Daniel Solander made two major expeditions, as a botanist
and collector, with his friend and colleague, Sir Joseph Banks. This made
Solander the greatest traveler of all of Linnaeus’s apostles.
Around the World (August 25, 1768 – July 12, 1771)
In 1768 Daniel Solander, Joseph Banks, and Bank’s staff of
artists, scientists, and botanists joined Captain James Cook’s first expedition
aboard the H.M.S Endeavour. Cook’s mission
was to travel to the South Seas to view an astronomical event – the transit of
Venus across the sun. After that, they were to receive orders for the rest of
the expedition. The voyage lasted three years, and included visits to Madeira,
Brazil, Argentina, French Polynesia, New Zealand, Australia, Papua New Guinea,
Java, South Africa and St. Helena.
Solander did not keep a journal, but you can get a feel of
the expedition by reading the journal written by artist Sydney Parkinson
(1745-1771). He describes through words and art, the expedition and the scientific
team assembled by Banks. On the journey they collected 30,300 plants, from
3,607 species and 110 plant families. They identified 1,400 new species. They
also collected samples of birds, fish, mollusks, and shells. Many of these came
from Botanist Bay in Australia (later renamed to Botany Bay).
Back in England
Upon return to England in 1771, Solander resumed his post at
the British Museum, and became Banks’s secretary and librarian. Solander was
presented to King George, and received an honorary Doctorate from Oxford
University (he had never finished his degree at Uppsala University). There was
talk of Banks and Solander joining Cook's second expedition, but it fell through. From 1772 – 1773, Banks
and Solander made several smaller scientific expeditions. Carl Linnaeus and
others in the scientific community were dismayed that Solander made these other
expeditions before publishing his findings from the first.
Scotland and Iceland (July 12, 1772 – November 20, 1772) – returned
with Icelandic plant species, and lava specimens from Mount Kekla.
Wales (1773) – collected native plant species
In 1773, Solander was appointed keeper of natural history at
the British Museum. He lived with Banks in London amidst the collections in his
care, and died on 13 May 1782, of a stroke. Although Linnaeus expressed
disappointment in choices that Solander made, it was Solander that cared for
Linnaeus’s son in England during an illness. Linnaeus and others expressed disappointment
that Solander did not publish more, but, perhaps with his outgoing personality,
he favored a more balanced life. I appreciate Bank’s tribute in a letter (from
an annotated article by Roy Rauschenberg):
Solander’s mode of living in England you know as well as I. During
the brightest part of the day he honored botany; but his proclivity for
companionship never allowed him to return to the museum at night. Even if he
had sought that action his countless friends would not have allowed it.
Banks goes on to praise Solander’s abilities for description:
He possessed an unusual charming ability to describe the
curiosities in the British Museum with taste; so that men as well as ladies
attended in those hours when they knew that Solander was responsible for
showing the collection. Indeed his tour was so stimulating and pleasing, he was
not only sought by learned men, but the King (George III) himself had the graciousness
to honor him with his private discussion.
Learn More:
-
Journal
of artist Sydney Parkinson describing the trip – A Journal of a Voyage to the South Seas, in His Majesty's Ship, The Endeavour.
Faithfully transcribed from the Papers of the late Sydney Parkinson, Draughtsman
to Joseph Banks, Esq. on his late Expedition with Dr. Solander, round the World:
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Journal_of_a_Voyage_to_the_South_Seas,_in_His_Majesty%27s_Ship,_the_Endeavour.
- Plants discovered by Banks, Solander and the scientific team
– Illustrations of the Botany of Captain
Cook's Voyage Round the World in H.M.S. Endeavour in 1768-71, edited by
James Britten and published by the British Museum (London, 1905): http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/38665#page/1/mode/1up
(see Plate 46 for Pleiogynium Solandri).
- Letter from Sir Joseph Banks, describing his friend and
colleague annotated in an article by Roy Rauschenberg – A Letter of
Sir Joseph Banks Describing the Life of Daniel Solander, Isis, Volume 55,
Number 1, March, 1964, p. 66:
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/227755 (read online version for
free, but requires a logon account).
