Call no.
10a/8
Acc. 51376
(Hirsch
50)
03/22/1910
Barton, Benjamin Smith, 1766-1815.
Notes from Dr. Barton’s lectures on natural history, or zoology,
1809-1810.
1 v.
Biography
Benjamin Smith Barton, son of Rev. Thomas and Esther (Rittenhouse) Barton, was
born February 10, 1766, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Orphaned as a teenager,
Barton went to live with an elder brother and became a medical student at the
College of Philadelphia under the tutelage of Dr. William Shippen, Jr. In 1786
Barton went to Europe to further his studies at the University of Edinburgh and
in London. Barton returned to Philadelphia without a medical degree in 1789 and
set up private practice. In 1796 he received an honorary M.D. from the
Christian-Albrechts University in Kiel, Germany.
As a physician and a noted botanist and educator, Barton held prominent
positions in the Philadelphia medical and scientific community. In 1789 he was
appointed professor of natural history and botany at the College of
Philadelphia. When the College joined with the University of the State of
Pennsylvania in 1791, to form the University of Pennsylvania, Barton continued
in this position. After the resignation of Dr. Griffith, Barton also became
professor of materia medica and in 1813 succeeded Benjamin Rush as professor of
the theory and practice of medicine.
Barton wrote extensively on the topics of natural history, botany, paleontology,
etymology and medicine. He penned the first basic American textbook on botany, Elements
of Botany, in 1803. In 1805 he founded and edited the Philadelphia
Medical and Physical Journal.
As a professional advocate, Barton was extremely active in the American
Philosophical Society, the Philadelphia Linnean Society, and the Philadelphia
Medical Society, serving as its president (1815). He also was a member of the
Linnean Society of London, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Danish
Royal Society of Sciences, the Imperial Society of Naturalists of Moscow, the
Massachusetts Historical Society, the Royal Academy of Science of Sweden, and
the Society of Antiquaries, Scotland. Barton was elected a Fellow of the College
of Physicians in 1790.
In 1797 Barton married Mary Pennington, daughter of Edward Pennington of
Philadelphia. They had 2 children, including a son, Thomas P.
Pulmonary hemorrhages and gout afflicted him throughout his life. In 1815 Barton
took a sea voyage to Europe to bolster his health, but returned to Philadelphia
in December suffering from hydrothorax. On December 19, 1815, Barton died.
Scope and Contents
One volume (56 leaves) of notes taken by an unidentified student on 13 natural
history or zoological lectures of Benjamin S. Barton, delivered at the
University of Pennsylvania. Lectures 2-10 are dated from December 9, 1809 to
January 6, 1810. Lecture 11 is either missing or not identified as such.
Lectures 1-12 cover mammals and lecture 13 discusses ornithology
Provenance
Unknown.
1809-1810.
1 v.
07/06/2000
lg