Recent Acquisitions

The Solander Medal

The Solander medal depicts Dr. Daniel Solander (1736-1782), the Swedish botanist and disciple of the renowned Carl von Linné, or Linnaeus. Linnaeus sent Solander to England to make contact with British naturalists and acquire botanical specimens to be sent back to add to his classification system. Solander soon met Joseph Banks and their close friendship and collaboration was cemented in 1768 when Solander accompanied Banks on Cook’s first voyage to the South Seas to observe the Transit of Venus. Banks and Solander collected and named over 1400 plant species. The plant depicted on the medal was named solandra by Linnaeus the Younger in honour of Solander’s extraordinary contribution to natural history.

The medal was commissioned in 1783 by Johan Alstroemer (1742-1786), merchant and industrialist, natural history collector and President of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, who dedicated it to Banks.

Acquired with the generous assistance of The Art Fund, The Normanby Trust and The V&A Purchase Grant Fund.

A Ring, a Power of Attorney and a Sea Shanty.

We have also acquired various items associated with the family of Mrs. Cook. These include the Power of Attorney signed by Elizabeth Cook allowing her younger relative, John Leach Bennett, to collect the Admiralty pension allowed her as Cook’s widow. We also acquired a mourning ring inscribed in memory of Admiral Isaac Smith, the nephew of Mrs. Cook who sailed on Cook’s first and second voyages. Finally, a copy of a sea shanty by Thomas Perry, seaman on Resolution, composed during the return from the second voyage, which contains many references to Cook and was treasured by Mrs. Cook for the rest of her life.

Acquired with the generous assistance of The V&A Purchase Grant Fund, The Normanby Trust, and several individual donors