Sydney Parkinson
Sydney Parkinson C. (* 1745 in Edinburgh, † January 26th 1771 at sea on the return journey from Batavia, now Jakarta ) was a British natural history artist. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Parkinson ".
Life and work
Parkinson was hired in 1768 by Joseph Banks, to accompany the first expedition of James Cook in the Pacific ( 1768-1771 ) as a natural draftsman. Banks won two artists who should hold the findings of the research journey: Parkinson for the botanical drawings and Alexander Buchan for landscape painting. Parkinson's and Buchan became friends. After the death of Buchans in Tahiti, Parkinson had to take over its tasks. He made nearly 1,000 drawings of plants and animals, the accumulated Banks and Daniel Solander on the trip. Parkinson died on the return journey to the UK at sea at the bacterial dysentery. The ship was on course to Cape Town.
Parkinson was a member of the community of faith of the Quakers. During his lifetime, it was not, of course, to earn a living with art. Maybe it was tolerated because it served scientific purposes. Parkinson was with other crew members of the Endeavour, the first European to a tattoo by Tahitians underwent.
His work A Journal of a voyage to the South Seas ... was published posthumously in 1773 at the instigation of his brother Stanfield. A second edition was already 1784th Parkinson's Petrel ( Procellaria parkinsoni ) has been named after him. His drawings were published in 1988 by Alecto Historical Editions in 35 volumes and then digitized by the Natural History Museum in London.
Here are some examples of his plant drawings:
Banksia ericifolia
Banksia integrifolia
Banksia serrata
Swell
- Robert Zander, Fritz Encke, Günther Buchheim, Siegmund Seybold (eds.): Handbook of Plant Names. 13th edition. Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-8001-5042-5.