Guide to the Papers of Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet (as filmed by the AJCP)
M469
National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record
Created: 2018
Online Items
Series 1. Letters from Sir Charles Blagden to Joseph Banks, 1773 - 1805
Written from London, Plymouth, Bath and Paris, the letters deal in particular with the affairs and publications of the Royal Society, of which Blagden was secretary from 1784 to 1797. They cover a wide range of subjects, including medicine and botany, and refer to correspondence and meetings with scientists throughout Europe. Among those mentioned are Daniel Solander, Jonas Dryander, Antoine Lavoisier, Joseph Priestley, Sir William Hamilton, Sir William Herschel, Henry Cavendish, Sir Nevil Maskelyne, Richard Kirwan, Sir George Chambers, Sir Benjamin Thompson (Count Rumford), Claude Berthollet, Alexander Aubert, Benjamin Wilson, Pierre-Simon Laplace and Georges-Louis Leclerc (Comte du Buffon). (77 letters)
Series 2. Copies and drafts of letters and papers written by Joseph Banks, 1784 - 1815
Banks to Major William Price, 31 March 1796 (File 2.2)
Curiosities collected on ships commanded by Bruny D'Entrecasteaux, including plants, birds, insects and snakes.
Banks to [William Price], 15 June 1798 (File 2.3)
Restitution of natural history objects collected by scientists who accompanied Comte de la Perouse to the Pacific.
Review of The journal of Sir Joseph Banks during Captain Cook's first voyage in HMS Endeavour in 1768-71, edited by Sir Joseph Hooker, Athenaeum, 26 December 1896 (File 2.5)
pp. 908-9
Banks to Dawson Turner, 12 December 1812 (File 2.7)
Refers to Tupia, the Tahitian who was brought to England by Banks.
Series 3. Letters written to Joseph Banks, 1773 - 1822
Johann F. Blumenbach (Gottingen) to Banks, 4 May 1796 (File 3.2)
Recommends Friedrich Hornemann; suggests he first spend some months in Gottingen working on natural history.
C.A. de Calonne (London) to Banks, 18 March 1789 (File 3.3)
A bust of Banks. (Includes reply by Banks.)
George Cumberland (London) to Banks, 18 January 1787 (File 3.5)
His interest in studying antiques received from Naples and also a collection of prints.
Mary Delany (London) to Banks, 1785 - 1786 (File 3.7)
Recommends a gardener for the Dowager Duchess of Portland. (2 letters)
Letters of Jonas Dryander to Banks, 1782 - 1802 (File 3.9)
Dryander, who had been a pupil of Carl Linnaeus, succeeded Daniel Solander as Banks's librarian in 1782. The letters were mostly written from Banks's house in Soho Square at times when Banks was out of London. They deal in particular with the library, the acquisition of books and drawings, subscriptions and catalogues. In addition, there are references to the receipt of letters, visitors to the house, and botanical and zoological matters. Individuals mentioned in the letters include Johann Fabricius, Charles Blagden, Joseph Planta, Alexander Dalrymple, Charles Greville, Henry Cavendish and Edward Gray.
Samuel Felton (London) to Banks, 22 March 1804 (File 3.11)
Requests an inscription on the cabinet he has donated.
James Laird (Geological Society) to Banks, March 1809 (File 3.12)
A rift between the Geological Society and the Royal Society; attaches a resolution of the Geological Society rejecting the plan of Charles Greville for the Society to merge with the Royal Society. (2 letters)
G.B. Greenough to Banks, 1809 - 1810 (File 3.13)
Relations between the Royal Society and the Geological Society. (2 letters)
Matthew Gregson (Liverpool) to Banks, 13 August 1791 (File 3.16)
Offers to sell 800 drawings, including birds and shells by Sarah Stone and others under the direction of Ashton Lever.
Charles F. Greville (Bath) to Banks, 27 October 1776 (File 3.18)
Forwards a box of potatoes, possibly a rare species; he is to be sworn in as mayor of Warwick.
