Michaux, François André "Acer tripartitum; Currant Leaved Maple." Pl. LXXI

"Acer tripartitum; Currant Leaved Maple." Pl. LXXI. From François André Michaux and Thomas Nuttall’s The North American Sylva.

Philadelphia: D. Rice & A. N. Hart, 1856-9.  Lithograph. Octavo. Original hand color. 

Sent to America by the French government, Michaux published the first illustrated book on American trees, which became the standard reference on the subject. His work was subsequently supplemented by the British botanist, Thomas Nuttall, who arrived in Philadelphia in 1808. Nuttall was highly influenced by the community of noted botanists in Philadelphia, which included the Bartram family and Benjamin Smith Barton. In particular, it was Barton in particular who took an interest in Nuttall as a potential collector for his own publication, intended to rival the Michaux volumes, of which he was critical.  In 1810, Barton contracted the young Nuttall for an extensive expedition of the American frontier. Ironically, it would be Nuttall who would succeed in improving on the Michaux volumes by publishing his own work. Over the next thirty years, the adventurous Nuttall would travel throughout the United States from the Oregon trail to the Pacific Northwest and on to Hawaii. Through his work, he established himself as one of the most prominent botanists of the budding American scientific community.

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