American historian.He is best known as author of The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life and hisseven-volume France and England in North America. These works are still valued as historical sources and as literature. He was also a leading horticulturist, briefly a Professor of Horticulture at Harvard University and author of several books on the topic. Parkman was a trustee of the Boston Athenæum from 1858 until his death in 1893.