J.W. Griffith (Abergele) to Banks, 12 July 1802 (File 3.19)
Queries whether periwinkle is only the first state of a small species of lobster.
Charles Hatchett (London) to Banks, 1803 - 1804 (File 3.2)
Metals and minerals; papers of Smithson Tennant. (2 letters)
J. Jeffries (Paris) to Banks, 7 January 1785 (File 3.23)
Account of ballooning near north coast of France.
James Lind (Edinburgh, Windsor, Cape Town) to Banks, 1775 - 1795 (File 3.24)
Visit to Cape Town (1779); plan to settle convicts on the north-west coast of America; insanity; reports on the health of King George III (1788); William Herschel; Tiberius Cavallo; drawings of elephants by Thomas Sandby; blue lights; presents from the Emperor of China. (33 letters)
Vincent Lunardi to Banks, 1787 (File 3.26)
Discovery of a method of saving people from drowning; meeting. (3 letters)
James Matra (Constantinople) to Banks, 17 August 1779 (File 3.27)
Congratulations on his marriage; collection of plants of Abbe Sistius (?); difficulties of transplanting plants to England; the Sultan is generally shut up in his seraglio; many houses burnt down by mobs; hopes that Capt. J. Cook is not getting himself and his followers into a 'scrape'.
James Matra (Gibraltar) to Banks, 24 September 1791 (File 3.28)
Embarking on his last trip to Tangier; sends vocabulary of the Shillah language, some words translated into Arabic; hopes of retirement.
Arnold Mello (London) to banks, 16 July 1776 (File 3.29)
Meeting with Peter the Wild Man, found in a forest near Hanover; sends particulars. (3pp.)
Letters and enclosures sent to Banks relating to mermaids, c. 1783-1809 (File 3.3)
The correspondents include Edmund Hussey, William Munro, Duncan Campbell and James Glen.
W.R. Notcutt (Bristol) to Banks, 3 March 1779 (File 3.31)
Sends specimens of strontium sulphate; requests specimens of coal from Botany Bay.
J. Morrison (Mint Office) to [Banks?], 16 November 1812 (File 3.34)
Allowance to Matthews authorised by Spencer Percival for duties performed at the Mint.
Bishop Thomas Percy (Dromore, Ireland) to Banks, 1783 - 1784 (File 3.35)
Fossil deer bones found on his estate. (3 letters)
James Burnett (Edinburgh) to Banks, 30 January 1783 (File 3.37)
Peter the Wild Man; question of his surviving on leaves and bark; refers to natives of New Caledonia eating bark of certain trees.
George Nicols (London) to Banks, 22 September 1788 (File 3.38)
Difficulties in transmitting a letter to King George III; printing of statutes [of Royal Society].
William (?) Purkis (Brentford) to Banks, 14 October 1798 (File 3.4)
Presentation of colours of the Brentford Armed Association.
William Richardson (Armagh) to Banks, 1803 - 1805 (File 3.41)
Submits papers for publication; geological specimens and drawings; books. (6 letters)
[Jean?] Royer (London) to Banks, c. 1 September 1803 (File 3.42)
Correspondence with Robert Brown about a collection of birds, animals and plants captured from a French ship by a privateer.
William Sheffield to Banks, 5 February 1774 (File 3.44)
Refers to examination by Banks of coasts of Glamorgan and Pembroke; collecting of shells.
Daniel Solander to Banks, 1773 - 1781 (File 3.45)
General news; capture of a whale; letter from Alexander Dalrymple to John Hawkesworth; Lord Sandwich; Charles Blagden; John Hunter; dissection of electric eels.
Charles Townley to Banks, 18 June (?) (File 3.46)
Proposal that papers of Padre Antonio about Mount Vesuvius be placed in the British Museum.
Dawson Turner (Yarmouth) to Banks, 3 February 1803 (File 3.47)
Sends geese in gratitude to his admission to Society of Antiquaries: Banks's health: James Smith and value as Flora Britannica.
Walter H. Yate to Banks, 18 October 1802 (File 3.4)
Seeks support in publishing a history of Gloucestershire by Rev. T.D. Fasbrooke.