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Section 2 Curious to Discover

Sydney Parkinson, 1745?-1771
Bread Fruit 1769?

watercolour; 30.8 x 38.5 cm
Rex Nan Kivell Collection ; NK1223 T2501
National Library of Australia

 

Parkinson was employed in Joseph Banks' library before joining him on the Endeavour as botanical draughtsman. With the death of Alexander Buchan at Tahiti, Parkinson also became the ship's topographical draughtsman. The first European artist to set foot on Australian soil, Parkinson made at least 1300 drawings and sketches of the plants of New Holland and Tahiti.

After the Endeavour hit reefs off the coast of Queensland, the ship called at Batavia for repairs. Parkinson contracted dysentery and died. His papers were bequeathed to his brother Stanfield, who intended publishing them for his own profit. The Admiralty stopped him. There was such ill-will between Stanfield and Hawkesworth, the Admiralty's chosen editor, that the latter did not acknowledge the use of Parkinson's papers and drawings in his official account of the Endeavour voyage.

 

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