A 'wonderfull order and ballance': Natural history and the beginnings of forest conservation in America, 1730-1830

Environmental History

Volumn 11, Issue 1, 2006, Pages 8-36

  Judd, Richard W ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

^b University of Maine ^*  (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY; FORESTRY; NATURE CONSERVATION;

EID: 33645796888     PISSN: 10845453     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/envhis/11.1.8     Document Type: Article

References (161)

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2. Raymond Phineas Stearns, Science in the British Colonies of America (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1970), 6;
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4. See Patricia Tyson Stroud, Thomas Say: New World Naturalist (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992), 198.
5. Philip J. Pauly, Biologists and the Promise of American Life: From Meriwether Lewis to Alfred Kinsey (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2000), 20.
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7. Hans Huth, Nature and the American: Three Centuries of Changing Attitudes (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1957), 4;
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9. On topography, see Lewis Evans, Geographical, Historical, Political, Philosophical and Mechanical Essays (Philadelphia: B. Franklin and D. Hall, 1755), iii.
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11. See Ernest Earnest, John and William Bartram: Botanists and Explorers, 1699-1777; 1739-1823 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1940, 114;
12. Richard H. Grove, Green Imperialism: Colonial Expansion, Tropical Island Edens, and the Origins of Environmentalism, 1600-1860 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 32;
13. J. M. Edelstein, "America's First Native Botanists," Library of Congress Quarterly Journal of Current Acquisitions 14 (February 1958): 56.
14. Benjamin Smith Barton, A Discourse on Some of the Principal Desiderata in Natural History, and on the Best Means of Promoting the Study of This Science, in the United States (Philadelphia: Denham and Town, 1807), 39, 40-41;
15. G. W. Featherstonhaugh to William Maclure, September 20, 1833, B 212, MacLure Papers, American Philosophical Society (hereafter, APS);
16. John C. Greene, "Science and the Public in the Age of Jefferson," Isis 49 (1958): 13, 15, 17, 19-20;
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18. De Witt Clinton, "Introductory Discourse, Delivered before the Literary and Philosophical Society of New-York," Port Folio 6, 3d series (August 1815): 140, 145-47;
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21. Brooke Hindle, The Pursuit of Science in Revolutionary America, 1735-1789 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press for the Institute of Early American History and Culture, 1956), 3-5, 59, 327, 354-55;
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25. See Daniels, American Science, 7.
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27. Theodric Romeyn Beck, Annual Address, Delivered by Appointment, Before the Society for the Promotion of Useful Arts (Albany, NewYork: Websters and Skinners, 1813), 11.
28. See Jules Marcou, A Geological Map of the United States, and the British Provinces of North America (Boston: Gould and Lincoln, 1853), 13;
29. James E. De Kay, Zoology of New-York, or the New-York Fauna (Albany: W. & A. White & J. Vissher, 1842), 9.
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31. See Phillip R. Sloan and John Lyon, "Introduction," in Georges Louis-Leclerc, Compte de Buffon, From Natural History to the History of Nature: Readings from Buffon and His Critics, ed. Phillip R. Sloan and John Lyon (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1981), 3;
32. Joel R. Poinsett, Discourse on the Objects and Importance of the National Institution for the Promotion of Science, Established at Washington, 1840 (Washington, D.C.: P. Force, 1841), 29, 38-39.
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35. "Lakes Erie, Huron and Michigan," Niles Weekly Register 5 (October 2, 1813): 65;
36. Noah Webster, An Address, Delivered before the Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden Agricultural Society (Northampton, Mass.: Thomas W. Shepard, 1818), 8.
37. Benjamin Silliman, "A Synopsis of the Birds of North America, by John James Audubon, ... [and] The Birds of America, from Drawings Made in the United States and their Territories, by John James Audubon," American Journal of Science and Arts 39 (October 1840): 344-46, 349.
38. See Barton, Discourse on Some of the Principal Desiderata, 11, 12, 16;
39. Grove, Green Imperialism, 11;
