#thomas nuttall

[speakingofnature]

In the early 1800s it was not uncommon for song birds to be caged for their delightful songs. The Rose-breasted Grosbeak did as well caged as free. Thomas Nuttall, the famed botanist and zoologist, wrote of the grosbeak’s song, “The notes are wholly warbled, now loud, clear, and vaulting with querulous air; then perhaps sprightly; and finally lower, tender, and pathetic. In short, I am not acquainted with any of our birds superior in song to the present, with the solitary exception of our Orphean Mocking Bird.”

[oklahomahistory]

Scientist Describes the Cherokees

 Among the lasting scientific and historic contributions of famed American botanist Thomas Nuttall during his trip to Oklahoma in 1819 is his description of the sophisticated and advanced Cherokees he met as he traveled the Arkansas River: Both banks of the river, as we proceeded, were lined with the houses and farms of the Cherokee, and though their dress was a mixture of indigenous and European taste, yet in their houses, which are decently furnished, and in their farms, which were well fenced and stocked with cattle, we perceive a happy approach toward civilization. Their numerous families, also, well fed and clothed, argue a propitious progress in their population. Their superior industry either as hunters or farmers proves the value of property among them, and they are no longer strangers to avarice and the distinctions created by wealth. Some of them are possessed of property to the amount of many thousands of dollars, have houses handsomely and conveniently furnished, and their tables spread with our dainties and luxuries.

[lindahall]

Thomas Nuttall – Scientist of the Day

Thomas Nuttall, a Scottish botanist working in the United States, was born Jan. 5, 1786.

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