American historian Francis Parkman was born on September 16, 1823, in Boston, Massachusetts. Born into a distinguished Boston family, Parkman was in poor health as a child and was sent to live with his grandmother in the wilderness in nearby Medford. During his time there he learned how to hunt and live like a pioneer. Living there for four years, Parkman developed a love of nature that would later inspire his career as a historian. Parkman would later say that his books covered “the history of the American forest.”