at Penn and dates to the early nineteenth century.

The majority of the letters discuss medical topics, but as Barton’s own career and activities demonstrate, the boundaries between science and medicine were often indistinct, as they are today. Topics of letters include zoology, botany, natural history, Native American studies, and drafts of and reactions to Barton’s published writings.

The preponderance of content is medical in nature, however. And of that, a significant amount deals with discussion of diseases and attempts to treat illness. Many of the letters are from people beyond Philadelphia relaying information about outbreaks of disease or medical oddities. These accounts often also detail the attempts individuals and communities took to treat such outbreaks and afflictions. Because of Barton’s interest in the intertwined fields of botany and materia medica, there are letters that relate folk and herbal remedies for various medical conditions.

These medical letters offer insight into the way information and knowledge circulated in the early America. Barton regularly received letters from both established doctors throughout America relaying their findings and common people who relayed their local customs for treating illness.

That being said, because the collection is so large, the amount of material that relates to topics other than medicine is still significant. Botany and horticulture are prominent topics of discussion. A minor but significant portion of letters discusses Native Americans, their history, and their customs. Barton had cultivated a number of correspondents throughout America who wrote to him about Native Americans. These letters can provide insight into the Native American experience in the nineteenth century as well as Euro-American perceptions and ideas about them. Additionally, because of his medical background, letter writers occasionally relay Native American treatments for disease.

Barton was particularly interested in the pre-Colombian history of Native Americans. He studied their linguistics to try to locate their origins, arguing that they came to North America from Asia. He also collected and reported on a variety of pre-Colombian Indian settlements in North, Central, and South America. His network of contacts in Latin America introduced him to new information that led him to embrace the idea that some Native groups deployed sophisticated astronomical techniques.

Most of the Native American records in the Barton Collection can be found in the Native American section of the collection, not in the Correspondence. For the correspondence that does discuss Native Americans, see the letters of Barton, Nathaniel Massie, Alexander McGillvray, Christopher Miller, George Morgan, Thomas Pennant … [need to check boxes 1-3]

As with any collection this large, the correspondence touches on a variety of other matters. Some letters touch either directly or indirectly upon political events happening in the early national period. A notebook on Barton’s thoughts and experiments with electricity is included in this section. A small amount of family correspondence and genealogical information can also be found in the Correspondence section of the collection. There are some engravings and sketches in the Correspondence collection as well, although the bulk of the sketches are in other portions of the collection.

Volumes: The collection contains 32 volumes of notebooks and journals. The notebooks comprise Series III.

The majority of notebooks appear to be lectures Barton gave or notes Barton took on specific subjects that interested him.

There are also a significant number of journals from Barton’s travel. Barton kept a detailed journal of a travel though Upstate New York and Canada. There are also journals from trips through Pennsylvania, Virginia, New Jersey, and a separate trip to New York. Most of his journals describe the geology, geography, and flora and fauna of the area. Some touch on Native American subjects.

Note also that a meteorological diary of William Bartram is included in this collection.

Subject Files: The subject files take up eight boxes sorted by subject matter. The subjects are: Botany, Native American materials, Medical files, and Miscellaneous. A detailed description of all the files can be found in Series II. These differ from the correspondence in that almost all of these documents were written by Barton and were likely for his own private use.

The largest of the subjects is botany, which takes up two boxes. The collection contains Barton’s notes and lectures on the subject. There are numerous lists and descriptions of plants. Included in these files is a collection of dried plants from J.H. Lambert dated 1807. The Native American box contains a series of notes relating to Native American culture. The topics range widely and include numerous notes Barton took on a various tribes and places. Included in the section are a few long letters that provide details on Native American history, especially a detailed accounting of known Indian mounds in North America by Henry Brackenridge. The largest section deals with Barton’s work on linguistics. There are numerous lists of vocabularies and notes for his published work New Views of the Origin of the Tribes and Nations of America.

The Miscellaneous collection takes up four boxes. The papers in this section are mostly short notes on a wide variety of subjects. In addition, there are scraps from travel journals, lists of students at the University of Pennsylvania, and a few maps.

