Elijah Mead to Thomas Jefferson, 12 June 1823
From Elijah Mead
New York June 12th 1823—
Hon. Sir,
Knowing how eminently you regard and appreciate American worth and talent, it is therefore, with much diffidence that I intrude upon your notice the feeble effort of a young man; but having the honour of being a member of the Linnæan Society of Paris, of which you are the most conspicuous American member, I have taken the liberty of enclosing a paper containing my address on the 24th Ult. at the Linnæan Celebration.—And I hope it may be deemed as a laudable ambition that glows in my bosom, when I venture
Elijah Mead
RC (MoSB, 1959); at foot of text: “To the Hon. Thoms Jefferson”; endorsed by TJ as received 19 June 1823 and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure: Mead, “Rise and Progress of Botanical Science: An Address delivered at the celebration of the Birth-day of Linnæus, on the 24th May, 1823, at Prince’s Garden, Flushing,” giving a brief history of the study of botany from the natural observations of ancient thinkers through the eighteenth century and the birth of Carolus Linnaeus, whose classification system “may be considered the most faultless system ever conceived by the mind of man” (p. 69); praising advances in botanical knowledge around the world, particularly in Europe, and looking forward to the new discoveries to be made in Africa and Asia; claiming that “the Genius of Botany points to this Western Hemisphere” (p. 70); highlighting Linnaeus’s own interest in the flora of North America and his influence on its study; and concluding by describing publications on American botany (printed in Minerva 2 [1823]: 69–70; TJ’s copy in DLC: Rare Book and Special Collections, bound with his presentation copy of Alexander von Humboldt, De Distributione Geographica Plantarum [Paris, 1817; , 6 (no. 281)]).
Elijah Mead (ca. 1796–1842), physician, was a resident of Massachusetts before graduating in 1821 from the College of Physicians and Surgeons (later part of Columbia University) in New York City, where in that year he published his dissertation, An Experimental Inquiry into the Botanical History, Chemical Properties, and Medicinal Virtues, of the Spiræa Tomentosa of Linnæus. Mead immediately began practicing medicine in New York. He was a member of the Société Linnéenne de Paris by 1823, was elected a member of the Medical Society of the State of New York in 1824, and became a fellow of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1828. Mead was still a practicing physician in New York when he died in Hartford, Connecticut (New-York Gazette & General Advertiser, 5 Apr. 1821; , 40, 74, 199; [1821]: 304; [1842]: 425; Minutes of the so-called Medical Society of the State of New York [1878], 290–1; Middletown, Conn., Constitution, 10 Aug. 1842).
Index Entries
- botany; scholars of search
- botany; study of search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Books & Library; works sent to search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Honors & Memberships; Société Linnéenne de Paris, membership search
- Linnaeus, Carolus (Carl von Linné); and botany search
- Linnaeus, Carolus (Carl von Linné); and scientific classification search
- Linnaeus, Carolus (Carl von Linné); and Société Linnéenne de Paris search
- Mead, Elijah; identified search
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- Mead, Elijah; Rise and Progress of Botanical Science: An Address delivered at the celebration of the Birth-day of Linnæus, on the 24th May, 1823, at Prince’s Garden, Flushing search
- Rise and Progress of Botanical Science: An Address delivered at the celebration of the Birth-day of Linnæus, on the 24th May, 1823, at Prince’s Garden, Flushing (E. Mead) search
- Société Linnéenne de Paris; and annual celebration in New York search