"Set Off for Georgia. . . ."
Celebrating the 250th Anniversary of
John and William Bartram's
Natural History Expedition
in Colonial Georgia
August 22-October 10, 2015
John Bartram (1699-1777) was a third-generation Pennsylvania Quaker imbued with a curiosity and reverence for nature as well as a passion for scientific inquiry. His travels—by boat, on horseback, and on foot—took him to New England, as far south as Florida, and west to Lake Ontario. He collected seeds and plant specimens, and established a trans-Atlantic hub of plant exploration through his exchanges with prominent patrons and scholars in Europe who sought out plants from Bartram’s Garden. In 1765, Bartram was appointed the “Royal Botanist” by King George III and, with his son William, set out for South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida on a collecting trip that would last two years.
Based on John Bartram's journal account of their travels, this celebration marks their sojourn in Georgia between September 3 and October 8, 1765. The gallery exhibit at the UGA Special Collections Library features original manuscripts, engravings, and maps from the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library as well as specimens from the Georgia Natural History Museum.A series of six lectures will further explore the natural and cultural history the Bartrams saw in colonial Georgia.All events are free and open to the public.
This 250th anniversary observance is sponsored by the Bartram Trail Conference, the UGA Special Collections Library, the Georgia Natural History Museum, the State Botanical Garden of Georgia, the UGA College of Environment and Design, and the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts
Unless otherwise indicated, all events will be held at the Special Collections Library, Richard B. Russell Building, 300 South Hull Street, on the University of Georgia Campus. Parking is available at the Hull Street parking deck immediately adjacent to the Library.
Grand Opening
Saturday, August 22
7:00 p.m., Special Collections Library Auditorium (Second Floor)
"William Bartram -- PucPuggy's Travels through the South"
presented by J.D. Sutton
In 1773, botanist, artist and explorer William Bartram (1739-1823) began a four-year journey of exploration and discovery through America's southern colonies, a journey that would take him much farther afield than his earlier trip with his father John. His account of his adventures, Bartram’s Travels, is considered a classic of American writing, praised for its vivid descriptions of native American culture and of a land largely untouched by European hands.
Actor/playwright J.D. Sutton brings William Bartram to life, sharing tales of his adventures and his awe-struck wonder of the mountains, cascading streams, and remarkable beauty of the southern states on this one-hour, one-man performance. Traveling from the wilderness of Florida to the mountains of North Carolina and the banks of the Mississippi, Bartram took extensive notes of what he saw and the people he encountered, leaving us a remarkable time-capsule of our country’s early frontier. This theatrical performance illuminates Bartram’s encounters with Indians, his vivid descriptions of plants and animals, and the wonders of nature he experienced. Originally commissioned by the Florida Humanities Council, the play has been presented at venues and horticultural conferences throughout the southeast.
The presentation will be followed by a reception and gallery tour led by Mary Ellen Brooks, Curator Emerita of the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Thursday, September 3
5:30 p.m., Special Collections Library Auditorium (Second Floor)
"An Itinerary of Discovery -- Tracing the Bartrams Across the South"
presented by Brad Sanders
Retracing the route of John and William Bartram through the Southeast is as challenging as it is rewarding. An academic challenge is that the Bartrams travelled through regions of Georgia and Florida that were either uninhabited or so thinly settled that roads were not well documented on contemporary maps. Another challenge is that, in many places, what was wilderness in 1765 is now urban and suburban communities with modern roads and a lot of traffic. Brad Sanders will discuss the maps and historical resources that can be used to recreate the route of the Bartrams and the rewards of getting on the road and actually following in their footsteps.
Brad Sanders is author of Guide to William Bartram’s Travels and the publisher of Traveller, the newsletter of the Bartram Trail Conference. He is on the board of the Bartram Trail Conference and is the web master of their web site. Sanders lives in Athens and is a retired high school teacher.
The presentation will be followed by a reception and gallery tour, led by Brad Sanders and Mary Ellen Brooks, Curator Emerita of the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Thursday, September 17
5:30 p.m., Special Collections Library Auditorium (Second Floor)
"Rediscovering the Southern Landscape of the Late 18th Century" presented by Philip Juras and "The Art of William Bartram" presented by Janice Simon.
Much of the presettlement wilderness John and William Bartram encountered in Georgia and the South is now lost to memory; only a few remnants can still be found today. Inspired by William Bartram’s Travels, artist Philip Juras combines direct observation with the study of natural science and history to create scenes that offer a glimpse of the 18th century South. He will present his own vision of what the Bartrams saw, highlighting the path of discovery that led him to create the paintings on display in the library gallery.
Philip Juras is a landscape painter living in Athens, Georgia. In 2011 a major exhibition of his work portraying the southern wilderness as William Bartram described it in the 1770s opened at the Telfair Museums in Savannah and the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, Georgia. Philip’s award-winning book The Southern Frontier: Landscapes Inspired by Bartram’s Travels, published in conjunction with the Telfair exhibition, is now available in paperback from the University of Georgia Press.
