John Witt Randall

John Witt Randall (November 13, 1813 – January 25, 1892) was an American naturalist, poet, and art collector.

He was a son of the eminent Boston physician Dr. John Randall, Harvard College Class of 1802, and his wife Elizabeth Wells (a granddaughter of Founding Father Samuel Adams).[1] H

After receiving his preparatory education at Mr. Green's school in Jamaica Plain and at the Boston Latin School, he studied at Harvard College, graduating in the Class of 1834. Although he took his Doctor of Medicine degree at Harvard Medical School, he never practiced medicine. Randall was described by a classmate: "Though among us, he was not wholly of us, but seemed to have thoughts, pursuits and aspirations to which we were strangers".[1]

His natural history publications include two papers about beetles (one concerning the beetles of Maine, the other, the beetles of Massachusetts), a paper about crustaceans from the West Coast of the United States and Hawaii, and a book of poetry entitled, Consolations of Solitude, published by John P. Jewett, (publisher of Uncle Tom's Cabin); it was commended in the North American Review, the reviewer likening his descriptions of nature to those of William Cullen Bryant.[1][2] A further volume on the natural history of Maine and five further volumes of poetry were prepared; one of them, The Fairies' Festival, with illustrations by Francis Gilbert Attwood, was published in 1895 after his death by Joseph Knight Company of Boston, and edited by Francis Ellingwood Abbot.

An art collector, Randall amassed a large collection at his family seat in Stow, Massachusetts.[3] A lifelong bachelor, Randall died at the age of seventy-eight. Randall's donation of books and bequest led to the formation of the Randall Library in Stow.[4]

References
  1. "John Witt Randall" (PDF). Psyche. 6 (197): 316–317. 1892. doi:10.1155/1892/61412.
  2. William Cullen Bryant, Thomas G. Voss, ed. (1992). The letters of William Cullen Bryant, Volume 5. Fordham University Press. ISBN 978-0-8232-0995-8.
  3. "Exhibition at Fogg Museum celebrates centenary of J. W. Randall bequest". Harvard University Gazette. May 28, 1998. Archived from the original on April 18, 2016. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  4. https://www.stow-ma.gov/randall-library/pages/about-library
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