Publishing Nature in the Age of Revolutions: Joseph Banks, Georg Forster, and the Plants of the Pacific

Abstract

The construction and distribution of books containing large copperplate images was of great importance to practitioners of natural history during the eighteenth century. This article examines the case of the botanist and president of the Royal Society Sir Joseph Banks (1743–1820), who attempted to publish a series of images based on the botanical illustrations produced by Georg Forster (1754–94) on Cook's second voyage of exploration (1772–5) during the 1790s. The analysis reveals how the French Revolution influenced approaches to constructing and distributing works of natural history in Britain, moving beyond commercial studies of book production to show how Banks's political agenda shaped the taxonomic content and distribution of this publication. Matters were complicated by Forster's association with radical politics and the revolutionary ideologies attached to materials collected in the Pacific by the 1790s. Banks's response to the Revolution influenced the distribution of this great work, showing how British loyalist agendas interacted with scientific practice and shaped the diffusion of natural knowledge in the revolutionary age.

Naturalists on the Endeavour Voyage (1768–1771): Personalities, Pursuits, and Problems

“…Last, but not least, the American War of Independence was causing economic havoc to the wool trade from which Banks earned most of his fortune. However, Rose (2020) suggests that Banks had a disdain for authorship, stating that he had avoided the "Reputation of an author" throughout his career which he did not "consider a Gentlemanly vocation." Georg Forster suggested that Banks's failure to publish was a strategy to maintain a monopoly on specimens from the South Seas and a means to restrict access to his collections (Rose 2020).…”

Plague, Crisis, and Scientific Authority during the London Caterpillar Outbreak of 1782

“…It is also important to note that Banks's rejection of revolutionary (and riotous) politics found expression in his scientific views; his support for the Linnaean classification system and his fears that politics on the continent were slowing and troubling scientific work all evidenced his interest in maintaining political stability. 92 In any event, Banks responded to Hanway that the caterpillars would 'totally destroy' the leaves of trees and shrubs, but that 'all the smaller vegetables on which mankind and the animals used for his food…are safe from him'. 93 Dividing the plant kingdom in this way (and with a surprising lack of concern for fruit trees in the environs of the city), Banks added that: 'How idle & childish then (to say no worse) has their conduct been who have pubickly terrified their neighbors with the alarm of pestilence and famine to be brought upon this country by an innocent fly frequently met with in all parts of this island.'…”