The Botanical Adventures of Joseph Banks

Sir Joseph Banks was a true botanical adventurer and pioneer, revealing the floral wonders of the South Seas, New Zealand and Australia to European eyes, and setting the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew on its path to become one of the world’s foremost botanic gardens.

Banks was uniquely privileged and no-one before or since has had such influence in the sphere of botany. He helped to raise the study of the world’s flora to new heights, bringing many new beautiful plants to Britain that we now take for granted in our gardens. Here, his life in botany is told through some of the intriguing objects, books and plants held at Kew – the place he held dear until his death in 1820.