John Russell Bartlett (October 23, 1805 – May 28, 1886) was an American historian and linguist.

Biography

Bartlett was born in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts ...

, on October 23, 1805. In 1819 he was a student at the Lowville Academy in

Lowville, New York Lowville is a town in Lewis County, New York, United States. The population was 4,888 at the 2020 census,

, which he attended for two years. From 1807 to 1824 he lived in

Kingston, Canada Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the north-eastern end of Lake Ontario, at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River (south end of the Rideau Canal). The city is midway between Toro ...

. From 1824 to 1836 he lived in Providence where he worked first as a clerk in his uncle's dry goods store (1824–1828), then as a bookkeeper and acting teller at the Bank of North America (1828–1831), and finally as the first cashier of the Globe Bank (1831–1836). In 1831, he was one of the founders of the

Providence Athenaeum The Providence Athenaeum is an independent, member-supported subscription library in the College Hill neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island. The building is open to the public, but only members can check out items from the collection. The ...

, and was elected its first treasurer. That year he was also elected to membership in the

Rhode Island Historical Society The Rhode Island Historical Society is a privately endowed membership organization, founded in 1822, dedicated to collecting, preserving, and sharing the history of Rhode Island. Its offices are located in Providence, Rhode Island. History Found ...

. The following year he was ordering books for the newly founded Providence Franklin Society, an early

lyceum The lyceum is a category of educational institution defined within the education system of many countries, mainly in Europe. The definition varies among countries; usually it is a type of secondary school. Generally in that type of school the t ...

. Over the course of his life he became involved with a number of other organizations including the

New England Historic Genealogical Society The New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) is the oldest and largest genealogical society in the United States, founded in 1845. NEHGS provides family history services through its staff, original scholarship, website, and being elected a member of the

American Antiquarian Society The American Antiquarian Society (AAS), located in Worcester, Massachusetts, is both a learned society and a national research library of pre-twentieth-century American history and culture. Founded in 1812, it is the oldest historical society i ...

in 1856. Bartlett moved to New York City in 1836, where he became a partner in the dry goods commission house of Jesup, Swift and Company. In 1840 he and his friend Charles Welford started the bookselling and publishing firm of Bartlett and Welford which was located in the

Astor House The Astor House was a luxury hotel in New York City. Located on the corner of Broadway and Vesey Street in what is now the Civic Center and Tribeca neighborhoods of Lower Manhattan, it opened in 1836 and soon became the best-known hotel in Ame ...

hotel on the west side of Broadway between Vesey and Barclay streets. The firm, which was known for its large stock of foreign books, issued five catalogs between 1840 and 1848. While in New York, he became friends with a number of leading intellectuals, including the ethnologist and public servant

Albert Gallatin Abraham Alfonse Albert Gallatin (January 29, 1761 – August 12, 1849) was a Genevan–American politician, diplomat, ethnologist and linguist. Often described as "America's Swiss Founding Father", he was a leading figure in the early years o ...

. In 1842, he helped Gallatin found the

American Ethnological Society The American Ethnological Society (AES) is the oldest professional anthropological association in the United States. History of the American Ethnological Society Albert Gallatin and John Russell Bartlett founded the American Ethnological Societ ...

. Bartlett later served as the Foreign Corresponding Secretary of the organization. Bartlett is known in the field of lexicography for his ''Dictionary of Americanisms'' (1848), a pioneering work that, although supplanted by later

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...

studies, is still of value to students of language and remains a valuable contribution to the subject. Later editions were published in 1859, 1860, and 1877. The first edition was translated into Dutch and published in 1854. The third edition of 1860 was translated into German and published in 1866. The work is referenced frequently by the ''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a co ...

'' in which it is given the abbreviation "BARTLETT Dict. Amer." Bartlett returned to Providence in 1850. From 1850 to 1853 he was the

United States Boundary Commissioner The Joint United States and Mexican Boundary Commission was stipulated by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which ended the Mexican–American War in 1848. The Joint Commission was required to carefully survey and mark the new boundary which had on ...

responsible for surveying the boundary between the United States and

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. During this time he traveled with Henry Cheever Pratt throughout the

Southwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

. The autoethnonym of the

Seri people The Seri or ''Comcaac'' are an indigenous group of the Mexican state of Sonora. The majority reside on the Seri communal property ( es, ejido), in the towns of Punta Chueca ( sei, Socaaix) and El Desemboque ( sei, Haxöl Iihom, link=no) on th ...

of northwestern

, Comcaac (which he wrote as "komkak"), was first recorded by Bartlett during a short visit to the area in early 1852. The word was included in the list of approximately 180 words that Bartlett archived in the Bureau of American Ethnology (now part of the

National Anthropological Archives The National Anthropological Archives is a collection of historical and contemporary documents maintained by the Smithsonian Institution, which document the history of anthropology and the world's peoples and cultures. It is located in the Smi ...

