Book ID: CBB658074076

Endeavouring Banks: Exploring Collections from the Endeavour Voyage 1768-1771 (2016)

unapi

Chambers, Neil A. (Author)


University of Washington Press


Publication Date: 2016
Physical Details: 303 pages
Language: English

When English naturalist Joseph Banks (1743-1820) accompanied Captain James Cook (1728-1779) on his historic mission into the Pacific, the Endeavour voyage of 1768-1771, he took with him a team of collectors and illustrators. They returned with unprecedented collections of artifacts and specimens of stunning birds, fish, and other animals, as well as thousands of plants, most seen for the first time in Europe. They produced, too, remarkable landscape and figure drawings of the peoples encountered on the voyage along with detailed journals and descriptions of the places visited, which, with the first detailed maps of these lands (Tahiti, New Zealand, and the east coast of Australia), were later used to create lavishly illustrated accounts of the mission. These caused a storm of interest in Europe where plays, poems, and satirical caricatures were later produced to celebrate and examine the voyage, its personnel, and many "new" discoveries. Along with contemporary portraits of key personalities aboard the ship, scale models and plans of the ship itself, scientific instruments taken on the voyage, commemorative medals and sketches, the objects (over 140) featured in this book tell the story of the Endeavour voyage and its impact ahead of the 250th anniversary in 2018 of the launch of this seminal mission. Artwork made both during and after the voyage will be seen alongside actual specimens. By comparing the voyage originals with the often stylized engravings later produced in London for the official account, Endeavouring Banks investigates how knowledge gained on the mission was gathered, revised, and later received in Europe. Items that had been separated in some cases for more than two centuries are brought together to reveal their fascinating history not only during but since that mission. Original voyage specimens are featured together with illustrations and descriptions of them, showing a rich diversity of newly discovered species and how Banks organized this material, planning but ultimately failing to publish it. In fact, many of the objects in the book have never been published before. Focusing on the contribution of Banks's often neglected artists-Sydney Parkinson, Herman Diedrich Sporing, and Alexander Buchan, as well as the priest Tupaia, who joined Endeavour in the Society Islands-none of whom survived the mission, the surviving Endeavour voyage illustrations are the most important body of images produced since Europeans entered this region, matching the truly historic value of the plant specimens and artifacts that will be seen alongside them.

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Reviewed By

Review Carol Freeman (2017) Review of "Endeavouring Banks: Exploring Collections from the Endeavour Voyage 1768-1771". Historical Records of Australian Science (pp. 194-195). unapi

Review A. M. Lucas (2017) Review of "Endeavouring Banks: Exploring Collections from the Endeavour Voyage 1768-1771". Archives of Natural History (pp. 188-189). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB658074076/

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Authors & Contributors
Mabberley, David J.
Devlin, C. Leah
Duyker, Edward
Fara, Patricia
Fogg, G. E.
Goodman, Jordan
Journals
Archives of Natural History
Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand
Endeavour: Review of the Progress of Science
Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage
Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science
Publishers
Yale University Press
American University
Boydell Press
Brill
Oxford University Press
Thames & Hudson
Concepts
Scientific expeditions
Travel; exploration
Botany
Natural history
Collectors and collecting
Biographies
People
Banks, Joseph
Cook, James
Solander, Daniel Charles
Bauer, Ferdinand
Dampier, William
Darwin, Charles Robert
Time Periods
18th century
19th century
17th century
20th century, early
Places
Pacific Ocean
New Zealand
England
Great Britain
Caribbean
Australia
Institutions
Great Britain. Royal Navy
Royal Society of London
National Maritime Museum (Great Britain)
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
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