American Science Comes of Age, 1780-1820

Abstract

D URING the first century and a half of its existence, American science was a branch of British science and depended on Europe for inspiration and ideas, for models of scientific achievement, for medical training, for avenues of publication, for books and instruments, and for museums and herbaria-in short, for everything except native talent and the raw data provided by nature. In science, as in trade, the American colonies were purveyors of raw materials-astronomical observations, seeds, plants, shells, and fossils-which were worked into finished products in the scientific centers of the Old World.' But there were no Acts of Trade and Navigation in the scientific realm. Americans were free to send their specimens and observations wherever they pleased. Not a few corresponded directly with Linnaeus, Gronovius, and Jussieu as well as with British men of science. And well they might; British science in the mid-eighteenth century was at a low ebb compared with the rising tide of science on the Continent, where kings vied with each other to secure the services of an Euler, a Maupertuis, or a Bernoulli. Private enterprise rather than royal patronage was the rule in Britain. This system, or lack of system, had serious disadvantages; yet it provided a considerable stimulus to scientific activity in the colonies. Although the Royal Society of London had little money to support scientific research, it provided a model for colonial science, a place to send observations and publish findings, and hope of recognition of scientific achievement. Actual patronage of colonial science came from nobles, wealthy merchants, and physicians interested in science and horticulture. To a considerable degree this aid was inspired by the desire to procure exotic plants to beautify country estates. In less than half a century, Mark Catesby declared in the preface