Description

Peter Kalm (1716-79) was a Finnish-Swedish botanist who travelled extensively to observe the natural world in Sweden, Finland, Russia and Ukraine, and became a professor of 'oeconomie', - the economic application of subjects such as mineralogy, botany, zoology and chemistry - at the university of Turku. Between 1747 and 1751 he set out on a journey through North America to gather specimens, especially from regions with a similar climate to Sweden. Because Kalm travelled though the area when much of it was still unknown to Europeans, this work has some of the first recorded accounts of places such as Niagara Falls. Kalm played an important part in forging scientific links between Sweden, England and North America. This three-volume work details his North American travels, and was first published in English (translated via German by John Reinhold Forster) in 1770-1.