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| John Bartram - Darby |
John Bartram was born in Darby in Colonial Pennsylvania in 1699. He was born into a Quaker family on a farm and throughout his life considered himself a plain farmer with no education beyond the local school. Despite this, he read widely and maintained a lifelong interest in medicine and medicinal plants.
Bartram is sometimes called The Father of American Botany, and his
8-acre botanic garden, Bartram's Garden, in Kingsessing on the Schuylkill River is sited as the first true botanic collection in North Americas.
Bartram also collected seeds and sent them from America and Canada to European gardeners. In 1765, he was rewarded a pension from King George III as the King's Botanist for North America.
Among Bartram's many plant discoveries was the Franklin Tree, Franklinia alatamaha, found in southeastern Georgia in 1765, later named by his son William Bartram.
John Bartram High School in Philadelphia is named after him.
