WBF 2020 PRIMARY ART COMPETITION CONCEPT PAPER “SOLANDER & BANKS – THE FLOATING LABORATORY”

From near today’s Batemans Bay, in NSW, the crew on board Endeavour could see cabbage tree palms (Livistona australis) with their telescopes and made what was perhaps the expedition’s first Australian botanical record.

Banks, Solander and their assistants made specimens of 132 plant species in six days at Botany Bay, the first scientific collection of Australian flora. Stanley Parkinson made drawings of some 84 items. COMPETITION DETAILS The 2020 Wooden Boat festival invites Primary school students to submit entries of all genres of visual arts - models, collages, painting – on the “Solander & Banks – The floating laboratory” The art theme seeks to highlight the important role of both art and science in revealing to Europe the new world of the South Pacific via studies on board HMB Endeavour, 1768-1771. The art works may focus on the Australian leg of this voyage or the Transit of Venus studies in . The competition seeks to broaden the curriculum spread to integrate art into the STEM subjects so that the full import of these scientific investigations can be appreciated and the students’ learning deepened. Art that highlights and demonstrates students’ grasp of scientific concepts that lay behind the work of Solander and Banks will be highly valued. The Kennedy Center defines Arts Integration as, "An approach to teaching in which students construct and demonstrate understanding through an art form. Students engage in a creative process which connects an art form with another subject area and meets evolving objectives in both." From the notes contained at the end of this paper, teachers will see the expansive array of topics that could be covered in a nominally artistic reflection on the first European inquiry into Australia’s First Peoples, flora and fauna. AWARDS Individual awards will be given to:

 1st, 2nd and 3rd for Year 8

 1st, 2nd and 3rd for Year 7

 1st, 2nd and 3rd for Year 6

 1st, 2nd and 3rd for Year 5

NB: Due to the increasing popularity of this competition there may be a need to limit the number of each school’s entries owing to space limitations created by construction at the yacht club. Discussions on this topic will occur with art teachers in late 2019.

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Daniel Carlsson Solander was a Swedish naturalist who became the first university educated scientist to set foot on Australian soil. He gained leave of absence from the British Museum (where he was engaged to catalogue the natural history collections) to accompany on 's first voyage to the Pacific Ocean aboard the Endeavour. He was an apostle of Carl Linnaeus (Carl von Linné) whose classification system was used by Banks and Solander on the Endeavour voyage. Solander studied languages at Uppsala University and was accomplished in Swedish, Dutch, English and Latin. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. The naturalist has been commemorated by:

 Point Solander, the south headland of Botany Bay  a monument at Kurnell, Botany Bay, erected by the Swedish community in 1914  the tropical American plant genus Solandra (flowering plant in the nightshade family)  some Australian plant species  an island off the western end of the Foveaux Strait in southern New Zealand. The Maori name “Hautere” translates into English as "flying wind". The islands have only ever been briefly inhabited, and then only due to shipwreck or marooning.  the 'Solander case', a book-box for carrying notes and specimens  the Solander Gallery in Wellington, N.Z

SIR JOSEPH BANKS

Sir Joseph Banks, was an English naturalist, botanist and patron of the natural sciences. He sailed on the Endeavour when it left Plymouth in August 1768. Upon his return to England, Banks held the position of President of the Royal Society for over 41 years. He had a team of eight on the Endeavour trip:  Daniel Solander and H. D. Spöring, naturalists  Alexander Buchan and Sydney Parkinson, landscape and natural history artists  James Roberts and Peter Briscoe, tenants from Revesby  Thomas Richmond and George Dorlton (Dollin), servants (probably Jamaicans)

He also took “a fine Library of Natural History … all sorts of machines for catching and preserving insects; all kinds of nets, trawls, drags and hooks for coral fishing … a curious contrivance of a telescope, by which, put into the water, you can see the bottom to a great depth, where it is clear … many cases of bottles with ground stoppers, of several sizes, to preserve animals in spirits …

V1. Feb 2019 several sorts of salts to surround the seeds; and wax, both beeswax and that of Myrica”. While at sea the naturalists studied their books and collected specimens of fish, crustaceans, molluscs, coelenterates, birds, etc., which were examined, described and sketched before being preserved, when possible. On calm days Banks and his assistants worked from a small boat, returning to the Endeavour with marine specimens.

Banks also observed and took notes on Aboriginal customs.

On his return to England, Banks commissioned over 700 engravings of the collected specimens between 1772 and 1784. These engravings known as Banks' Florilegium, are some of the most precise and exquisite examples of botanical illustration ever created. The Florilegium was never published in Banks' lifetime, and it was not until 1990 that a complete set in colour was issued in a boxed edition (limited to 100 copies) under the direction of the British Museum (Natural History).

His name has been commemorated by  the notable plant genus, Banksia Linn.f.  a red spider flower, Grevillea banksii R.Br.  the seaweed known as 'Neptune's necklace' or 'Bubble-weed', Hormosira banksii  a sundew, Drosera banksii R.Br.  a wild pepper, Piper banksii Miq.; Tenterfield woollybutt, Eucalyptus banksii Maiden. (Courtesy “Australian Dictionary of Biography” (MUP 1966))

SYDNEY PARKINSON

Sydney Parkinson was the botanical draughtsman who accompanied Joseph Banks on the Endeavour.

Banks's Florilegium would not exist without the work that Sydney Parkinson carried out as botanical artist. He was also the first European artist to portray the indigenous people from direct observation.

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