Yesterday
was Darwin Day, on which we honor perhaps the greatest naturalist of
all time...and today is the birthday of another great naturalist,
Joseph Banks.
Born
to a wealthy English family on this date in 1743, Banks learned about
nature from nature but also at Oxford University. He met with other
scientific men of his day at the Chelsea Physic Garden and the
British Museum, and he became an advisor to the king of England,
urging him to support voyages of discovery to new lands.
The
king must've agreed, because soon Banks was off on several voyages of
discovery. He described birds, including auks, when he traveled to
Newfoundland and Labrador, in northern Canada. (He mistakenly called
the auks penguins, but penguins are a southern-hemisphere
bird, and they are not closely related to auks.)
 |
| "Kookaburra sits in an old gum tree..." |
Banks's
most important voyage was with James Cook's HM Bark Endeavor.
Cook and Banks traveled to Brazil, other parts of South America, then
Tahiti, New Zealand, and Australia. Banks did the first scientific
study of the beautiful, bright bougainvillea plant while in Brazil,
and he and two other botanists made the first major collection of
Australian flora (plants), with more than 800 specimens described and
also illustrated by shipmate Sydney Parkinson.
This
voyage to Australia took place from 1768 to 1771. When the explorers
returned to England, they were instantly famous. Banks hired five
artists to create watercolor paintings from Parkinson's drawings and
notes about color. He went on to hire 18 engravers to turn the 743
completed watercolor paintings into copper plates. (This was very
costly, but remember, Banks was a wealthy man!) Banks didn't publish
these illustrations, but instead gave the copper plates to the
British Museum.
Banks's
Florilegium was finally
published in 34 volumes just recently—between 1980 and 1990!
(By
the way, Joseph Banks's birthday is given here in “old style”;
according to the Gregorian calendar, his birthday is February 24.)
Also
on this date:
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