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ABSTRACT
Joseph Banks has been considered an unproblematic agent of imperial science; a figure unique for his ability and willingness to direct British expeditionary exploration and the collection of natural history. Borrowing from claims, first made in 1784, that Banks’s influence and power might better be described as a form of ‘despotism’, this article instead contends that Banks consciously subverted the expansive system of imperial collecting then favoured by the British state. I argue that the contemporary collection of ethnographic specimens, officially sought by and beyond the Royal Society since the voyages of James Cook, suffered particularly at the hands of Banksian indifference and botanical enthusiasm. Using as a case study the early nineteenth-century Australian surveying voyages of the Lady Nelson, I call to attention an overlooked cast of sailors, smugglers, and politicians in order to examine how Banks's pursuit of plants therefore constituted a threat to both imperial order and colonial discipline.
Notes
1 Anon., Instances of exclusion from the Royal Society.
2 Ibid., 24.
3 Heringman, ‘Peter Pindar’, 22; Wardhaugh, ‘Charles Hutton’, 45.
4 Montesquieu, Spirit of the laws.
5 Ibid.
6 For a survey of Montesquieu’s theories and their reception, see Boesche, ‘Fearing monarchs’.
7 Thomas, ‘Licensed curiosity’.
8 Kuklick, ‘After Ishmael’, 53; Gascoigne, ‘Royal Society’, 540.
9 Sera-Shriar, Making of British anthropology.
10 NLA, MS 9, Series 3, 113–113h, Lord Morton, ‘Hints offered to the consideration of Captain Cooke, Mr Bankes, Doctor Solander, and the other gentlemen who go upon the expedition on board the Endeavour’, 10 Aug. 1768; see, for example, King, Narrative of a survey, vol. 1, xxxiii.
11 Ibid.; Gascoigne, ‘Royal Society’.
12 The British Museum collector Augustus Wollaston Franks remarked upon this deficiency as early as 1856. See BM, AOA, Eth. Doc. 1171, Franks to Liddell, 22 Sep. 1856.
13 Annual Review, 41.
14 SLNSW, PSJB, Series 39.043, King to Banks, 20 Mar. 1799.
15 SLNSW, PSJB, Series 65.01, Flinders to Banks, 6 Sep. 1800.
16 Miller, ‘Joseph Banks’, 26.
17 SLNSW, PSJB, Series 39.043, King to Banks, 20 Mar. 1799.
18 Tobin, ‘Virtuoso or naturalist?’, 229.
19 Sloboda, ‘Displaying materials’, 459.
20 SLNSW, PSJB, Series 74.04, Banks to the Duchess of Portland, 10 Jun. 1782.
21 See, for example, SLNSW, PSJB, Series 72.136, Portland to Banks, 9 Feb. 1799.
22 Gascoigne, Science in the service of empire; Miller, ‘Joseph Banks’.
23 Owen, Calendar of the manuscripts, 1.
24 Davis to Banks, 21 Dec. 1771, SLNSW, PSJB, Series 06.149.
25 SLNSW, PSJB, Series 61.04, ‘Draught of instructions for Mr Menzies’, 20 Feb. 1791.
26 Duke of Portland to Governor Hunter, 26 Feb. 1800, in Bladen, ed., Historical records, vol. 4, 59. My emphasis.
27 Schaffer, ‘Visions of empire: afterword’, 337.
28 SLNSW, PSJB, Series 23.22, Grant to Banks, 31 Jan. 1800.
29 For a survey, see Sarasohn, Natural philosophy of Margaret Cavendish.
30 ‘East India Docks’, The Times (14 Jul. 1800).
31 Gascoigne, ‘Royal Society’, 540.
32 For a survey of imperial ethnographic collecting by British naval sailors, see Simpson, ‘Agency, encounter and ethnographic collecting’.
33 Reidy, Tides of history, 238; Cock, ‘Scientific servicemen’, 97.
34 These letters can be found digitised in SLNSW, PSJB, Series 06.
35 Degérando, Observation of savage peoples; Cuvier, ‘Note instructive’; Fornasiero et al., ‘Encountering Terra Australis’, 358.
36 Stocking, ‘French anthropology’, 136.
37 Thomas, ‘Licensed curiosity’, 135; Henare, Museums, 71.
38 Morgan, ‘Sir Joseph Banks’; BL, Add. MS 32439, Brown to Banks, 30 May 1802.
39 Mabberley, Ferdinand Bauer, 121.
40 SLNSW, DL, PX153, Chanter, ‘Remark book’, 52; Péron, Voyage de Découvertes, xxii; Simpson, ‘Agency, encounter and ethnographic collecting’, 291–2.
41 Chambers, Joseph Banks, 16.
42 Ibid.
43 Thomas, ‘Feather cloaks and English collectors’, 69.
44 White, Journal of a voyage, 166; Farington, Farington diary, vol. 3, 273.
45 Chambers, Joseph Banks, 14.
46 Ibid., 15.
47 Gascoigne, Joseph Banks, 151.
48 SLNSW, PSJB, Series 37.15, Phillip to Banks, 26 Mar. 1791.
49 Gascoigne, Joseph Banks, 151.
50 Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser (7 Jan. 1772).
51 Mackay, ‘Agents of empire’, 39.
52 Thomas, ‘Licensed curiosity’.
53 SLNSW, PSJB, Series 39.056, King to Banks, 8 Nov. 1799.
54 Ibid.
55 The original letter being lost, this can be inferred from SLNSW, PSJB, Series 23.22, Grant to Banks, 31 Jan. 1800.
56 SLNSW, PSJB, Series 23.23, Grant to Banks, 14 Mar. 1800.
57 Ibid.
58 SLNSW, PSJB, Series 23.24, Grant to Banks, 23 Aug. 1801.
59 Grant, Narrative of a voyage, 138.
60 Ibid.
61 SLNSW, PSJB, Series 35.52, ‘List of items’.
62 SLNSW, PSJB, Series 23.02, Balmain to Banks, 26 Mar. 1802.
63 SLNSW, PSJB, Series 39.066, King to Banks, 25 Aug. 1801.
64 Ibid.
65 Bayly, Imperial meridian, 207–9.
66 Blainey, Tyranny of distance.
67 Duke of Portland to Governor Hunter, 26 Feb. 1800, in Bladen, ed., Historical records, vol. 4, 59.
68 SLNSW, PSJB, Series 18.032, Caley to Banks, 25 Aug. 1801.
69 Mackay, ‘Agents of empire’, 49.
70 SLNSW, PSJB, Series 18.032, Caley to Banks, 25 Aug. 1801.
71 See, for example, SLNSW, PSJB, Series 39.104, ‘Schedule of articles’, 19 Nov. 1807.
72 Ibid.