Person    | Male  Born 1743  Died 1820

Sir Joseph Banks

Categories: Science

From the British Library: "Joseph Banks was a prominent botanist, who served as President of the Royal Society, and advised on the development of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. He was a key figure in the British Empire’s expansion in, and exploitation of, the Pacific.

"Banks self-funded his journey to join James Cook’s first voyage to the Pacific in 1768. As well as collecting thousands of plant and animal specimens from across the globe, Banks and his party described and documented ‘other’ peoples they encountered. In a series of violent clashes during Cook’s voyage around Aotearoa (New Zealand), Banks was involved in the murder of at least one Māori warrior and was also party to the kidnapping of three Māori youths in which four other Māori were shot and killed.

"A decade after returning to England, Banks advocated for the establishment of a British prison colony in ‘New South Wales’, and later of the British colonial settlement of Australia, which has resulted in the ongoing displacement and oppression of the continent’s indigenous peoples. After his death, Banks’ collections were left to the British Museum, later passing in part to the British Library."

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Sir Joseph Banks

Commemorated ati

Botanists

Sir Joseph Banks, 1743-1820, President of the Royal Society, Robert Brown, 17...

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Sir Joseph Banks - British Library

This bust is a 20th-century replica after Anne Seymour Damer, 1814.

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Other Subjects

Bicycle - hobby horse

Bicycle - hobby horse

From the picture source website: "The forerunner of the bicycle, the 'Hobby' or 'Dandy Horse' was invented by the German Baron Karl von Drais in France in 1817. It was introduced to England by Deni...

Vehicle, Science

1 memorial
Astronomical Society

Astronomical Society

From the picture source website: "... conceived on 12 January 1820 when 14 gentlemen sat down to dinner at the Freemason's Tavern, in Lincoln's Inn Fields .... the new Society was born on 10 March ...

Group, Science

1 memorial
Charles Lyell

Charles Lyell

Born at Kinnordy House, near Kirriemuir, Angus, Scotland. Geologist. A practicing lawyer, deliberately working all over the country so he could study the local geology. His multi-volume "Princip...

Person, Law, Science, Scotland

3 memorials
David Don

David Don

David Don was born on 21 December 1799 at Doo Hillock, Forfar, Angus, Scotland, a son of George Don (1764-1814) and Caroline Clementina Don née Stuart. His father was a curator at the Royal Botanic...

Person, Science, Scotland

1 memorial
Thomas Hancock

Thomas Hancock

Inventor and founder of the British rubber industry.  Born Wiltshire.  After schooling he moved to London and is recorded in1815 as a coach builder in Pulteney Street with a shop in St James's Stre...

Person, Science

1 memorial