Series 73: Copies of letters received by various persons from Banks, 1782-1818, undated

series

1002228

136 items of textual material

Sir Joseph Banks, a diligent and conscientious correspondent, responded to even the most trivial correspondence. He often wrote copies of his replies to letters directly on to the letter received. Some of these replies have become separated from the original letter.

Many of the documents in this series were previously located atML MSS 743/1, 2 or 3. Documents 8, 24, 41 and 86 previously locatedat ML MSS 743/1, were acquired for the Mitchell Library from theLondon bookseller Francis Edwards in December 1946.

Documents 1-7, 9, 11, 14, 17-21, 23, 25-35, 37-39, 42-43, 48-52,54-56, 60, 64-66, 70, 76-78, 80-81, 83-85, 87-95, 97-102, 104-106,108-109, 111-120, 122-128, 130-133 and 136 previously located at MLMSS 743/2, were acquired for the Library from Maggs Brothers inLondon, in December 1946.

Document 45, previously located at ML MSS 743/3, was acquiredfor the Library from Angus Robertson in December 1933.

Other documents in this series were purchased in 1884 from LordBrabourne by Sir Saul Samuel, the Agent-General for New SouthWales. They were transferred to the Mitchell Library in 1910 andwere part of the accession which became known as the Brabournecollection.

These include documents 59 previously located at ML A78-3; theenclosure to document 59 previously located at ML A79-1; documents36 and 71 previously located at ML A79-2; documents 53, 67, 71, 74,79 and 107 previously located at ML A79 -3; documents 12, 15-16,129 and 134-135 previously located at ML A 80-1; and documents 10,22, 40, 58, 69, 73, 82, 103 and 121 previously located at MLA80-2.

Still other documents are part of an accession of Banks paperspurchased by the Public Library of New South Wales from Sotheby's,London, in May 1929. These include documents 46 and 57 previouslylocated at ML A81; documents 68 and 72 previously located at MLA82; and document 44 previously located at ML A83.

Document 75, previously located at ML C181, was acquired for theLibrary from Angus Robertson in February 1911.

Document 110, previously located at ML C209, was acquired fromAngus Robertson in December 1912.

The remaining documents in this series were part of the personallibrary of Sir William Dixson which was bequeathed to the StateLibrary of New South Wales in 1952. Dixson's bequest was formallyhanded over when the Dixson Library was opened in 1959. Theseinclude documents 47, 61-62 and 96 previously located at DL MSQ158.

Many letters in this series include the original folio numberassigned by Banks, written in ink in an unknown hand in the topright hand corner.

It is now not possible to reconstruct Banks' originalarrangement. The series has therefore been arrangedchronologically.