THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Series Two: The Papers of Sir Joseph Banks, 1743-1820

Part 2: Papers relating to Voyages of Discovery, 1760-1800, from the British Library, London

This second part of the Papers of Sir Joseph Banks from the British Library, London, makes available a further 30 manuscript volumes documenting voyages of discovery, 1760-1800, and the history of science. The volumes covered are British Library Additional Mss 32641, 34727-34747, 37327, 37528, 38530 and Egerton Mss 2177A-B, 2178-2180 and 2591.

Once again, in addition to covering voyages that Banks participated in or sponsored, we have taken the opportunity of including log-books and records of other important voyages of this period. Those covered include: Cook's first circumnavigation with Banks in HMS Endeavour (1768-1771); Cook's second voyage with HMS Resolution and HMS Adventure (1772-1775); Cook's third and final voyage with HMS Resolution and HMS Discovery (1776-1780); and George Vancouver's survey voyage to the West Coast of America (1791-1794).

Of more general interest are the papers of James West (1704?-1772), Secretary to the Treasury (1741-1762), MP for St Albans (1741-1768), Treasurer of the Royal Society (1736-1768) and President of the Royal Society (1768-1772). West was also a great collector and formerly owned the Burghley Papers and other manuscripts from the Lansdowne Collection, now at the British Library. Two of the volumes here clearly escaped inclusion in the sale and feature important papers by John Fox, Francis Bacon, Leibnitz, Burghley and others. The other papers illustrate the close connections between Science, Politics and Patronage in the period prior to Banks' presidency of the Royal Society. There is also correspondence of 1768 between West, Banks and Solander relating to the Endeavour voyage.