Our special October Meeting was held at the Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG) Sydney, hosted by Miguel Garcia, the Librarian at the Daniel Solander Library at RBG. After a very short CCS-A information and announcement session, Miguel gave a very informative and interesting presentation on Daniel Solander, Sydney Parkinson and Joseph Banks, and their works and achievements especially in the Australian segment of the journey of HMB Endeavour from 1768 to 1771. This included the myriad of plants and species they collected, described and drew, preserved, named and catalogued on the journey. 

Miguel also explained the process of recording and sketching the plants collected onboard Endeavour, the eventual completion of the artworks on the return to England and the works involved in producing the engraved copper plates for Banks Florilegium with eventual printing of the original 743 plates occurring more than 200 years later in 1980s to 1990. The works were a limited edition of a total of 113 sets, which were all fully subscribed, with limited individual prints sometimes still available.

The RBG has a full set of these magnificent prints. We were very fortunate to be led to the Daniel Solander Library to view this great collection, up close and in detail. Also displayed were the Parkinson Journal from 1773 and an Australian edition of plates, which were produced in black and white in the early 1900’s.

Originally published in Endeavour Lines, page 2, volume 85 (2025).