Benjamin Smith Barton to Thomas Jefferson, 13 [April] 1815
From Benjamin Smith Barton
March [Apr.] 13. 1815.
Dear Sir,
I acknowledge, with many thanks, the receipt of your package, which came safe to-day. The letters will, doubtless, be highly valuable to me. They contain every thing I could wish for.
I beg your acceptance of a few1 small tracts in natural history.They may amuse you & our friend Mr Randolph, in a hour of leisure. Sickness stopped me short, in the progress of my publication of several other & more important essays, &c. These, with the return of health, I shall yet give to the public. The first number of my Archaeologia may, possibly, amuse you: the subsequent numbers will, I trust, be acceptable to the public.
I shall be very anxious to learn, that Persoon has come safe. Both vols. have been sent: the 2d by the earlier mail.
I shall take great pleasure & pride in writing to you, from Europe. In the meanwhile, I remain, Sir, with very great respect, & with the sincerest wishes for your health & happiness, Your much obliged
B. S. Barton.
P.S. I beg you to present my compliments to all your2 family, & especially to the head of the younger part of it, my respected friend, Colonel Th: M: Randolph.
RC (DLC: TJ Papers, 203:36190); misdated, with dateline beneath signature; addressed: “Mr Jeffeson, Monticello, Virginia”; franked; postmarked Philadelphia, 13 Apr.; endorsed by TJ as a letter of “March 13. 15. for April?” Recorded in SJL as a letter of “Mar. 13. [qu. Apr?]” received 19 Apr. 1815. Enclosure: Barton, Archaeologiae Americanae Telluris Collectanea et Specimina. Or Collections, with Specimens, for a Series of Memoirs on certain Extinct Animals and Vegetables of North-America (Philadelpia, 1814), pt. 1 (no more published).
The enclosed small tracts may have included Barton’s Additional Facts, Observations, and Conjectures relative to the Generation of the Opossum of North-America (Philadelphia, 1813) and A Memoir concerning the Fascinating Faculty which has been Ascribed to Various Species of Serpents. A New Edition, Greatly Enlarged, and Embellished by a Plate (Philadelphia, 1814). The essays left unfinished at Barton’s death on 19 Dec. 1815 included one on the life and writings of Joseph Priestley and another on the insects of the United States (Francis W. Pennell, “Benjamin Smith Barton as Naturalist,” , Proceedings 86 [1942]: 120–1).
1. Barton here canceled “(3).”
2. Word interlined in place of “my.”
Index Entries
- Additional Facts, Observations, and Conjectures relative to the … Opossum of North-America (B. S. Barton) search
- A Memoir concerning … Various Species of Serpents (B. S. Barton) search
- Archaeologiae Americanae Telluris Collectanea et Specimina (B. S. Barton) search
- Barton, Benjamin Smith; Additional Facts, Observations, and Conjectures relative to the … Opossum of North-America search
- Barton, Benjamin Smith; A Memoir concerning … Various Species of Serpents search
- Barton, Benjamin Smith; and books borrowed from TJ search
- Barton, Benjamin Smith; Archaeologiae Americanae Telluris Collectanea et Specimina search
- Barton, Benjamin Smith; illness of search
- Barton, Benjamin Smith; letters from search
- Barton, Benjamin Smith; on insects search
- Barton, Benjamin Smith; on J. Priestley search
- Barton, Benjamin Smith; sends packages to TJ search
- books; on botany search
- books; on natural history search
- botany; books on search
- insects; works on search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Books & Library; works sent to search
- natural history; books on search
- opossum search
- Persoon, Christiaan Hendrik; Synopsis Plantarum, seu Enchiridium Botanicum search
- Priestley, Joseph; B. S. Barton’s essay on search
- Randolph, Thomas Mann (1768–1828) (TJ’s son-in-law; Martha Jefferson Randolph’s husband); greetings sent to search
- Randolph, Thomas Mann (1768–1828) (TJ’s son-in-law; Martha Jefferson Randolph’s husband); mentioned search
- snakes; A Memoir concerning … Various Species of Serpents (B. S. Barton) search
- Synopsis Plantarum, seu Enchiridium Botanicum (C. H. Persoon) search