Born in Darby Township to a Quaker family, John Bartram (1699-1777) became America's first great botanist, naturalist, and plant explorer.

Lacking a formal education, Bartram taught himself through observation, reading and correspondence with equally inquiring minds in the colonies and abroad.

From his 102-acre farm near Philadelphia, which he purchased in 1728, Bartram traveled north to Lake Ontario, south to Florida, and west to the Ohio River in search of plants and natural history specimens for his own botanic garden and for collectors at home and abroad. Bartram and his son William are credited with identifying and introducing into cultivation more than 200 of our native plants.

By 1765, Bartram's international reputation earned him the notice of King George III who honored him as Royal Botanist, a position he held until his death in 1777. (Drawing of John Bartram by 19th and early 20th century illustrator Howard Pyle.)