This collection includes portraits created throughout Sir Joseph Banks' lifetime "...including proof copies, separately issued prints and the Gillray caricature of Banks as 'The Great South Sea Caterpillar.' Also included is a signed vellum lease document dated 1801 and a biographical piece in Italian honoring Banks' work as a naturalist." [Taken from bookseller's description]

Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820) was an English naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. He was the president of the Royal Society and an acknowledged expert on colonization, exploreation, currency, botanic gardens, sheep, and New South Wales in Australia. His high profile and extensive influence in society inspired admiration and many portraits of Banks throughout his lifetime. This fame also inspired lampooning as seen in the James Gillray (1756-1815) cartoon of "The Great South Sea Catepillar' created when Banks was invested as a Knight of the Order of the Bath in 1795.

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This collection is open for research. Please page materials three business days in advance of your visit by email: sutro@library.ca.gov .