Exhibitions

The Florilegium is a record of plants collected by Joseph Banks and his team on Captain James Cook’s first voyage around the world. In an extraordinary effort, over 700 copperplates were eventually produced for printing. Although intended as a contribution to science, the Florilegium was never published in Banks’ lifetime, and remarkably, it took another 200 years until the engravings were printed for the first time in colour as intended. A selection of these will be on display.

Image: Banksia ericifolia, colour engraving and etching (à la poupée) after water colour by John Frederick Miller 1773 and drawing by Sydney Parkinson 1770, engraving by R Hughes 1986 after Daniel MacKenzie and Thomas Scratchley. (c) Alecto Historical Editions / Trustees of the National History Museum. Photography by James Hughes, 2024. Private collection.