Sir Joseph Banks
1743-1820
English Naturalist
In 1768 Joseph Banks took part in the first expedition of Captain James Cook (1728-1779), from which he returned to England with a thousand new species of plants, a thousand more of birds and fish, and "insects innumerable." While still a young man, however, Banks ended his days as an explorer to become president of the Royal Society, and later a sponsor of expeditions to Africa, Australia, the Pacific, and the Arctic.
Born in London on February 13, 1743, Banks came from an exceedingly wealthy family with an enormous estate in Lincolnshire. He undertook his early education at Eton, and it was there, at age 14, that Banks, as he later recalled, discovered his calling in life. One summer evening, he was walking near the school when he suddenly became aware of the variety of flowers growing along the lane. Inspired to study nature, thereafter he learned as much as he could about botany. Upon arriving at Oxford University and discovering that it had no professor of botany, the young heir (his father had died when he was young) simply hired a botany professor from Oxford's rival, Cambridge, and brought the instructor back to Oxford to teach him.
After graduating from Oxford in 1763 and gaining his full inheritance the following year when he turned 21, Banks became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1766. He went on his first voyage later that year, aboard the Niger to collect plant specimens in Newfoundland and Labrador. Returning to England, he soon learned about the opportunity of a lifetime: a chance to sail with Captain Cook as onboard naturalist. Banks would have to pay his own expenses, and those of his staff, but that was no problem for him, so in 1768 he left England with Cook aboard the Endeavor.
The crew had many adventures and misadventures along the way, and in Tahiti Banks allowed himself to be tattooed—one of the first Westerners to do so. He is also rumored to have engaged in amorous involvements with at least one of the beautiful Polynesian women he met. But he also found time for work, and as the ship sailed from Tahiti to New Zealand and Australia, he collected numerous specimens of animal and plant life. He returned to a hero's welcome, receiving praise from King George III (destined tobe a lifelong friend of Banks's) and Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778).
Joseph Banks. (Archive Photos. Reproduced with permission.)Ego seems to have gotten the better of Banks for a time, because only his hubris can explain why he failed to join Cook on the his second voyage in 1772. Banks insisted on bringing a staff of 15 people, including two horn players, which would require the building of extra cabins on deck. Cook ordered these cabins torn down because they would make the craft unseaworthy, yet Banks refused to reduce the numbers of his staff. So Cook left without him—a fact Banks rued for the rest of his life—and, except for a voyage to Iceland later that year, Bank's travelling days were over.
The second phase of his career began in 1778, when the 35-year-old Banks was elected president of the Royal Society, perhaps the most honored position in the scientific world at that time. In this capacity, he established a large library of travel books in the British Museum, a library still in existence more than two centuries later. He also influenced exploration in many ways, including his suggestion to Captain William Bligh (1754-1817) that he sail to Tahiti to collect breadfruit—as Bligh later did on his infamous Bounty voyage.
Banks was particularly interested in the exploration of Africa, to which end he formed "An Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Inland Parts of Africa" in 1788. Over the next 17 years, the African Association, as it was called, sent a series of failed expeditions to find the source of the Niger River in West Africa. Most notable among the many explorers sent out by the African Association was Mungo Park (1771-1806), who drowned while looking for the elusive source of the river.
In addition to his Africa endeavors, Banks sponsored an 1801 voyage to Australia by Matthew Flinders (1774-1814), and from 1817 became involved in renewed efforts to find a Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. At this point in his life, however, he was becoming increasingly infirm, having been confined to a wheelchair since 1804 due to gout. He died on June 19, 1820.
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