Janice C. Simonis Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Associate Professor of Art History in the Lamar Dodd School of Art, University of Georgia. A specialist in American art with a focus on nineteenth-century landscape painting and American art periodicals, she is the author of Images of Contentment: John Frederick Kensett and the Connecticut Shore and "Impressed in Memory: John Frederick Kensett's Italian Scene" in Classic Ground: Mid-Nineteenth Century American Painters and the Italian Encounter.
The lecture will be followed by a reception, book-signing, and a gallery tour led by Philip Juras and Janice Simon.
Thursday, October 1
5:30 p.m., Special Collections Library Auditorium (Second Floor)
"Natural Curiosity and Natural History: John Bartram's Observations on
the Land and Life in Georgia"
presented by Dorinda G. Dallmeyer
John Bartram's journal of his time in Georgia reveals a man interested in far more than botany. His descriptions run the gamut from weather and mosquitoes to life in the backwoods and in Savannah. Fossils and millstones are as noteworthy as the settlers' struggle to cultivate silk and herd their free-range cattle. This lecture will explore Bartram's natural curiosity about the world he and his son encountered in colonial Georgia.
Dorinda G. Dallmeyer is the president of the Bartram Trail Conference. She also directs the UGA Environmental Ethics Certificate Program. Her edited anthology "Bartram's Living Legacy: the Travels and the Nature of the South" was published by Mercer University Press in 2010. The book includes essays by seventeen southern nature writers as well as William Bartram's "Travels" published in 1791.
The lecture will be followed by a reception, book-signing, and gallery tour led by Dorinda Dallmeyer.
Closing Events
Saturday, October 10, 2015
State Botanical Garden of Georgia
1 p.m., Callaway Building
"The usefull, the beautifull, the singular or the fragrant, are to us the most material -- John and William Bartram and Southern Plants in the Garden"
presented by Joel T. Fry, Curator, Bartram's Garden
In 1728, John Bartram purchased 102 acres near Philadelphia from Swedish settlers and systematically began gathering the most varied collection of North American plants in the world. His garden was a source of inquiry and pleasure for luminaries like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. His seed and plant business thrived, with cataloging lists appearing in London publications as early as the 1750s. His international plant trade and nursery business survived him and continued to thrive under the care of three generations of Bartrams. Today Bartram’s Garden is a 45-acre National Historic Landmark, operated by the John Bartram Association in cooperation with Philadelphia Parks and Recreation. This armchair exploration of the Bartram's Garden reconstructshow John and William's discoveries from the Southeast were incorporated into this renowned Philadelphia garden.
Joel T. Fry has been Curator at Bartram’s Garden, the home of John and William Bartram, since 1992. He studied anthropology, historical archaeology, and American Civilization at the University of Pennsylvania and specializes in garden archaeology and garden history. He has completed numerous articles on the history of Bartram’s Garden and the Bartram family plant collections.
Following the lecture, the Garden will host a reception for Joel Fry at 2:00 p.m. in the Callaway Building.
3:00 p.m. Bartram Plant walk, led by horticulturist Linda Chafin.
This garden tour will highlight plants discovered by the Bartramsnow featured in the Garden's collection. Bartram plants also will be available for purchase during the annual Fall Plant Sale.
Special Collections Library Auditorium (Second Floor)
7:00 p.m.
"The Brother Gardeners: Botany, Empire, and the Birth of an Obsession"
presented by Andrea Wulf, New York Times best-selling author
In this beautifully illustrated talk,award–winning author Andrea Wulf tells the tale of a small group of 18thcentury naturalists that made England a nation of gardeners. It’sthe story of a garden revolution that began in America with thefarmer John Bartram whotransformed the English landscape with theintroduction of hundreds of American trees and shrubs. The talkexplores the botanical passions, obsessions, friendships and squabblesthat knitted together the lives of six men that changed the world ofgardening andbotany – including John Bartram, the cantankerousSwedish botanist Carl Linnaeus, and Joseph Banks who joined Captain Cook'sEndeavour on the greatest voyage of discovery of modern times. Friends,rivals, enemies, their correspondence, collaborations,and squabbles makefor a riveting human drama set against the backdrop of the emergingBritish empire and America's magnificent forests. As botany andhorticulture became a science, the garden became the Eden for everyman.
Andrea Wulf wasborn in India, moved to Germany as a child, and now lives in Britain. Sheis the author of several acclaimed books. "The Brother Gardeners" won theAmerican Horticultural Society 2010 Book Award and waslong-listed for theSamuel Johnson Prize 2008. Her book "FoundingGardeners" was on the New York Times Best Seller List. Andrea has writtenfor many newspapers including the Guardian, LA Times and New York Times.She was the Eccles British Library Writer in Residence2013 and athree-time fellow of the International Center for Jefferson Studies atMonticello. In 2014 she co-presented a four-part BBC TV garden series andshe appears regularly on radio.
A reception, book-signing, and gallery tour will follow the lecture.