Joseph Banks, A Great Endeavour - a Lincolnshire Gentleman and his Legacy

An exciting exhibition about Joseph Banks, a passionate botanist and explorer who joined James Cook aboard the Endeavour to explore uncharted lands.

The exhibition, made possible by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, will centre on Benjamin West's portrait of the explorer, surrounded by artefacts he brought back to England, after he accompanied James Cook on his first Pacific Ocean voyage aboard the Endeavour between 1768 and 1771. The exhibition tracks the route and stopping points of the Endeavour, bringing together original drawings, engravings and documents with ethnographic objects, natural history specimens and scientific instruments used, collected and made at each stage of the journey, and it is the first time that many of these objects have been brought together since they were collected. 

Artefacts include a flax cloak from New Zealand and a headdress (fau) from Tahiti, as well as original drawings and sketches, made by the artists who accompanied Banks, of the people, plants and animals that they saw on the journey. Much of the material will rarely have been seen in Lincolnshire before, and this is a great opportunity for it to be seen together.  The material is loaned from many museums across the country, including the British Library, the British Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford.

Explore our Discovery Zone in the Courtyard Gallery opposite the main exhibition, with family friendly activities, a replica of Banks' bed on the Endeavour and a selection of ethnographic artefacts from our own collections.

Discover how this Lincolnshire figure captured the world's imagination.

Join us for a seminar at The Collection on Sunday 4th May 2014 to hear from a wide range of speakers on different aspects of Banks' life.