Background
He was born on September 4, 1804, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Soon after his birth the family moved to Missouri.
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He was born on September 4, 1804, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Soon after his birth the family moved to Missouri.
The parents were poor, and his early educational advantages were meager. In 1826 he was graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point at the head of a class of forty-one members, among whom were six future generals of the Union and the Confederate armies.
The next ten years were divided between service with the Corps of Engineers and teaching at the Academy. In 1836 he was promoted to the full professorship of natural and experimental philosophy, which he held until his retirement in 1871, when he became actuary of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York. This position he held actively until 1888, resigning then because of age and ill health. He died in 1893 at Yonkers, New York.
Bartlett's life work was done in three related fields - scientific research, teaching, and authorship, in all of which he obtained high standing among his fellows. His research activities were varied and fruitful, covering such diverse subjects as the expansibility of building stones, the stress and strain in rifled guns, cometary phenomena, and actuarial questions. The results were published in the leading scientific and technical journals of the day. His principal research work was done in connection with the new astronomical observatory, which he was instrumental in building soon after his return, in 1840, from a visit to some of the leading European establishments. His chief interest centered in astronomical photography, then in its infancy. It is claimed that he was the first to obtain astronomical measurements from photographic plates. Excellent as his scientific work was, it is probable that the results would have been more commensurate with his ability had his environment provided more stimulus, criticism, and approval from experts in his own field.
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He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, and a corporator of the National Academy of Sciences.
His qualities as a teacher are described by one of his students, E. S. Holden, the astronomer: "From my own recollections I can say that he was an accomplished teacher - luminous, exact, suggestive, inspiring. .. The systematic teaching at West Point ordinarily kept us closely to the text of each lesson, but there were memorable occasions when it seemed to him worth while to add to the expositions of the book developments unforeseen, leading us on and on and opening vistas wholly unsuspected. It was always easy to see that he was able, but it was on such exceptional occasions that we knew he was great".
While engaged in construction at Fort Adams, Newport he was married on February 4, 1829, to Harriet Whiteborne, the daughter of a local merchant. Eight children were born to them. One of their daughters, Harriet, was married to John M. Schofield.