Edwin P. James (August 27, 1797 – October 28, 1861), a 19th-century American botanist, geologist, linguist, and medical practitioner, was an important figure in the early exploration of the American West. James was also known for his time spent creating relationships with Native Americans in the United States, and also aiding African Americans to escape slavery.
James is primarily remembered for his participation in the expedition of 1819-1820 led by Major Stephen Harriman Long, into still largely unknown territory acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. James served during the expedition's more productive second year. That expedition "was the first scientific survey of the region and dramatically increased the country’s geographical knowledge of the West." James was primarily responsible for producing the report, Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, Performed in the Years 1819, 1820, published in 1823.
During the expedition, James accomplished the first recorded mountain ascent in North America to over 14,000 ft. elevation, and was the first to collect many alpine plant species, including what he called "the mountain Columbine" Aquilegia coerulea, later to become the state flower of Colorado, now with the common name Colorado Blue Columbine.
The expedition's extensive collection of information on flora, fauna, geology and geography, as recounted in James' Account, is reminiscent of the efforts, just two decades earlier, by Alexander von Humboldt in Central and South America. A copy of Humboldt's Personal Narrative of Travels of the Equinocial Regions of the New Continent was carried by the Long expedition.
The Account influenced the literature of the Far West. Historian William H. Goetzmann suggested "the most important literary event of 1823 was the publication of Dr. Edwin James's Account of an Expedition." In a more recent homage to James, Lyndgaard said: "The passages that deal with landscape description, bison, and Native Americans, especially the Pawnee, were immediately recognized for their quality, and were thus mined by novelists as well as celebrated by reviewers."
Early life and education
Born in Weybridge, Vermont, to Mary (Emmes) and Daniel James, a deacon. The youngest child, he grew up in a log house set among wooded hills. James inherited several of his father's traits. He was thoughtful, studious, and had "untiring perseverance". He was "accustomed to cull treasures of rich thought from works of nature and a wide range of readings."
James prepared for college at Addison County Grammar School. He often walked the five miles to Middlebury College, which he began attending in 1812. After receiving his A.B. in 1816, James moved to Albany, New York, to continue study in medicine (with his physician brother), botany with John Torrey, and botany and geology with Amos Eaton. In 1819 James became a part of the American Geological Society and within one year had authored articles on the subject. Within this same time frame he also prepared the first list of Vermont plants.
Expedition to the Rocky Mountains
The second year of the Long Expedition began June 6, 1820 when the members, now including 22-year-old Edwin James, left the overwintering camp, Engineer Cantonment, near the eastern border of the current state of Nebraska. They headed west toward the Rockies, following, for the most part, the Platte River, then south along the Rocky Mountain Front Range, before heading east toward the expedition's ending location (which occurred on September 13, 1820) at Fort Smith, in what is now western Arkansas.
On July 13, James and two others set out to climb Pikes Peak. As James writes in his Account:
On the morning of the 14th... we continued the ascent, hoping to be able to reach the summit of the Peak, and return to the same camp in the evening... A little above the point where the timber disappears entirely, commences a region of astonishing beauty... covered with a carpet of low but brilliantly flowering alpine plants... We now found it would be impossible to reach the summit of the mountain, and return to our camp of the preceding night, during that part of the day which remained; but as we could not persuade ourselves to turn back, after having so nearly accomplished the ascent, we resolved to take our chance of spending the night, on whatever part of the mountain, it might overtake us... We met, as we proceeded, such numbers of unknown and interesting plants, as to occasion much delay in collecting, and were under the disagreeable necessity of passing by numbers which we saw in situations difficult of access.