Peter Collinson and the Eighteenth-Century Natural History Exchange (American Philosophical Society Memoir 264, ISBN: 9780871692641)

Peter Collinson and the Eighteenth-Century Natural History Exchange
(American Philosophical Society Memoir 264, ISBN: 9780871692641)
by Jean O’Neill and Elizabeth P. McLean
(Paperback, 216 pages, 2008, $75.00)

Collinson’s life is a microcosm of 18th-century natural history. A gardener and naturalist by avocation, he was what we would now call a facilitator in natural science, disseminating botanical and horticultural knowledge during the Enlightenment.

He influenced the Comte de Buffon and Linnaeus. He found clients for the Philadelphia naturalist John Bartram. American plants populated great estates like those of the Dukes of Richmond, Norfolk, and Bedford, as well as the Chelsea Physic Garden, and the nurseries of James Gordon and Robert Furber. Botanic painters such as Mark Catesby and Georg Dionysius Ehret painted American plants in Collinson’s garden.

He had an unprecedented effect on the exchange of scientific information on both sides of the Atlantic, being credited for introducing more than 150 plans to horticulture. Illustrations.

“One man can make a difference,” co-author Elizabeth McLean tells Green Scene [PDF] in the September/October 2009 issue. “[Collinson] did it for love. He was self-educated, yet he made enormous contributions to natural history in the eighteenth century.”

This book has been indexed by H.W. Wilson in their “Essay and General Literature Index” for June 2009.

H.W. Wilson writes: “These essays describe the life and achievements of the Quaker Peter Collinson, an 18th century London draper and naturalist whose interest in horticulture led him to establish contact with the Philadelphia Quaker farmer and naturalist John Bartram and to import Bartram’s American plants to England.

“The consequent popularity of American plants in English gardens, reflected even in the botanic paintings of the period, have earned Collinson a place in the history of botany as a facilitator between English and American horticulture.”

Purchase this book for $75.00:

Book Special for National Fresh Food and Vegetable Month and Great Outdoors Month: Wild Food Gourmet: Fresh and Savory Food From Nature (ISBN: 1552092429)

Weekly Book Special: June 1st-June 7th

June is National Fresh Food and Vegetables Month and Great Outdoors Month. In commemoration, this week’s special is:

The Wild Food Gourmet:
Fresh and Savory Food From Nature
by Anne Gardon (Paperback, 174 pages, 1998, $25.00)

Cooking with wild food is a gratifying experience from start to finish. Discover a bounty of tender leaves, delicious berries and nutritious roots that grow wild all around us. Illustrated with over 75 color photos, this delightful cookbook features 100 delicious recipes using fresh-picked greens, berries and mushrooms and brings a new twist to home cooking and camping trips.

Author Anne Gardon grew up in Provence, France, where she followed her parents on their quest for wild edibles. When she came to North America she discovered a totally different and fascinating vegetation and started harvesting and eating wild edibles, which turned out to be delicious.

Our favorite recipe is for Tortellini with Artichoke Hearts and Shaggy Manes (click to enlarge):

“Containing exceptional photos, this book will appeal to gardeners, amateur botanists, restaurateurs and creative cooks,” writes Explore Magazine. Adds the Kansas City Star: “Learn tips on foraging, preserving, drying and freezing, along with recipes that are quite simple but elegant.”

Purchase this book for $25.00

Weekly Book Special: Forget not Mee and My Garden . . . : Selected Letters, 1725-1768, of Peter Collinson, F.R.S. (American Philosophical Society)

March 15th-21st Weekly Half-Price Book Special

Warm weather and buds on the trees means only one thing: spring is right around the corner! Coinciding with the season, this week’s special is:

Forget Not Mee and My Garden:
Selected Letters, 1725-1768, of Peter Collinson, F.R.S.
by Alan W. Armstrong (Hardcover, 300 pages, 2002, $60.00)

English-style gardens around the world, from suburban yards to large parks, owe their foundations to businessman Peter Collinson.

Flowers and plants in these gardens are descended from the hundreds of seeds that Collinson imported from celebrated American botanist John Bartram in the 1700s.

This limited-edition book published by the American Philosophical Society, in shrinkwrap, features Collinson’s nearly 200 letters to the colonial world’s top scientists, including Batram, Carl Linnaeus and Benjamin Franklin, and features more than 100 full-color illustrations.

My favorite spread is of the Chestnut, Dogwood and Fringe Trees (click to enlarge):

“All letters in this volume are Collinson’s; they’re fully footnoted, and all correspondents are well-introduced,” writes Book News. “The color plates of correspondents, flora, and fauna make this a beautiful, as well as informative, read.”

“[The] deft match of text and image and [the] superb but unobtrusive editing,” writes historian Eugenia Herbert, “leave no doubt the Quaker merchant’s seminal role in the grand Enlightenment project of mapping the natural world.”

Purchase this book for $60:

Louisiana Purchase and Lewis and Clark Publications

Today is the 106th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase.

On March 10, 1804 there was a formal ceremony in St. Louis to transfer ownership of the territory from Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte of France to the United States. This territory included most of the Westward Expansion of the U.S., with the present-day Midwest, Great Plains and Western states, plus New Mexico and Louisiana.

We offer you a wide selection of publications on the Lewis and Clark Expedition from 1804-1806. Below are two of our highlights:

1814 Printed Map of Lewis and Clark’s Track Across the Western Portion of North America. From the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean:
From the Original Drawing of William Clark

The principal objective of Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery 1804-06 was the mapping of the West to the Pacific Ocean. Clark’s final cartographic achievement was his 1814 engraved map. One of the great maps of all times, it is perhaps the single most influential one of the American West, for it was upon this map that our modern understanding of the topography of that vast areas would evolve.

The first publication of the Lewis and Clark journals was Nicholas Biddle’s 1814 two-volume chronological narrative containing the map. In 1998 there was another “run” of the map produced by means of offset lithography, printed by our affiliate the American Philosophical Society. Size: 2-1/2′ long x 14″. Tan. One thousand regular copies were printed, with Black plus 1 PMS ink for duotone. Also includes a 10-page booklet on the history of the expedition and the map.

Purchase this map for $75.00:

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Jefferson’s Botanists: Lewis and Clark Discover the Plants of the West
by Richard McCourt and Earle Spamer
(Academy of Natural Sciences, Paperback, 25 pages, $20)

This beautiful concise book discusses how Meriwether Lewis collected plant specimens on the journey of exploration that he and William Clark led across the American West to the Pacific Ocean & back, sent by President Thomas Jefferson. It includes facsimile excerpts from their original journals.

The task of plant collecting was Lewis’s military duty, but he seems to have had a real flair for collecting and describing the specimens. It is clear that he spent long hours observing the specimens, perhaps with a magnifying glass, cross-checking the anatomy of the plant before him with an illustrated edition of Linnaeus’s botany book.

The hundreds of Lewis and Clark specimens that survive today, known as the Lewis and Clark Herbarium, are stored in protective folders in special storage cabinets, in a climate controlled room at our affiliate, the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Visiting scholars can readily retrieve and study the plants. Illus. (Paperback, 25 pages.)

Purchase this book for $20:

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