The Artistic Legacy of Joseph Banks display: 15 highlights

Display highlights until 13 January 2022

Joseph Banks made his name sailing on Captain James Cook's first voyage to the Pacific from 1768-1771. Many of the artworks in his collections give an insight into this expedition. Cook's ship - HMS Endeavour - first sailed to Tahiti to observe the transit of Venus across the Sun.

Banks funded others to join the voyage and assist with his scientific work, including two artists and a botanist. With the occasional help of local people, they collected many plants and recorded them visually. The voyage marked a new approach to Western scientific study and was an important event in European exploration. However, it eventually led to colonial exploitation and expansion, which had a negative impact on Indigenous people, many of whom lost their land, culture and lives. Learn more about the HMS Endeavour voyage.

Cook captained two more voyages to the Pacific, but Banks did not travel on these. Instead, he acquired plants and drawings and supported the publication of accounts describing the expeditions. 

Display highlights from 17 May to 17 September

During his lifetime, Banks's collections were among the most comprehensive accounts of the natural world. His rare manuscripts, artworks, preserved insects, shells and pressed plants formed the basis of the Museum's collections and are central to its origins.

Although Banks's passion was for plants, he supported many areas of science. He was president of Britain's oldest scientific institution - the Royal Society - and was an adviser to King George III. Banks also advocated for the British colonisation of Australia, after sailing there on HMS Endeavour as a young man. He lived at an age when British science and colonialism were closely linked though trade, travel and the exploitation of natural resources. In time, the impacts on many Indigenous people, such as Australia's Aboriginal population, were catastrophic.

Assistant to the ship's surgeon, William Wade Ellis created these illustrations on Captain James Cook's third Pacific voyage (1776-1780), which searched for a passage from the North Pacific to the North Atlantic. They are from a collection of artworks of animals made during the voyage, later bought by Joseph Banks.

Few scientific results were published after the expedition returned to Britain, partly due to Cook's death. At great effort and expense, Joseph Banks published an account of the journey out of loyalty to his friend.

Display highlights from 18 September to 13 January 2022

Johann Jacob Dillenius, Professor of Botany at Oxford University, created the original illustrations in this volume. Many were published in his book Historia Muscorum, in which he recorded all the 'lower plants', such as mosses and algae, known at the time. Banks purchased the volume at a sale of drawings.

This volume contains watercolours of fossil fish and plants from Monte Bolca, Italy. The site was one of the first places known by Europeans to contain well-preserved fossils in natural materials transported by wind, water or ice. Joseph Banks's librarian Robert Brown studied fossilised plants and may have inspired his interest in them.

Banks's collections of pressed plants, shells, books, artworks and manuscripts are still studied today. This legacy tells us about the history of collecting, scientific endeavour, colonialism and the desire to understand and classify the natural world.

The display can be seen in the Images of Nature gallery from 17 May to 17 September and from 18 September to 13 January 2022. All visitors must book a free ticket in advance.