About this Event
The Bartram Symposium is part of the St. Johns River Bartram Frolic by the Bartram Trail Society of Florida. It features Bartram scholars and experts each discussing their vision of the legacy of the TRAVELS of William Bartram.
3:00 PM: Bartram’s IXIA – William Bartram and Adam Arendell , the IXIA Chapter FNPS
William Bartram (Mike Adams) will describe his discovery of the beautiful Bartram Ixia. Pictures and Bartram’s painting will be featured. Bartram writes “its elegant form of growth with the brilliant coloring of its Flowers strike on the imagination delight” The IXIA Chapter of the Florida Native Society will provide current Ixia natural history details of the plant named after Bartram. You will hear modern naturalists describing the flower.
3:30 PM: Kathryn Braundt – “The Attention of a Traveller” Bartram’s evolving influence in North American natural history.
Kathryn Braundt, Bartram author and historian will discuss her book that is an assessment of Bartarm’s influence and evolving place in North American natural history, opening new avenues of research concerning the flora, fauna and people connected to Bartlam and his writings. Braundt will feature her research on the American Alligator which Bartram dreaded until his death.
4:00 PM: Mark Emery Films – Bartram’s “Alegator of the St. Johns”
Mark Emery is an award-winning filmmaker, musician, and photographer. Emery has worked for the BBC, National Geographic Society and Smithsonian Network. He will share dramatic videos of the alligators of William Bartram comparing Bartram’s descriptions and drawing with real life.
4:45 PM: Robert Mattson – Bartram’s St. Johns River
Rob Mattson - scientist, author, historian, reenactor and local expert will be speaking on the St. Johns River that William Bartram knew and loved. Bartram said “We had a pleasant and prosperous voyage down the grand river St. Juans [St. Johns]”. Mattson will tell you why.
5:15 PM: Joe Foy – Tracing Bartram’s land trail from Spalding’s Lower Store to the Alachua Savannah
Joe Foy is a long-time resident of Putnam County, a Property Appraiser and avid Bartramite. He has spent years in the woods tracking old Indian and Spanish trails. He has researched Travells, the Fothergill letters and Francis Harper’s writings and can prove that Harper was wrong. He will use maps and his backwoods woods experiences to share with us the actual route used by Bartram on his two trips to the Alachua Savannah.
5:45 PM: Sam Carr & Dean Campbell - Making the Bartram Trail in Florida Happen:
Sam is the President of the Bartram Trail Society of Florida, Past-President Bartram Trail Conference. Dean Campbell is Director of Bartram Trail Society of Florida, and Director of Bartram Trail Conference. Sam and Dean will close the symposium with a review of all that has happened because of the William Bartram legacy in the state of Florida and the 2023 St. Johns River Bartram Frolic. Efforts by Nassau, Duval, St. Johns and Alachua Counties to establish the Bartram Trail of Florida will be shared.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Westminster Hall, 126 South 2nd Street, Palatka, United States
USD 0.00