40. Michael Dettelbach, "Humboldtian Science," Cultures of Natural History, ed. N. Jardine, J. A. Secord, and E. C. Spary (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 300.
41. Clement Moore, Observations Upon Certain Passages in Mr. Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, Which Appear to Have a Tendency to Subvert Religion, and Establish a False Philosophy (New York: n.p., 1804), 7, 8, 9, 11-12;
42. James Murphey, Creation: Or the Bible and Geology Consistent: Together with the Moral Design of the Mosaic History (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1850), v.
43. See Jon Butler, Awash in a Sea of Faith: Christianizing the American People (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990), 9, 66-97, 184-85;
44. Charles Woodruff Shields, Natural and Revealed Science: The Importance, and Best Method of Its Introduction (Philadelphia? ca. 1859), 1.
45. John G. West, Jr., The Politics of Revelation and Reason: Religion and Civic Life in the New Nation (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1996), 6, 16;
46. Daniels, American Science, 48;
47. Nina Reid-Maroney, Philadelphia's Enlightenment, 1740-1800: Kingdom of Christ, Empire of Reason (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2001), 1, 3.
48. See Benjamin Silliman, "Consistency of Geology with Sacred History," supplement to Robert Bakewell, An Introduction to Geology (New Haven, Conn.: Hezekiah Howe & Co., 1833), 391;
49. Rebecca Bedell, The Anatomy of Nature: Geology & American Landscape Painting, 1825-1875 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), 28.
50. Silliman, "Synopsis of the Birds," 347;
51. James D. Dana, An Address Before the Alumni of Yale College, at the Comment Anniversary, August, 1856 (New Haven, Conn.: S. Babcock, 1856), 4-5.
52. See Alphonso Wood, Leaves and Flowers; Or, Object Lessons in Botany, With a Flora, Prepared for Beginners in Academies and Public Schools (New York: A.S. Barnes & Company, 1875 [c. 1860]), 5-6.
53. William Henry Dillingham, A Discourse on the Advantages of the Study of Natural Sciences, Delivered by Request of the Chester County Cabinet, Introductory to their Course of Lectures: December 5th, 1835 (Philadelphia: William Brown, 1835), 6;
54. Louis Agassiz, An Introduction to the Study of Natural History, in a Series of Lectures Delivered in the Hall of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New-York (New York: Greeley & McElrath, 1847), 5.
55. Charles Willson Peale, Lectures, B P31, no. 7a, APS;
56. The Book of Nature, in Two Volumes, Embracing a Condensed Survey of the Animal Kingdom as Well as Sketches of Vegetable Anatomy, Geology; Botany, Mineralogy (Boston: Wells and Lilly, 1826), 3;
57. "Discussion Between Two Readers of Darwin's Treatise on the Origin of Species, Upon Its Natural Theology," American Journal of Science and Arts, second series, 30 (1860): 29;
58. Louis Agassiz, Contributions to the Natural History of the United States, vol. 1 (Boston: Little & Brown, 1857), 18.
59. Daniels, American Science, 144.
60. The Cabinet of Natural History and American Rural Sports, with Illustrations (Barre, Mass.: Imprint Society, 1973), 73.
61. Samuel Williams, The Natural and Civil History of Vermont 1, 2nd ed. (Burlington, Vermont: Samuel Mills, 1809), 29.
62. See Robert Sears, ed., A New and Popular Pictorial Description of the United States (New York: R. Sears, 1848), 34.
63. Benjamin Silliman, "Remarks by the editor," in G. W. Nichols, "Popular Notices of Mount Washington and the Vicinity," American Journal of Science and Arts: American Journal of Science and Arts 34 (July 1838): 79;
64. Ezekiel Holmes, "General Reports upon the Natural History and Geology of Maine," Sixth Annual Report of the Secretary of the Maine Board of Agriculture, 1861 (Augusta: Stevens & Sayward, 1861), 105-06.
65. See Christoph Christian Sturm, Beauties of Nature Delineated, comp. Thaddeus M. Harris (Charlestown: Samuel Etheridge, 1801), 55-57, 59;
66. Charles Varte, Topographical Description of the Counties of Frederick, Berkeley and Jefferson Situated in the State of Virginia (Winchester, Va.: W. Heiskell, 1810), 30-31.
67. Edward Hitchcock, The Religion of Geology and Its Connected Sciences (Glasgow and London: William Collins, 1851), 158.
68. Daniel B. Botkin, No Man's Garden: Thoreau and a New Vision for Civilization and Nature (Washington, D.C.: Island Press/Shearwater Books, 2001), 103-04, 107.
69. Edward Hitchcock, Report on the Geology, Mineralogy, Botany, and Zoology of Massachusetts (Amherst: J.S. & C. Adams, 1833), 129-30;
70. John Bartram to Mark Catesby, ca. September 1740, Edmund Berkeley and Dorothy Smith Berkeley, The Correspondence of John Bartram, 1734-1777 (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1992), 140;