, housed at the Smithsonian). After being superseded by another commissioner upon the accession of President Franklin Pierce, he published ''A Personal Narrative of Explorations and Incidents in Texas, New Mexico, California, Sonora and Chihuahua'' (2 vols, 1854), which contains much valuable scientific and historical material concerning the area. From 1855 to 1872 Bartlett was

Secretary of State of Rhode Island The secretary of state of Rhode Island is an elected office in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. As of 2015, the current secretary of state is Nellie Gorbea. The Rhode Island Department of State or is composed of five separate divisions: *The Ele ...

, and while serving in this capacity thoroughly re-arranged and classified the state records and prepared various bibliographies and compilations, relating chiefly to the history of the state. In the later years of his life he became the librarian for the

John Carter Brown Library The John Carter Brown Library is an independently funded research library of history and the humanities on the campus of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. The library's rare book, manuscript, and map collections encompass a variety of ...

and collated an exhaustive catalog of the collection that was published in four volumes. He died in Providence on May 28, 1886.

Family

John Russell Bartlett was the son of Smith Bartlett and Nancy (Russell) Bartlett. He married Eliza Allen Rhodes of Pawtuxet, Rhode Island on May 15, 1831. They had seven children, including four daughters: Elizabeth Dorrance (1833–1840), Anna Russell (1835–1885), Leila (1846–1850), and Fanny Osgood (1850–1882). The last daughter was named for the poet

Frances Sargent Osgood Frances Sargent Osgood ( née Locke; June 18, 1811 – May 12, 1850) was an American poet and one of the most popular women writers during her time.Silverman, 281 Nicknamed "Fanny", she was also famous for her exchange of romantic poems with Edga ...

, a friend of the family. Their three sons were Marine Corps major Henry Anthony (1838–1901), George Francis (1840–1842), captain, and later rear admiral on the Retired List, John R. Bartlett, USN, who served in the Civil War and Spanish–American War and who was also a noted oceanographer. Eliza died in 1853. On November 12, 1863, Bartlett married his second wife, Ellen Eddy, of Providence.

Note

John Russell Bartlett should not be confused with John Bartlett, compiler of ''

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations ''Bartlett's Familiar Quotations'', often simply called ''Bartlett's'', is an American reference work that is the longest-lived and most widely distributed collection of quotations. The book was first issued in 1855 and is currently in its ninet ...

''.

Selected works

* *Bartlett, John Russell (1854)
''Personal Narrative of Explorations and Incidents in Texas, New Mexico, California, Sonora, and Chihuahua: Connected with the United States and Mexican Boundary Commission, During the Years 1850, '51, '52, and '53'' (Vol. I)
an
(Vol. II)
New York: D. Appleton & Company. * * * * *

Gallery

File:Bartlett Magdalena Sonora.png File:Bartlett Colorado Gila Rivers.png File:Bartlett Gila River.png File:Bartlett Arizona Pimo Village.png File:Bartlett Organ Mountains.png File:Bartlett Church Arispe.png File:Bartlett Manzanilloon.png File:Bartlett Quicksilver Furnaces.png File:Bartlett Pottery Fragments.png File:Bartlett Flowering Cactus.png File:Bartlett Sculptured Rocks Gila.png File:Bartlett Sugar Loaf.png

References

;Attribution

External links

John Russell Bartlett Works
at the

John Russell Bartlett Papers
at the

John Russell Bartlett scrapbook and letters
Available online through Lehigh University'

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bartlett, John Russell Linguists from the United States American explorers 1805 births 1886 deaths Secretaries of State of Rhode Island American bibliographers American librarians American booksellers Members of the American Antiquarian Society 19th-century American politicians American expatriates in Canada 19th-century American businesspeople