François André Michaux (1770 - 1855)
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Biography
Sources
Further Sources
Selected publications
Biography
1770 August 16, born at Satory, France
1785 assists his father, André Michaux, in his botanical expeditions, studies medicine
starts botanical expeditions on his own behalf
1802 botanical expedition to the wilds of New Jersey; expeditions to Kentucky and Tennessee
travels from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh; walks from Pittsburgh to Wheeling, West Virginia; buys a canoe, descends the Ohio river to Limestone (now Maysville), Ohio; he then travels overland to Lexington, Kentucky and Nashville, Tennessee, thence to Knoxville, Tennessee, Charleston (to drop off plants), back into Tennessee, North Carolina, out to Morgantown and back, a journey of ~1800 miles.
1804 returns to France, apparently with the idea of fulfilling his father's commission to find North American trees that would do well in France; publishes account of his travels in the Alleghenies, establishing himself as an expert on the subject
1805 publishes work on the naturalization (to France) of North American trees
1806 sets out from Bordeaux to Charleston with a commission to collect seeds and saplings for transport to France; captured by British and set ashore in Bermuda (some people have all the luck!)
somehow gets to Maine and commences a botanical voyage (with the money from France?) along the Atlantic coast to Georgia, stopping for botanical excursions along the way. This became the material for his Histoire des Arbres forestiers de l'Amerique Septentrionali
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Sources
Harry Baker Humphrey (1961) Makers of North American Botany
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Further Sources
Élie Magloire Durand (1857) "Obituary of François André Michaux" in American Journal of Science
Élie Magloire Durand (1860) "Biographical Memoir of the late François André Michaux" in Transactions of the American Philosophical Society
Anon (1849) "François André Michaux" in Journal of the Franklin Institute
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Selected Publications
François André Michaux (1804) Voyage a l'ouest des Montes Allegheny (Travels to the West of the Alleghenies)
François André Michaux (1805) Naturalization des Arbres forestiers de l'Amerique du Nord (Naturalization of North American Trees)
François André Michaux (1812) Histoire des Arbres forestiers de l'Amerique Septentrionali (Account of the Forest Trees of North America)I'm not sure of the date
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