The Roving Naturalists collections will offer glimpses of the specimens and artifacts collected and the cultures, climates, and creatures the early naturalists encountered as they explored the Floridan peninsula. Most of these travelers followed in the 1765 footsteps of the King’s Botanist John Bartram. According to Francis Harper, “Bartram was probably the first botanist to examine and report on the flora of Florida and the greater part of Georgia. In South Carolina, he [Bartram] had apparently been preceded only by Mark Catesby and Dr. Alexander Garden.” Each of the men to follow Bartram added to the knowledge of the new lands, the native cultures, and “the Wonderful Creatures of this New World.” This project will integrate the life and times of the roving naturalists based on their journals and written accounts.
The following volumes reside in the British Museum of Natural History, and are presented in this collection with permissions: