- John Russell Bartlett
John Russell Bartlett (1805–1886), American historical and linguistic student, was born in
Providence, Rhode Island , on the 23rd of October 1805. From his first to his eighteenth year he lived inKingston, Canada ; he was then in turn, from 1824 to 1836, a clerk in a dry goods store, a book-keeper and a bank cashier at Providence, and for more than ten years after 1836 he was a bookseller inNew York City , returning to Providence in 1850.In 1850–1853 he was the commissioner on the part of the
United States for the survey of the boundary between the United States andMexico , but owing to the lack of funds did not finish the work. After being superseded by another commissioner upon the accession of President Franklin Pierce, he published "A Personal Narrative of Explorations and Incidents in Texas, New Mexico, California, Sonora and Chihuahua" (2 vols., 1854), which, contains much valuable scientific and historical material concerning the south-west. In 1842, he joined ethnologist and public servantAlbert Gallatin in founding the American Ethnological Society. He is chiefly remembered however, for his "Dictionary of Americanisms" (1848), a pioneering work which, although supplanted by laterdialect studies, is still of value to students of language and remains a valuable contribution to the subject. The work is referenced frequently by the "Oxford English Dictionary " in which it is given the abbreviation "BARTLETT Dict. Amer."From 1855 to 1872 he was
Secretary of State of Rhode Island , and while serving in this capacity thoroughly re-arranged and classified the state records and prepared various bibliographies and compilations, relating chiefly to the history of the state. He died in Providence on the 28th of May 1886.Note
John Russell Bartlett should not be confused with
John Bartlett , publisher ofBartlett's Familiar Quotations .References
*1911
External links
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=z5wYAAAAIAAJ "Dictionary of Americanisms" (4th Edition)] at
Google Book Search
* [http://www.rihs.org/mssinv/Mss286.htm John Russell Bartlett Papers] at theRhode Island Historical Society
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