Peter Kalm's Travels in North America: The English Version of 1770 (Dover Books on America)

xviii, 797, [13] pp. 1987 one-volume reissue of 1966 Dover two-volume edition, from the 1937 original. Revised from the original Swedish and edited by Adolph B. Benson, with a translation of new material from Kalm's diary notes. A student of Carl Linnaeus, Kalm came to the North American colonies at the behest of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, who tasked him with gathering seeds and plants from the continent to improve Sweden's agricultural diversity. This account of his journey was translated into numerous languages, and described the flora and fauna of the New World, as well as the lives of the Native Americans and the British and French colonists he encountered along the way. It has become a standard reference for those interested in colonial American history. Other than this book, his most important accomplishments are a scientific description of Niagara Falls was the first scientific paper on the North American cicada known as Magicicada septendecim.