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Category Archives: Natural History
Reflections on Daniel Boone, American Frontiersman, and John Filson, his First Biographer
John Filson, in his 1784 portrait of “The Adventures of Col. Daniel Boon” appended to The Discovery, Settlement and Present State of Kentucke, declared that “curiosity is natural to the soul of man.” With these words Filson sparked the beginning … Continue reading
Posted in American History, Biography, books, Natural History
Tagged american-frontier, book-review, books, daniel-boone, frontier, frontiersmen, history, travel
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The Force of Life
“Every creature is thus the object of the Father’s tenderness, who gives it its place in the world. Even the fleeting life of the least of beings is the object of his love, and in its few seconds of existence, … Continue reading
Posted in Christianity, Natural History
Tagged god, Great Commission, Love, Montaigne, New Testament, Plutarch, Pope Francis
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The Mysterious Mr. Lee
Almost 200 years ago, in 1819, a scientist from England, Thomas Nuttall, journeyed up the Arkansas to near this spot, the Three Forks, the confluence of the Arkansas with the Verdigris and Grand rivers. Nuttall was exploring what had been … Continue reading
Superstition and Science
In July, 1819, up the Arkansas River several score miles from here, a remarkable conversation took place that could have only happened in the Old West of cowboys and Indians. The conversation involved an Indian, but not a cowboy, rather … Continue reading
Jean Louis Berlandier
I am teaching this semester a course on the History of Science, and am using two of my books: Science in the Ancient World, and Frontier Naturalist: Jean Louis Berlandier and the Exploration of Northern Mexico and Texas. The latter … Continue reading
