John Abbot (1751 to 1840)
From his arrival in Georgia in 1776 until his death in 1840, John Abbot faithfully recorded the flora and fauna of the Savannah River Valley in Georgia. Influenced by naturalist works by Albin and Catesby while still in his native England, he focused his collecting and rendering in Burke, Chatham, and Bullock counties. By limiting himself to this area he created the earliest thorough investigation of any region in North America. Not interested in publication, he supplied other naturalists such as Wilson, Audubon, Latham, Ord and others with drawings, samples, and notes for their own works. Not until James Edward Smith of the Linnaean Society of London published The Natural History of the Rare Lepidopterous Insects of Georgia in 1797 did Abbot receive credit for his work.
The vast majority of Abbot’s work is held by private institutions and libraries, including The Houghton Library, Harvard University, The British Museum, The Smithsonian Institution, Winterthur Museum, Colonial Williamsburg, and Universities of South Carolina and Georgia.
Information courtesy of Brunk Auctions, May 2009.