Descriptive Summary
Access
Preferred Citation
UCLA Catalog Record ID
Acquisition Information
Biography
Scope and Content
Indexing Terms
Descriptive Summary
Title: James Mease Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1794-1848
Collection number: 185
Creator: Mease, James
1771-1846
Extent:
0.8 linear feet
( 2 document boxes)
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library.
Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and Special Collections
Division
Los Angeles, California 90095-1490
Abstract: James Mease (1771-1846), physician, scientific
thinker and author, was one of Philadelphia's most prominent citizens and an
ardent booster of both the United States and Pennsylvania. His interests were
wide-ranging, as were his contacts with notable figures in science, agriculture
and natural history in the United States and abroad. The papers consist of two
folio volumes, over fifty letters mostly addressed to Dr. Mease, and some
newspapers and other miscellaneous materials. One of the folios volumes is a
letterbook, containing mostly précis, but sometimes entire copies, of
outgoing correspondence over the years 1802-1836. The other volume is a register
of Mease's agricultural notes, experiments, theories, plus notes on
conversations and correspondence.
Physical location: History and Special Collections Division,
Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library, University of California, Los
Angeles
Language of Material: Collection materials in English
Access
The collection is open for research. Contact the History and Special
Collections Division, Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library, UCLA, for
information.
Conditions of Use
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], James Mease papers (Manuscript collection 185). Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and
Special Collections Division, University of California, Los Angeles.
UCLA Catalog Record ID
Acquisition Information
Purchased by the UCLA Biomedical Library from William Reese Company, New
Haven, CT in Oct. 2000.
Biography
James Mease (Aug. 11, 1771-May 14, 1846), physician, scientific thinker and
author, was one of Philadelphia's most prominent citizens and an ardent booster
of both the United States and Pennsylvania. His interests were wide-ranging, as
were his contacts with notable figures in science, agriculture and natural
history in the United States and abroad.
Mease was born in Philadelphia into a wealthy and patriotic shipping merchant
family; during the Revolutionary War his father, John Mease, served in the
Philadelphia Troop of Light Horse. James graduated from the College of the
University of Pennsylvania, and received an M.D. degree in 1792 from the same
institution. He married Sarah Butler, the daughter of a South Carolina senator,
in 1800. During part of the War of 1812 the younger Mease served as a hospital
surgeon. Mease was one of the managers of the "Company for the Improvement of
the Vine," in connection with which he developed a vineyard; he was a prominent
member of The Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture, a member, curator,
and councilor of the American Philosophical Society, and one of the founders and
first vice-president of the Philadelphia Athenaeum
Mease belonged to an informal international network of
scientifically-inclined thinkers who shared information, books, pamphlets,
geological samples, seeds, etc. in an ongoing exchange. He wrote to Count
Rumford, to Sir Joseph Banks, sent a pamphlet to Cuvier, had a lively
correspondence with the Scottish horticultural writer, John C. Loudon, and sent
rocks to Donald Stewart, mineralogist of the Dublin Society. On the subject of
the Pennsylvania penal system and general criminal reform he wrote to the
President of the United States, cabinet department heads, state governors, and
numerous federal and state legislators. He was interested in a wide range of
agricultural and horticultural topics, in various technologies, in geology, in
the medicinal properties of plants. All together these papers render a portrait
of a remarkably intelligent, dedicated and thoughtful individual.
Scope and Content
The papers consist of two folio volumes, over fifty letters mostly addressed
to Dr. Mease, and some newspapers and other miscellaneous materials.
One of the folios volumes is a letterbook containing mostly précis,
but sometimes entire copies, of outgoing correspondence over the years
1802-1836. The timing of entries is quite uneven, sometimes recording several
letters a day, at other times indicating intervals of three or four months or
even a year between entries. Dr. Mease noted the name of the recipient, the
date, and occasionally a marginal note indicated how the letter was to be
conveyed: the name of a ship, perhaps the captain's or the courier's name.
The other volume is a register of Mease's agricultural notes, experiments,
theories, plus notes on conversations and correspondence. The topics cover a
wide range of agricultural and horticultural subjects, methods and theories.
There is a fairly complete index to topics included.
Aside from a few autobiographical pages, there is little trace of Dr. Mease's
personal life in this collection. The correspondence contains only an occasional
greeting to his wife; his letters rarely mention his own state of health or
being, and almost never mention the family. There is also very little
information on his activities as a clinical physician.
The collection is organized into the following series:
- Series 1. Biographical materials.. 2 folders
- Series 2. Writings and Speeches, 1799-1836. 1 document box plus 7
folders
- Series 3. Correspondence, 1794-1842. 5 folders
- Series 4. Miscellaneous Papers, 1787-1847. 2 folders
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this
collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Subjects
Philadelphia
Society for Promoting Agriculture
Agriculture--United
States--History--19th century.
Physicians--United States--Archival
resources.
Physicians--United
States--History--19th century.
Prisons--Pennsylvania--History--19th
century.