Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

26 May 2012 - 2:48 am NZ time

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Solander's Legacy

Solander's Legacy: There were two botanists on the Endeavour when it arrived in New Zealand in 1769. But only one - Joseph Banks - got all the press coverage, and a major landform named after him. Justin Gregory asks who was the other botanist? What did he do and what happened to this man whose name still graces the windswept Solander Islands near Foveaux Strait . (37′42″)

Daniel Carlsson Solander (born in Sweden 19 February 1733) was a naturalist employed by Joseph Banks to accompany him on James Cook's first voyage to the Pacific on the Endeavour. On their return in 1771 Solander became Banks' secretary and librarian and lived in his Banks' London house until his death on 13 May 1782. At the time he had been Keeper of the Natural History Department of the British Museum for 9 years.

Although his botanical work on the Endeavour trip was significant, he is possibly more often remembered for his invention "The Solander box", still used in libraries and archives as the most suitable way of storing prints, drawings, some kinds of manuscripts and herbarium materials. The Solander Islands at the western end of the Foveaux Strait were named after him.