71. Benjamin Waterhouse, The Botanist (Boston: Joseph T. Buckingham, 1811), xii-xiii.
72. Hitchcock, Religion of Geology, 143, 154-55, 171-72.
73. Charles T. Jackson, Second Report on the Geology of the State of Maine (Augusta: Luther Severance, 1838), xi-xii, xiv;
74. Moses Greenleaf, A Survey of the State of Maine in Reference to Its Geographical Features, Statistics and Political Economy (reprint; Augusta: Maine State Museum; Portland: Shirley and Hyde, 1829), 37-38, 109, 181-82, 217, 278, 284.
75. See Gilbert Chinard, "Eighteenth Century Theories on America as a Human Habitat," American Philosophical Society Proceedings 91 (February 1947): 27;
76. Drew R. McCoy, The Elusive Republic: Political Economy in Jeffersonian America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press for the Institute of Early American History and Culture, 1980), 16-18.
77. Henry Colman, Agriculture of the United States: An Address Delivered 14th April, 1841, Before the American Institute in New York (Boston: H.A. Chapin and Company, 1840), 5;
78. "Audubon," Monthly American Journal of Geology and Natural Science 1 (April 1832): 465;
79. "Gray's Manual of Botany" North American Review 67 n.s. (July 1848):180.
80. Waterhouse, The Botanist, 155.
81. John Bartram to Peter Collinson, April 26, 1737, in Berkeley and Berkeley, Correspondence of John Bartram, 44-45;
82. Collinson to Bartram, December 10, 1737, December 14,1737, September 20 [1751] in William Darlington, Memorials of John Bartram and Humphry Marshall (New York: Hafner, 1967), 102, 103, 188;
83. Stearns, Science in the British Colonies of America, 591.
84. Peale Lectures.
85. Peale Lectures. See Foshay, Reflections of Nature, 29;
86. N. Bryllion Fagin, William Bartram: Interpreter of the American Landscape (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1933), 46;
87. Grove, Green Imperialism, 12.
88. Waterhouse, The Botanist, 41-42.
89. See William Bartram, Jr. to Isaac Bartram, 1764, Miscellaneous Collection, APS.
90. "Ornithology," North American Review 50 (April 1840): 404.
91. Thomas Nuttall, Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and of Canada (Cambridge: Hilliard and Brown, 1832), 1.
92. Clark Hunter, ed., The Life and Letters of Alexander Wilson (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1983), 193-94;
93. Alexander Wilson and Charles Lucian Bonaparte, American Ornithology: or, the Natural History of the Birds of the United States (Philadelphia: Porter and Coates, n.d.), 94.
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96. Joseph Kastner, A Species of Eternity (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977), 223.
97. Captain Basil Hall, Travels in North America, in the Years 1827 and 1828, Vol. 1 (Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Carey, 1829), 111;
98. Jeremy Belknap, History of New-Hampshire, vol. 3 (Dover, N.H.: Mann and Rernick for Crosby & Varney, 1812), 39;
99. Edward Hitchcock, et al., Report on the Geology of Vermont: Descriptive, Theoretical, Economical, and Scenographical, 2 vols. (Claremont, N.H.: Claremont Manufacturing Company, 1861);
100. Hitchcock, Report on Massachusetts, 70, 73.
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102. Ebenezer Emmons,A Report on the Quadrupeds of Massachusetts (Cambridge: Folsom, Wells, and Thurston, 1840), 75-79.
103. John James Audubon and John Bachman, The Quadrupeds of North America, vol. 2 (New York: V.G. Audubon, 1851-1854), 35-36;
104. John lames Audubon, Birds of America, vol. 4 (Kent: National Audubon Society by Volair Books, 1979), 22-23, 46;
105. Benjamin Smith Barton, "On the Animals of North America" (1793), Benjamin Smith Barton Papers, B B284.d Series 1: Correspondence, Patterson, R - Scott, E, APS.
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107. "Instinct and Intellect," North American Review 63 (July 1846): 104, 118;
108. Charles Christopher Reiche, "Fifteen Discourses on the Marvelous Works in Nature, Delivered by a Father to his Children," The Universal Asylum and Columbian Magazine 5 (November 1790): 335-36;
109. Charlotte M. Porter, The Eagle's Nest: Natural History and American Ideas, 1812-1842 (University of Alabama Press, 1986), 20-21;
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111. Peale Lectures. See Francis Hobart Herrick, Audubon the Naturalist: A History of his Life and Time, Vol. 2 (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1917), 177;
112. Richard Harlan, Fauna Americana: Being a Description of the Mammiferoius Animals Inhabiting North America (Philadelphia: A. Finley, 1825), 23-24;
113. Julius Deming, "Facts Relative to that Faculty of Animals which Has Been Called Instinct," The Medical Repository i (no. 3, 1898): 269.
114. Barton, "On the Animals of North America," 1, 11.
115. William Bartram, The Travels of William Bartram (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1958), lvii.
