Bartlett, John Russell (1805-1886)
Role: Historian, StatesmanDates:
Portrait Location: John Carter Brown Library
Artist: Arnold, John Nelson (1834 - 1909)
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Brown Portrait Number: 77
Brown Historical Property Number: 2226
John Russell Bartlett was born in Providence, RI, but grew up in Ontario, Canada. He returned to Rhode Island in 1824 to work in his uncle's store and then in the banking business, but soon pursued his lifelong passion for historical research at local historical institutions. He was elected to membership in the Rhode Island Historical Society in 1831 and was one of the founders of the Providence Athenaeum. Bartlett continued this juggling of a business career, active scholarship and service to cultural institutions after he moved to New York in 1836. He co-owned a book selling business and took office at the New York Historical Society, and was instrumental in founding the American Ethnological Society. Bartlett's career shifted from business to government service in 1850, when he became a boundary commissioner under President Taylor. His three-year long assignment to establish the boundary between the US and Mexico took him to expeditions in the Southwest, and resulted in the 1854 publication of Personal Narrative of Explorations and Incidents Connected with the United States and Mexican Boundary Commission. After this mission, Bartlett continued his political career in his native Rhode Island, where he became Secretary of State in 1855. During his tenure, he collected and published state records and documents (Records of the Colony of Rhode Island, 1636-1792) as well as historical writings relating to the history of Rhode Island, including Bibliography of Rhode Island (1864) and Memoirs of Rhode Island Officers in the Rebellion (1867). Bartlett was also instrumental in advancing the personal library of early Americana owned by John Carter Brown (today the John Carter Brown Library). He contributed to acquisition and scholarship, and published a multi-volume bibliographical work, the "Catalogue of Books relating to North and South America in the Library of John Carter Brown, of Providence, R.I." Bartlett died in Providence in 1886.
Artist John N. Arnold lived in Providence and painted portraits of a number of governors and distinguished Rhode Island citizens.