Biographical entry Banks, Joseph (1743 - 1820)

Summary

(Sir) Joseph Banks travelled with James Cook on the "Endeavour" in 1768-71, and thereafter remained for some thirty years the major sponsor of science in the Australian region.

Details

Born Westminster, England, 13 February 1743. Died Isleworth, 19 June 1820. Baronet 1781, KCB 1795, member of the Privy Council 1797. Educated University of Oxford (did not graduate). Studied and collected rocks, plants and animals in Newfoundland and Labrador on H.M.S. "Niger" 1766; travelled with James Cook on the "Endeavour" 1768-71; led expedition to the Isle of Wight, the western islands of Scotland and Iceland 1772; paid for numerous expeditions which provided him with collections of animals and plants; sheepbreeding and farming on his Lincolnshire estate. Fellow, Royal Society 1766; president 1778-1820. Commemorated by Bankstown, a monument at Kurnell, the plant genus "Banksia" and several Australian plant species.

Events

1766

Career position - Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)

1766

Career position - Naturalist on the HMS Niger voyage to Newfoundland and Labrador

1768 - 1771

Career position - Naturalist on the Endeavour voyages with James Cook

1772

Career position - Led an expedition to the Isle of Wight, the western islands of Scotland and Iceland

1778 - 1820

Career position - President of the Royal Society

1781

Award - Baronet

1795

Award - Knight Commander of the Order of Bath (KCB)

1797

Career position - Member of the Privy Council in England

Related entries

Archival resources

Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales

• Joseph Banks - Records, 1795, ML DOC 2502; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Joseph Banks - Records, 1771 - 1894, FM 4/1722; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Joseph Banks - Records, 1773, MS 101; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Joseph Banks - Records, 1804 - 1817, FM 3/637; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Joseph Banks - Records, 1773, MS Q75/9; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Joseph Banks - Records, 1768 - 1771, FM 4/57-59; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Joseph Banks - Records, 1773 - 1815, FM 4/2284; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Joseph Banks - Records, 1763 - 1820, FM 4/4363-8; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Joseph Banks - Records, 1757 - 1819, ML DOC 2079; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Joseph Banks - Records, 1774 - 1787, ML MSS 1530; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Joseph Banks - Records, 1816, ML DOC 1881; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Joseph Banks - Records, 1774 - 1814, MS Q158-161; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Joseph Banks - Records, 1797, MS Q79/12; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Joseph Banks - Records, 1768 - 1771, MS Q77/31-32; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Joseph Banks - Records, 1768 - 1771, ML DOC 2728; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Joseph Banks - Records, 1766 - 1820, ML MSS 743; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Joseph Banks - Records, 1819, MS Q78/8-9; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Joseph Banks - Records, 1785 - 1813, Spencer No. 245; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Joseph Banks - Records, 1802, ML DOC 1450; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Linnean Society of London - Records, 1792 - 1870, FM 4/2699; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• New South Wales Colonial Secretary's Office - Records, 1799 - c. 1930, ML MSS 681; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection

• Joseph Banks - Records, 1745 - 1820, MS 9; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details
• Joseph Banks - Records, 1745 - 1814, MS 989; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details

Powerhouse Museum

• Joseph Banks - Records, 1766 - 1820, ML MSS 2144; Powerhouse Museum. Details

Royal Geographical Society of South Australia Inc.

• Joseph Banks - Records, 1766; Royal Geographical Society of South Australia Inc. Details

State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection

• Collections held by the Derbyshire Record Office relation to Australia and New Zealand, M947; State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection. Details
• Joseph Banks - Records, 1773 - 1810, M469; State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection. Details
• Joseph Banks - Records, 1822, M604; State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection. Details
• Joseph Banks - Records, M2662; State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection. Details
• Joseph Banks - Records, M1192; State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection. Details
• Linnean Society of London - Records, 1790 - 1870, M596-597; State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection. Details
• Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew - Records, M730-788; State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection. Details

