The Life of Sir Joseph Banks
President of the Royal Society, with Some Notices of his Friends and Contemporaries

This 1911 biography reveals the extraordinary influence of the wealthy botanist Banks on eighteenth-century science, exploration and society.

Edward Smith (Author)

9781108031127, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 11 May 2011

402 pages, 11 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 2.3 cm, 0.51 kg

Sir Joseph Banks (1743–1820), botanist and patron of science, was a pivotal figure in eighteenth-century intellectual circles. He travelled around the world with Captain Cook as naturalist on the Endeavour (1768–1771), exploring first Tahiti, then Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia, and contributed £10,000 of his personal wealth to help finance the expedition. He became President of the Royal Society and scientific adviser to the Royal Gardens at Kew, counting George III as a personal friend. He both helped plan the first penal colony in New South Wales, and bred Merino sheep to be farmed there. He promoted the geological mapping of England, Flinders' circumnavigation of Australia, and the transfer of breadfruit from the Pacific to the West Indies (the objective of the Bounty voyage that ended in mutiny). This 1911 study, based on extensive archival research, was the first detailed biography of this remarkable and influential man.

Preface
1. Early years
2. Round the world with Captain Cook
3. Visit to Iceland. Cook's second and third voyages
4. President of the Royal Society
5. The Royal Society continued
6. Kew Gardens. George III
7. Plant collectors
8. Bligh's voyages in the 'Bounty' and 'Providence'
9. Various adventures
10. Maecenas and his happenings
11. The Scoffer abroad
12. European fame
13. The founding of Australia
14. Captain Flinders and Robert Brown
15. Icelandic affairs
16. The rise of new learned societies
17. Revival of botanical exploration
18. Failing health, but unflagging zeal
19. Some friends of later years
20. 'A fine old English gentleman'
21. The end
Index.

Subject Areas: History of science [PDX]