This year we are taking another look at our
Linnaeus Apostles, but using a filter for textiles and plant dyes. The "apostles" were sent out from the University of Sweden in the 1700s by their professor, Carl Linnaeus, to gather plant specimens, name and classify them using the binomial naming system, and identify economically useful plants. Our guide for this second look is Viveka Hansen, and her work
Textilia Linnaeana: Global 18th Century Textile Traditions & Trade.
Daniel Solander (1733-1782) made several expeditions to Lapland, England, and Scotland, but usually to classify museum and curiosity collections. His major botanical expedition was to join Captain James Cook, John Banks, and a team of botanists, scientists, and artists on the H.M.S. Endeavor to circumnavigate the globe. The journey lasted three years from August 1768 - July 1771. They visited Madeira, Brazil, Argentina, French Polynesia, New Zealand, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Java, South Africa and St. Helena.
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Solander described Brazilwood, used to produce a range of red dyes
Illustration by Paul Hermann Wilhelm Taubert (1862-1897, public domain) |
Solander's exposure to local practises and traditions for producing fabric may have been somewhat limited, since they travelled by ship, but they frequently stopped for long periods to restock provisions and make ship repairs, so had some opportunity. Some of the places they visited were so temperate that minimal clothing was required, so materials and processes for creating them were unique.
Solander did not keep a travel journal, but wrote many letters and documented the botanical material they collected (30,300 plants from 3,607 species and 110 plant families). Hansen relies on these letters and documents, and on the journals of Joseph Banks, James Cook, and Sydney Parkinson to compile her textile and dyeing information for Solander.
Solander and Banks were intrigued to see floating molluscs periodically while crossing the Atlantic between Africa and South America. Banks thought they might produce a reddish-purple color, similar to the Murex snail shell of the Mediterranean, but sightings were rare and they never had sufficient numbers with which to experiment.
In the Portuguese colony of Rio de Janeiro, their movement was restricted which curtailed their investigation. In Brazil, they did not find a dye trade, but learned of several materials used to produce dyes. Brazilwood (
Caesalpinia echinata, renamed
Paubrasilia echinata in 2016) and the duramen of the Fernambuca tree (
Lignum fernambuca) produced reddish purple dyes. Indigo was also produced to export to Portugal (frequently taking the land that local farmers would have used to produce their food).
In Tahiti and nearby islands, they found tapa bark cloth was created for clothing and other uses. Cloth of a similar kind had also been documented in Africa, Asia, and America. Solander thought they used the same material to create tapa, as the Chinese used to make paper (the paper mulberry). Both Cook and Parkinson recorded detailed notes about tapa's production, adornment, and practical and ceremonial uses. Only parts of the bark cloth were dyed, not the whole sheet. Red and yellow were the predominant colors. Red was produced from a mixture of liquids from
Ficus tinctoria and
Cordia sebestena. The yellow was produce from the bark from the
Morinda umbellata plant or from the fruit of
Calophyllum inophyllum. The dyes were pressed into the tapa cloth in various patterns, and seemed to remain colorfast, at least as long as they were present to observe.
In New Zealand they encountered a type of fabric produced from flax by the Maori. They described the cloth as silky and white, with colored boarders (but no details beyond that). The Maori had little use for European fabric, but were very interested to trade provisions for tapa cloth from other regions. In Australia they found the native inhabitants to be devoid of clothing, but adorned with patterns of paint,
During a brief stay in New Guinea, they observed that both men and women wore blue and white patterned cotton cloth. They did not observe the actual production, but did see the tools used for cleaning away the cotton seeds, spinning the thread, and weaving lengths of cloth. The weaving impressed them, since the warp yarn was resist-dyed (ikat). The end product was described as a clouding or waving pattern.
On their way home from the expedition they spent several months in Batavia (as did
Carl Peter Thunberg). They too made observations about indigo cultivation, and the importance of the indigo trade for the Dutch East India Company.
Learn More
Textilia Linnaeana: Global 18th Century Textile Traditions & Trade by Viveka Hansen, fifth volume in the Mundus Linnae Series, issued by the IK Foundation & Company (London 2017). See pages 203-226.
