Mark Catesby vs William Bartram

There are now over 200 books in my reference library about this subject.   And now I see why Amy Meyers dedicates so many books to Joseph Ewan.  He was by a great degree the clearest, most compelling author.  Only the English Professor, William Patterson Cumming, comes close. In his 1968 book on the Bartram drawings at the Natural History Museum, he clearly states on page 31 that they then were in two volumes.   So they were disbound sometime in the last 53 years.This reference has been in my library for over 40 years but never read cover to cover until this evening.   His fearless, intrepid opinions are a delight and unique among all the other researchers.   No one else seems willing to declare the obvious - that the Natural History Museum's works assembled by Dr. John Fothergill are superior aesthetically with the Benjamin Smith Barton works at APS in second place and Collinson's in third.  A bit painful for me but at least mine are the earliest - executed while he was a teenager!   Today is the last day as a teenager for my 5th daughter who recently won best actress in a musical in LA last Summer.  And my last teenager - my 15 year old son is ranked 3rd nationally in his age group in squash.    They will soon see Bartram's watercolors and my hope is that it will inspire them as my first four children were moved reading Thomas Jefferson's ratification of the Louisiana Purchase Proclamation signed by him which was acquired by me 25 years ago!  When they all told their teachers the next day, they were sent to James Crawford's office for dissembling.  One of Ewan's prevailing points is that Bartram's skill as an artist was not widely celebrated in his lifetime even though he was the first American born master of this subject.   Very few of his watercolors saw publication mostly because he did not have the drive, luck and wider support  that Catesby had.  Interesting that Catesby was celebrated during his lifetime but today has nowhere near the number of publications about him as Bartram.    David Elliott, Ryan and others are correcting the inbalance but still have a long way to go