John Jackson albums of specimens of dried flowers and plants

This collection consists of two albums of specimens of dried and pressed plants and wild flowers made by early nineteenth-century London Grove, Pennsylvania, botanist John Jackson between 1810 and 1819. One of the albums was given to Dr. Francis Alison (1751-1813), son of the Presbyterian minister and educator Rev. Dr. Francis Alison (1705-1779).

The first, smaller album contains 47 hand-numbered pages of dried and pressed flowers, with the first page bearing Jackson's inscription to Alison, which reads: "These few specimens of dried flowers etc. is gratefully presented to Doctor Francis Alison by John Jackson." The inscription is surrounded by several plant samples, including one identified as wire grass. Though undated, the album must have been made prior to Dr. Alison's death in 1813. The volume includes a variety of individually lettered plant specimens pasted and affixed with paper straps to the right-hand pages of the album, with hand-written identifications of the specimens appearing on the pages opposite the samples. Many plants are identified by both their common English and Latin names, however others are only identified by one name or the other. Some plants are not identified by either name. Examples of some (though by no means all) of the flowers and plants identified include the following: barberry, wood anemone, dogwood, aster, columbine, solomon seal, water cress, and delphinium. The album is in rather fragile condition, with the majority of the specimens having fallen out of the first six pages of the album. After these initial pages, however, most of the specimens are still attached.

The second, larger album contains 99 hand-numbered pages and bears no inscription or presentation page. The specimens in this album are less consistently identified, with descriptions of the specimens variously appearing directly on the paper straps attaching the specimens to the page, on the opposite page with the specimens identified by letter (as in the previous volume), on separate paper labels laid into the volume near the specimens, or not at all. However, two separate lists in Jackson's hand and originally laid into the smaller of the two volumes identify most of the samples in this volume by page number (though identifications for pages 7 through 40 are not provided). These lists were written on the backs of two proposals to publish by subscription John Pinkerton's A Complete Collection of Voyages and Travels: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Discovery, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time (circa 1809-1812) upon which John Jackson is listed as a subscriber. As noted, a few of the labels are laid into this larger album. These labels provide greater description of the specimens than is found in the other album, with some labels providing the place where the specimen was collected, the name of the individual who collected it or sent it to Jackson, and the date when it was collected. It is possible that some of these laid-in labels were written by Jackson's contemporary Dr. William Darlington (1782-1863), as several notes bear his initials. One such example includes that found on page 11, which reads: "Euphorbia Cyathophora. Raised from seed sent by Dr. Baldwin from E. Florida - 1817. W.D." Some of the specimens in this album were never mounted or identified and are instead loosely laid into the album, particularly between pages 7 and 40.

In addition to the separate lists of plant specimens described above, a handful of other miscellaneous items were originally laid into the front of the smaller volume. These include a letter (presumably to John Jackson) from "cousin" Isaiah Jackson dated September 8, 1812, and discussing cotton; a fragment of a letter to and from unknown individuals dated August 18, 1801; and a paper scrap that on one side lists members of the Jackson family and what appears to be the titles of books and their costs, and on the verso lists more plant identifications with corresponding numbers from 56 to 77. However, these specimen identifications do not appear to relate to the specimens found in either album.