Graphic Materials: This section takes up two large boxes. The collection consists of images that were often drawn by Barton. Subject matter includes anatomical drawings, botanical drawings, and drawings of animals. Some are printed; others are sketches by Barton in pencil. A full list of these images can be found here in Series IV. A list of copper plates used to create prints of some of Barton’s drawings can be found in Series V.

* Note the APS also has two boxes of Barton papers photocopied from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. These include other travel journals, some letters, and a commonplace book.

Biographical Note: Benjamin Barton Smith (1766-1815) was a prominent physician and scientist in early America. Barton was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, son to a prominent and well-connected Anglican minister. From an early age, Barton operated within Pennsylvania’s scientific elite. David Rittenhouse, a prominent mathematician, astronomer, and engineer, was his uncle and took him on an important surveying mission in western Pennsylvania in 1784. The trip began Barton’s long fascination with Native American culture.

In 1785, Barton left for Europe to continue his studies in medicine. He received medical education in schools throughout Europe, first in Scotland, then in Germany, and also possibly in Portugal. Although there is some uncertainty on where and when he received his medical degree, he eventually returned to America in 1789 and worked as a doctor and scientist in Philadelphia. He received an appointment as professor at the medical school at the University of Pennsylvania where he lectured on a wide range of subjects, including botany, natural history, and materia medica, which is today considered pharmacology. He published an important textbook titled Elements of Botany; or, Outlines of the Natural History of Vegetables in 1797.

Barton had a deep interest in Native American culture and linguistics and studied them throughout his life. He became one of the foremost experts on the subject and advised Lewis and Clark before they departed on expedition.

Genre(s)

• Art
• Diaries.
• Drawings.
• Engravings.
• Family Correspondence
• General Correspondence
• Language Material
• Notebooks
• Political Correspondence
• Printing plates
• Sketchbooks
• Sketches.
• Travel Narratives and Journals
• Watercolors

Geographic Name(s)

• Buffalo (N.Y.)--Description and travel
• Hudson River (N.Y.)--Description and travel--18th century
• New Jersey--Description and travel--18th century
• New York (State)--Description and travel--18th century
• Niagara Falls (N.Y. and Ont.)--Description and travel
• Pennsylvania--Description and travel--18th century
• Tlaxcala (Mexico)
• Virginia--Description and travel--18th century

Personal Name(s)

• Barton, Benjamin Smith, 1766-1815
• Bartram, John, 1699-1777
• Bartram, William, 1739-1823
• Blanchard, Jean-Pierre, 1753-1809
• Harden, Jane LeConte
• Heckewelder, John Gottlieb Ernestus, 1743-1823
• Hopkins, John Henry, 1792-1868 -- Pictorial works
• Turpin, P. J. F., (Pierre Jean François), 1775-1840

Subject(s)

• Bartram's Garden (Philadelphia, Pa.)
• Botanists
• Botany--Study and teaching--19th century
• Botany--Virginia
• Business and Skilled Trades
• Chemistry--18th century
• Cherokee Indians
• Cherokee language
• Choctaw Indians
• Dysentery.
• Eastern Woodlands Indians
• Education
• Electricity--18th century
• Ethnobotany
• Geology--18th century
• Gout
• Indians of North America
• Indians of North America--Agriculture
• Indians of North America--Languages
• Kaigana Indians
• Kaskaskia Indians
• Language and Linguistics
• Literature, Arts, and Culture
• Mammals--Classification
• Mandan Indians
• Mastodons
• Materia medica
• Medicine
• Medicine--Practice--18th century
• Medicine--Study and teaching--18th century
• Meteorology--United States--18th century
• Meteors
• Mineralogy
• Native America
• Natural History
• Natural history--18th century
• Natural history--19th century
• Osage language
• Physicians--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia
• Physics
• Printing and Publishing
• Rittenhouse, David, 1732-1796
• Science and Technology
• Seminole Indians
• Seneca Indians
• Travel
• Tuscarora Indians
• University of Pennsylvania--Faculty
• Venereal disease
• Yellow fever
• Yellow fever--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia--1793
• Zoology--18th century