page_title: John Milton Bigelow
section_title: The 35th Parallel Pacific Railroad Survey
hierarchical_section_title: John Milton Bigelow / Surgeon Botanist on Western US Survey Expeditions / The 35th Parallel Pacific Railroad Survey
caption_attribution_description: English: First collected by J.M.Bigelow, headwaters of the Mojave R., 1854.03.15, as the Whipple Railroad Survey neared Cajon Pass. Originally named Echinocactus polyancistrus by Engelmann and Bigelow. Photographed 2001.05.16 in Death Valley NP.
context_page_description: John Milton Bigelow was an American physician and botanist. He had a successful medical practice, and also, a keen interest in botany - especially native plants with medical applications. He participated as a botanist and surgeon on two important expeditions through the American Southwest--the Mexican Boundary Survey and the 35th Parallel Expedition for the Pacific Railroad Surveys. He also amassed a significant collection of California plants that yielded many new species. He communicated his botanical results with the three top American botanists of the day, John Torrey, Asa Gray, and George Engelmann. Many of his botanical discoveries were named after or by him. He contributed to the botanical and medical literature of his day.
context_section_description: Bigelow joined the Pacific Railroad Survey which explored along the 35th parallel, led by Lt. Amiel Weeks Whipple.  The expedition got under way in 1853, with Bigelow serving as surgeon and botanist. Balduin Möllhausen served as naturalist and artist for the group.  Bigelow and Möllhausen often explored the countryside together. In his diary of the expedition (including a preface by his mentor Alexander von Humboldt), Möllhausen records many of their exploits. Möllhausen described Bigelow as a congenial colleague in the field, "a general favourite and by far the oldest [49] of the party. ... [with] a pattern of gentleness and patience ... not only a zealous botanist, but also an enthusiastic sportsman. ... To his patients he was most kind and attentive, and of his mule, Billy, he made an absolute spoiled child." 
  The expedition reached Los Angeles on March 20, 1854.
caption: Sclerocactus polyancistrus (Engelm. & J.M.Bigelow) Britton & Rose, first collected by J.M.Bigelow March 15, 1854, while with the Whipple Survey near Cajon Pass, CA
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