SPUR Project

2009 Winner (5 of 13)

Volumes III and IV of the Indian and Pacific Correspondence of Sir Joseph Banks 1768-1820
Supervisors: Mr Neil Chambers, Prof Timothy Fulford

As a voyager, botanist, man of science, adviser of the monarch and of ministers, and also as President of the Royal Society, Sir Joseph Banks was at the heart of the expansion in discovery and settlement that took place in the Indo-Pacific region 1768–1820. Banks’ surviving correspondence is an unrivalled source of information for those wishing to understand the Enlightenment world of learning and discovery over which he presided for nearly five decades. This contracted publication, which the SPUR student assisted with, brought Banks’ correspondence together in an accessible form through Pickering & Chatto, a premier publisher of scholarly works. It emanates from the Joseph Banks Archive Project, begun in 1999 and formerly at the Natural History Museum, London, before transferring to Nottingham Trent University. Student tasks included assisting with textual, transcription and proofreading activities, listing and calendaring of manuscripts, assistance with research for some annotation and with the writing of other editorial apparatus, a field trip to conduct research in major repository, e.g. the British Library/National Archive and provision of office space tours and talks to fellow students. The student appears in the acknowledgements for the Indian and Pacific Correspondence of Sir Joseph Banks 1768-1820 volumes III and IV.