Book ID: 98682
Dion, Mark and Julie Courtney
Travels of William Bartram reconsidered. 2010. col. photogr. illus. 111p. gr8vo. Hardcover.
Combining humor and seriousness, this picture-filled bookdocuments an artistic collaboration across more than two centuries. The 18th-century naturalist/artist William Bartram is renowned for his Travels, a volume recounting his 1770s trip through the American Southeast and for his revelatory drawings. The author is a contemporary artist famous for working with historical and museum collections, and for site-specific displays that mimic the historical exhibits surrounding them. Commissioned for the landmark John Bartram house at Philadelphias Bartrams Garden, the Travels-Reconsidered-exhibition and the authors 21st-century journey that produced a book filled with copious photographs, drawings, and texts. Essays by the organizing art curator and an art critic; the first history of Bartrams Garden published in 50 years, by its Resident Bartram Scholar; and excerpts from the authors travel diary and reproductions of letters and texts about the project and its people make this book a treasure trove of exploration that encompasses different times, spaces, and ideas of natural history and art.