“To promote his Majesties purpose”: Joseph Banks and his Global Botanical Projects, 1770-1820 - Professor Jordan Goodman

A lecture to celebrate the bicentenary of the death of Joseph Banks by Professor Jordan Goodman, Honorary Research Associate, Department of Science and Technology Studies, University College London

Not long after returning from the circumnavigation of HMS Endeavour in 1771, Joseph Banks met George III at St. James’s to discuss the results of this remarkable scientific voyage to the Pacific. It was the beginning of a very long friendship which lasted for more than forty years and which Banks used to help make the royal gardens at Kew the finest of their kind. Whenever an opportunity arose to influence a particular expedition, Banks, who was extremely well-connected, tailored it in many different ways to bring living plants from all over the world to Kew. The talk will tell the story of several of these most challenging projects.