Books/Herbals/Manuscripts in Early America - Botanist Jacob Bigelow 1817

Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817-20. Iris versicolor, Blue flag, or flower de luce

The author of American Medical Botany Jacob Bigelow (1787-1879) graduated as a doctor but pursued his interest in botany leading him to publish the first systematic plant survey of the flora indigenous to Boston, in 1814. Along with William Barton's Vegetable Materia Medica, publication of which was almost simultaneous, Bigelow's book was one of the first two American botanical books with colored illustrations. American Medical Botany: being a collection of the native medicinal plants of the United States, containing their botanical history and chemical analysis, and properties and uses in medicine, diet and the arts was published in 6 parts, later bound into 3 volumes, appearing in 1817-1820.

Bigelow taught botany at Harvard University while maintianing his medical practice. He also was the botanist & landscape architect for Mount Auburn Cemetery. Mount Auburn Cemetery was founded in 1831, as "America's first garden cemetery", or the first "rural cemetery", with classical monuments set in a rolling landscaped terrain. The use of this gentle of landscape coincides with the rising popularity of the term cemetery, as opposed to graveyard. Cemetery evolves from the Greek term for "a sleeping place." The 174 acre Massachusetts cemetery is important both for its historical precedents & for its role as an arboretum.
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. , Datura stramonium, Thorn apple.
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. Apocynum androsaemifolium (dog's bane)
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. Datura stramonium (thorn apple)
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. Euphorbia ipecacuanha
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. Geranium maculatum (common cranesbill)
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. Ictodes foetidus (skunk cabbage)
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. Illicium foridanum (starry anise)
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. Kalmia latifolia (mountain laurel)
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. Laurus sassafras (sassafras tree)
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. Liriodendron tulipifera (tulip tree)
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. Magnolia glauca - small magnolia
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. Menyanthes trifoliata (buck bean)
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. Nicotina tabacum (tobacco)
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. Nymphea odorata - sweet scented water lily
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. Rhododendron maximum (american rose bay)
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. Rubus villosus (tall blackberry)
Jacob Bigelow. American Medical Botany. 1817. Sanguinaria canadensis (blood root)