Johnstone Lecture

From Georgia to the World: William Bartram’s Botanical Legacy Featuring Dorinda Dallmeyer

During his five-year botanical journey through the Southeast, William Bartram documented 42 plant species new to science — 15 of them in Georgia. His explorations ranged from the sea islands and the Blue Ridge mountains to the St. Mary’s, Savannah and Chattahoochee rivers. This lecture will highlight five of Bartram’s Georgia discoveries that still captivate us 250 years later.

Dorinda G. Dallmeyer holds geology degrees (B.S., M.S.) and a J.D. from the University of Georgia. After a long career in research and teaching, she retired in 2018 as director of UGA’s Environmental Ethics Certificate Program and is the immediate past-president of the Bartram Trail Conference. An accomplished naturalist and writer, Dallmeyer received the 2005 Phillip D. Reed Memorial Award for Outstanding Writing about the Southern Environment. Her works include “Bartram’s Living Legacy” (Mercer University Press, 2010; 2nd ed. 2019), which pairs Bartram’s 1791 classic with essays by 17 contemporary Southern nature writers. She has also edited and contributed to other anthologies on Southern environmental history.

Most recently, she served as executive producer and screenwriter for the award-winning documentary “Cultivating the Wild: William Bartram’s Travels”, which premiered nationally on public television in 2020 and remains available on PBS. Her upcoming book, “Bartram’s Travels Illustrated,” coauthored with Harriet H. Langford, will be published by the University of Georgia Press in fall 2026.

A light reception will follow the lecture.

You may also like the following events from State Botanical Garden of Georgia at UGA:

• Next Tuesday, 10th February, 02:00 pm, Tuesday Tour in Athens
• Next Friday, 13th February, 09:00 am, Native Plant Propagation in Athens
• Next Friday, 13th February, 06:00 pm, Galentine’s Flower Arranging in Athens

Also check out other Arts events in Athens, Literary Art events in Athens, Trips & Adventurous Activities in Athens.