Published resources

Books

• Banks, Joseph, The Journal of Joseph Banks in the Endeavour, Rigby, Adelaide, 1980. Details
• Beasley, A. W., Fellowship of Three: the Lives and Association of John Hunter (1728-1793), The Surgeon; James Cook (1728-1820), The Navigator; and Joseph Banks (1743-1820), The Naturalist, Kangaroo Press, Kenthurst, 1993. Details
• Carter, H. B., Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820), British Museum (Natural History), London, 1988, 673 pp. Details
• Carter, Harold Burnell, His Majesty's Spanish Flock, Sir Joseph Banks and the Merinos of George III of England, Angus & Robertson, London, 1964, 520 pp. Details
• Fara, Patricia, Sex, Botany & Empire: the Story of Carl Linnaeus and Joseph Banks, Icon books, Cambridge, 2003, 168 pp. Details
• Frost, Alan, Sir Joseph Banks and the Transfer of Plants to and from the South Pacific, 1786-1798, Gaston Renard, Melbourne, 1993. Details
• Gascoigne, John, Joseph Banks and the English Enlightenment: Useful Knowledge and Polite Culture, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1994, 336 pp. Details
• Lyte, Charles, Sir Joseph Banks: 18^th Century Explorer, Botanist and Entrepreneur, Reed, Sydney, 1980. Details
• O'Brian, Patrick, Joseph Banks: a Life, Collins Harvill, London, 1987, 320 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Gascoigne, John, 'The Scientis as Patron and Patristic Symbol: the Changing Reputation of Sir Joseph Banks', in Michael Shortland and Richard Yeo (eds), Telling Lives in Science: Essays on Scientific Biography, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1996, pp. 243-265. Details
• Gascoigne, John, 'Sir Joseph Banks, 1743-1820', in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2004. Details
• Gilbert, L. A., 'Banks, Sir Joseph (1743-1820)', in Douglas Pike (ed.), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 1, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1966, pp. 52-53. Also available at http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A010051b.htm. Details

Conference Papers

• Dunphy, Jocelyn, 'Science, Authority and Enlightenment: Sir Joseph Banks' Role in the Development of Australian Society', in Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science, Congress, Canberra, 1984. Details

Edited Books

• Brunton, Paul (ed.), The Endeavour Journal of Joseph Banks: the Australian Journey, Angus & Robertson in Association with the State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, 1998. Details
• Carter, Harold Burnell (ed.), The Sheep and Wool Correspondence of Sir Joseph Banks, Library Council of New South Wales, Sydney, 1979, 641 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• Branagan, D. F., 'History of Science in Australia. Pt. 5. Sir Joseph and the botanists', Scan, vol. 1, no. 5, 1968, pp. 17-22. Details
• Francis, J., 'Sir Joseph Banks, Architect of Science and Empire', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, vol. 83, no. 1, 1972, pp. 1-19. Details
• Maiden, J.H., 'Records of Australian Botanists - (a) General, (b) New South Wales', Journal and Proceedings of The Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. xlii, 1908, pp. 60-132. Details
• Orchiston, Wayne, 'Cook, Banks and the Gregorian Telescope in The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa, Tongarewa', Journal of the Antique Telescope Society, vol. 18, no. 1999, 1999, pp. 4-9. Details
• Salkin, A. I., 'Short History of the Discovery and Naming of Banksias in Eastern Australia: Part 1, Banks and Solander', Victorian Naturalist, vol. 98, no. 2, 1981, pp. 69-71. Details
• Stearn, W. T., 'Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820) and Australian Botany', Records of the Australian Academy of Science, vol. 2, no. 4, 1974, pp. 7-24. Also available at http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/HR9740240007.htm. Details

Online Resources

• Papers of Sir Joseph Banks, State Library of New South Wales, 1997, http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/banks/. Details
• National Library of Australia, 'Banks, Joseph', Trove, National Library of Australia and the Australian National Maritime Museum Darling Harbour, 2009, http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-844508. Details

See also

• Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Technology in Australia 1788-1988, Online edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, 3 May 2000, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/scripts/tia-dynindex.php3?EID=P000037. Details
• Endersby, Jim, 'A Garden Enclosed: Botanical Barter in Sydney, 1818-38', British Journal for the History of Science, vol. 33, 2000, pp. 313-334. Details
• Steven, Margaret, First Impressions. The British Discovery of Australia, British Museum (Natural History), London, 1988, 96 pp. References on pages 25, 32, 63, 82, 83 and related issues through out the book. Details