Charlotte Porter offers vivid details on the physical and professional trials of field naturalists, handicapped by lack of access to libraries and collections and held in deep disdain by the eastern savants, who more and more scorned their publications, rejected their species-splitting taxonomy, excluded them from the review process, and relegated them to the status of hirelings. Porter draws a poignant picture of the treatment thus accorded Titian Peale and flawed genius Constantine Rafinesque. - Journal of American History; ""Vividly reflects the considerable enthusiasm with which early 19th century American naturalists attempted to develop the natural sciences.... This work is of considerable interest and contains a useful panoramic account of the fresh perspectives that early American practitioners brought to the natural sciences."" - History of Biology
