Francis Parkman

Parkman, Francis (1823–93), U.S. historian of the frontier and of the Anglo-French struggle for North America. Despite a severe nervous affliction, his commitment to his research and writing made him a leading historian. Among his works are The Oregon Trail (1849), an enormously popular account of a journey made in 1846; History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac (2 vols.; 1851); and his chief work, France and England in North America (7 vols.; 1865–92). He was also an expert horticulturalist.