Overview
Te Papa has a duplicate set of plant specimens collected by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander during James Cook’s first expedition to New Zealand in 1769-1770.
Banks and Solander collected representatives of about 340 species, over eight locations during their visit to New Zealand. Te Papa's collection of 541 sheets contains 313 of these species. The 340 species represent about 14% of the present-day indigenous flora of seed plants and ferns, and indicate what species were growing in lowland New Zealand when Pākehā first arrived.
How did duplicates of specimens shipped to London come to be at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa? In the 1890's, New Zealand-based botanist Thomas Kirk wrote to the British Museum, supported by the Director of the Colonial Museum, James Hector, requesting material to assist with writing a complete Flora of New Zealand.
The British Museum sent 1000 sheets and black & white engavings (prints from copper plates) representing most of the specimens collected on the voyage. Kirk intended that the engravings would illustrate the flora. Unfortunately, Kirk died before completing his work and an abridged version, The Students' Flora of New Zealand, was published posthumously in 1899.