Seeing the Forest Through the Trees: New Approaches to John Bartram's Observations.

This article focuses on a new interdisciplinary approach to John Bartram’s 1751 publication *Observations*, a journal of his 1743 botanical and diplomatic expedition through the Haudenosaunee Confederacy in central Pennsylvania and New York. Although historically criticized for its plain style and lack of narrative, the authors apply digital humanities tools and ecological statistical methods to treat Bartram’s detailed lists of flora, soil, and environmental conditions as valuable historical ecological data. Their analysis reveals Bartram’s accurate recording of species and environmental interconnections, while also highlighting his failure to recognize Indigenous land management practices—such as selective burning and silviculture—that actively shaped the forest ecosystems he described. By combining Bartram’s textual data with contemporaneous maps and paleoecological research, the study challenges the longstanding myth of “virgin wilderness” and underscores the significant ecological impact of Indigenous peoples prior to and during European contact. [Extracted from the article]