William Bartram
Environmentalist
Naturalist who investigated the flora and fauna of the American South during the late Eighteenth Century.
He was recognized for his skill as an ornithological and botanical artist when he was still in his teens.
His their work, Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, etc., was finished during the 1780s.
He was the son of fellow botanist and explorer, John Bartram. After the War of 1812, to which he lost many friends and relatives, he settled into a reclusive lifestyle, observing natural phenomena with his diary and doing nature illustrations others' scientific publications.
He was invited by President Thomas Jefferson to take part in an 1806 expedition into the Louisiana Territory, but he declined the offer.