Guide to the Papers of Daniel Solander (as filmed by the AJCP), 1769-[c.1810]

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Summary

Collection number:

M2540 - M2554

Creator:

Solander, Daniel

Extent:

127 items

Language:

English

Preferred citation:

Acknowledgement of use of this material should refer to the location of the original material and to the Australian Joint Copying Project.

Items from this collection should include references to the location of the original material and to the AJCP nla.obj number, which serves as the online identifier for the digital copy.

Example: M Series: Journal of Capt. James Cook, 18 February 1770, British Library Add. MS 27885 (AJCP ref: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1234)

Availability:

Available

Access conditions:

Available for reference.

Background

Content Summary:

The papers comprise descriptions and lists of plants, fishes, birds and other fauna collected by Banks. There are also lists of species collected on Cook's other voyages.

(Sol.Z8) 'Slip catalogue containing descriptions of animals in the British Museum and other collections, including species collected by Solander, some during Cook's first voyage.' 27 volumes, 4842 sheets

The slip catalogue was originally kept as loose sheets in Solander boxes but is now bound on guards. Some slips appear to have been mislaid when they were kept loose. There are thirteen slips describing as many shells of the genus Tellina in the collection of the Linnean Society of London which clearly belong to the Mollusca volumes in the British Museum (Natural History).

(164 sheets)

Marshall (1978) identified the handwriting of Joseph Banks, Sigismund Bacstrom, Herman Diedrich Spöring, Amanuensis B, and Amanuensis E, as well as Solander, in various volumes of the Slip Catalogue.

The Endeavour material is indexed by Alwyne Wheeler Catalogue of the Natural History drawings commissioned by Joseph Banks on the Endeavour voyage, 1768-1771, held in British Museum (Natural History). Pt. 3. Zoology. Bulletin of British Museum (Natural History) Hist. series 13 (1986). 171p.

Biographical / Historical:

Daniel Solander (1733 - 1782) was born on 19 February 1733 at Pitea in Norrland, Sweden, son of the Rev. Carl Solander. In July 1750 he enrolled at the University of Uppsala and studied languages and humanities. He also studied natural history under the Uppsala Professor of Botany, Linnaeus. It was Linnaeus who advised him to go to England, where he arrived in June 1760 with letters of introduction to John Ellis and Peter Collinson. On the recommendation of Collinson he was appointed to catalogue the natural history collection of the British Museum. In 1764 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society.

He was invited by Joseph Banks to join the scientific staff of the Endeavour in 1768.

After their return to England in 1771 Solander became Bank's secretary and librarian, making further expeditions with him to the Isle of Wight, Scotland and Iceland. He was also appointed Keeper of Natural History at the British Museum. He died on 13 May 1782.

Solander's early death prevented the publication of the natural history results of Cook's voyage and of his work at the British Museum, but he left a large number of manuscripts. The majority are held at the British Museum (Natural History) in the Botany and Zoology Libraries. The following institutions also hold Solander manuscript material:

The Linnean Society

British Library

Royal Society

School of Oriental and African Studies

Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Access and use

Conditions Governing Access:: Available for Access.
Conditions Governing Use:: Many of the records digitised as part of the AJCP are still in copyright. Readers wishing to publish or reproduce documents should seek permission, in the first instance, from the owner of the original material.