American physician and botanist Benjamin Smith Barton was the first professor of natural sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. Born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, his clergyman father was interested in botany and imparted his wisdom upon his son from the outset. As a boy Barton would collect plants, birds and insects in the local woodlands and attended the York Academy (Pennsylvania). Both parents died when he was still a child, his mother when he was eight years old and his father when he was fourteen, so in 1780 the youngster moved to Philadelphia where his eldest brother lived and he studied for some time at Philadelphia College.

In 1785 Benjamin Barton joined a commission run by his uncle to map the western boundary of Pennsylvania and travelled for five months in the interior of the state. Befriending the Native Americans there he became interested in their pathology, medicines and culture, which would remain a specialism of his throughout his life. Barton trained as a medic and soon travelled to Europe, continuing his education in Edinburgh in 1786, where his thesis on Hyoscyamus niger L. won him the Harveian Prize. His first book was also published there in 1787, a short work entitled Observations on some parts of Natural History. After taking his medical degree in Göttingen Barton returned to Philadelphia in 1789 and practised as a physician, his skill soon making him quite well known in academic circles.

Barton was appointed to the newly created professorship of natural history and botany at Philadelphia College, which later merged with the University of Pennsylvania, making him the first chair of this subject in the state. Later he also taught materia medica at the university and worked as a physician at the Pennsylvania Hospital. Remaining in these positions for the rest of his life he published some interesting works including one on the snakes of North America (1796), several medical papers, works on archaeology and his Elements of Botany (1803).

In 1797 Barton married a daughter of Edward Pennington, with whom he had two children. Having suffered from haemorrhages for many years, in 1815 he decided to travel in an attempt to recuperate. After journeying to France and back over the summer he saw no improvement and died on his return, just three days after writing a paper on the genus of plants which F.T. Pursh and T. Nuttall named Bartonia in his honour.

Sources:
J.W. Harshberger, 1899, Botanists of Philadelphia: 108-113
H.B. Humphrey, 1961, The Makers of North American Botany: 21-23.