Joseph Banks was the son of a rich English landowner; at the age of eighteen, on the sudden death of his father, Joseph Banks became a wealthy heir to his father's many estates with a considerable annual income. Instead of squandering the inheritance in an extravagant lifestyle, Joseph Banks invested the money in the first of many plant explorations.
The Endeavour Expedition
In 1766, Joseph Banks sailed to Labrador and Newfoundland with an Eaton College friend, Lieutenant John Phipps, in a plant exploration which brought back some 340 plants. However, it was Joseph Banks' next voyage for which he is most remembered. In 1768, Joseph Banks joined a Royal Navy/Royal Society scientific expedition to the south Pacific ocean aboard Captain James Cook's ship HM Bark Endeavour.
The expedition was primarily for astronomy purposes but it was the secondary purpose of the expedition, that of recording all plant and animal life, which interested Joseph Banks most. The Endeavour made its first port of call at Funchal, on the island of Madeira, in September of 1766; Joseph Banks and another botanist, Daniel Solander, collected nearly 700 species of plants on the island.
Joseph Banks' Plant Discoveries in South America
The Endeavour expedition then progressed to South America, where Joseph Banks recorded the first scientific description of the plant Bougainvillea. When the voyage reached Cape Horn, the expedition was delayed at Tierra del Fuego by weather conditions. Joseph Banks took the opportunity to make landfall for a further plant expedition for alpine plant species; unfortunately, two members of the expedition were fatally lost in a snowstorm.
The Endeavour Plant Discoveries of Tahiti and Australia
The Endeavour continued to Tahiti, arriving in April 1769; more plant species were collected by Joseph Banks on the island of Tahiti, including Gardenia (Gardenia jasminoides). The Endeavour failed to make much landfall on land now known as the islands of New Zealand, due to the suspicions of local people of the expedition, and subsequently not many new species of plants were collected.
The next landfall of the Endeavour expedition was Australia (originally called New Holland) at a safe harbor firstly named Stingray Bay by Captain Cook, but eventually renamed Botany Bay; here, many new species of plants were collected by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander. This collection of plants was one of the greatest collections ever made with illustrations made of over 800 specimens.
The Final Part of Endeavour's Expedition
Endeavour sailed onto the island of Java, after a perilous navigation of the Great Barrier Reef; on sailing from Java and on course for Cape Town, the crew of the Endeavour endured the diseases of malaria and dysentery, resulting in the death of many aboard ship, including Sydney Parkinson, a botanical artist.
Disease had taken its toll on Joseph Banks too and this resulted in little plant collection at Cape Town, despite the presence of great South African plant diversity. Joseph Banks arrived back in England in July 1771 and became famous for his plant collections. Although there were plans for a second voyage with Captain Cook, this never materialized. Joseph Banks went on to lead another expedition to Iceland; on his return, organization of his vast plant collections began.
Joseph Banks the Baronet
In 1781, Joseph Banks became Sir Joseph Banks when he became a Baronet; he was an advisor on the establishment of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, London, today a vast collection of many botanical plant species from around the world. Joseph Banks became an important figurehead and active member of many other botanist and horticulturist societies.
Joseph Banks is credited with introducing many species of plants to the Western world including Mimosa, Acacia and Eucalyptus. There is also a genus named after Joseph Banks, Banksia and the Lady Banks Rose (Rosa banksiae) is named after his wife, Lady Dorothea Banks. On his death in 1820, the Natural History Museum in London, England received Sir Joseph Banks' library, herbanium, botanical paintings, specimens and manuscripts, many of which can still be viewed today.
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