116. Walters, "Peaceable Disposition of Animals," 157, 164.
117. Bartram in Wilson and Bonaparte, American Ornithology, 138, 164, 186.
118. Wilson and Bonaparte, American Ornithology, 295.
119. See John Bartram, Observations on the Inhabitants, Climate, Soil, Rivers, Productions, Animals, and other Matters Worthy of Notice (London: J. Whiston and B. White, 1751), 37.
120. See Jervis Cutler, A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana (Boston: Charles Williams, 1812), 14.
121. John Bartram to Jared Eliot, February 12, 1753, Berkeley and Berkeley, Correspondence of John Bartram, 342;
122. John Mitchell (or Arthur Young?), American Husbandry (London: J. Bew, 1775), 83-84;
123. "Emerson on the Trees of Massachusetts," North American Review 66 (January 1848): 192;
124. George Barrell Emerson, A Report on the Trees and Shrubs Growing Naturally in the Forests of Massachusetts (Boston: Dutton and Wentworth, State Printers, 1846).
125. See Jacob Richard Schramm, "Influence-Past and Present-of Francois-André Michaux on Forestry and Forest Research in America," American Phlosophical Society Proceedings 101 (no. 4, 1957): 337.
126. Ebenezer Emmons, Report of the Survey of the Second Geological District in Natural History of New-York, Part 4, Geology (Albany: Carroll & Cook, 1842-43), 13.
127. "Forest Trees," The Naturalist 1 (November 1831): 350.
128. See McCoy, Elusive Republic, 22;
129. Willis, American Scenery, 1-2;
130. Regis, Describing Early America, 61.
131. American Forest Trees," North American Review 35 (October 1832): 401-04.
132. Constantine Rafinesque, "Botany," Western Minerva, or American Annals of Knowledge and Literature (n.p., n.d.), 63, APS;
133. Williarn Henry Harrison, "A Discourse on the Aborigines of the Valley of the Ohio," Transactions of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio 1 (1839): 248-49.
134. Stephen W. Williams, "Floral Calendar Kept at Deerfield, Massachusetts," American Journal of Science 1 (1818): 359.
135. See Chinard, "American Philosophical Society," 452;
136. James Rodger Fleming, Meteorology in America, 1800-1770 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990).
137. William Currie, An Historical Account of the Climates and Diseases of the United States of America (Philadelphia: T. Dobson, 1792);
138. Samuel Forry, The Climate of the United States and Its Endemic Influences (New York: J. & H.G. Langley, 1842);
139. Daniel Drake, Systematic Treatise... on the Principal Diseases of the Interior Valley of North America (Cincinnati: Winthrop B. Smith & Company, 1850);
140. Grove, Green Imperialism, 65, 67.
141. See Adolph Waller, "Daniel Drake as a Pioneer in Modern Ecology," Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly 56 (no. 4, 1947): 367, 369.
142. Manasseh Cutler to Edward Wigglesworth, February 14, 1783, William Parker Cutler and Julia Perkins Cutler, Life, Journals, and Correspondence of Rev. Manasseh Cutler, LL.D, by his Grandchildren, vol 2 (Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1888), 213-14;
143. Waterhouse, The Botanist, 158;
144. Williams, Natural and Civil History of Vermont, 92-93.
145. "Miscellaneous Observations Made During a Tour in May, 1835, to the Falls of the Cuyahoga...," American Journal of Science and Arts 31 (January 1837): 38;
146. Williams, Natural and Civil History of Vermont, 34-35.
147. Farmer's Monthly Visitor, 4 (September 30, 1842): 127.
148. See Rodolphus Dickinson, A Geographical and Statistical View of Massachusetts (Greenfield: Denio & Phelps, 1813), 8;
149. David Thomas, Travels Through the Western Countryin the Summer of 1816 (Auburn, New York: David Rumsey, 1819), 41;
150. Harold Fisher Wilson, The Hill Country of Northern New England: Its Social and Economic History, 190-1930 (New York, 1936), 46. My conversations with Frank and Deborah Popper helped me sharpen this analysis.
151. New England Farmer, January 28, 1871.
152. T. D. Seymour Bassett, "Urban Penetration of Rural Vermont, 1840-1880" (PhD dissertation, Harvard University, 1952), 16-17.
153. See Maine Farmer, 3 (December 4, 1835): 346;
154. New England Farmer 1 (December 9, 1848): 1-2.
155. Fourteenth Annual Report of the Secretary of the Maine Board of Agriculture, 1869 (Augusta: Sprague, Owen & Nash, 1870), 82;
156. Thirteenth Annual Report of the Secretary of the Maine Board of Agriculture, 1868 (Augusta: Sprague, Owen & Nash, 1869), 94.
157. "American Forest Trees," North American Review 35 (October 1832): 416-17;
158. "Emerson on the Trees of Massachusetts," 198;
159. Williams, Natural and Civil History of Vermont, 96-97.
160. "Forest Trees," The Naturalist, 349-50.
161. John Bartram to John Hope, October 4, 1764, Darlington, Memorials of John Bartram and Humphry Marshall, 433.