Among the botanical material in his collection were exotic plants and bird skins, "unique albums of Durer's prints and drawings" "a vast library of manuscripts and printed books" (Geographical 2003 26+,the second two items of which probably contained abundant botanical engravings.
Not all of the items Sloane collected survived. One that id, however, was cocoa, which he brought back to England and "marketed shrewdly as a medicinal drink valued for its 'Lightness on the Stomach'" (Sterns 2003 411+). The financial incentive was strong in many of the collectors, although with Sloane, it also had a practical side as he went in search of remedies. In 1712, for example, Sloane became keen to purchase the collection of the German physician, Engelbert Kaempfer. A chapter of Kaempfer's book, Exotic Pleasures, mentioned a number of Oriental remedies, along with recipes, including one using the exotic Japanese tea plant, the white opium poppy and cannabis; it was supposed to be good for gout.
As a result of his personal collecting, and his purchase of others' collections, Sloane "managed to mix the simple businessman in him with the simple scientist to produce a remedia composita that cured, among other things, the financial woes of the impecunious Apothecaries" one of which was the Chelsea Physic Garden where he had studied. At some point, Sloane had "become the leaseholder of the land on which the Chelsea Physic Garden was built, and in 1722 he leased the land back to the Apothecaries for the sum of five pounds a year in perpetuity 'on condition that it be kept up and maintained by the Company as a physick garden'" (Sterns 2003 411+). Part of the agreement was that the garden was to convey to the Royal Society fifty plant specimens annually. "By 1796, when the arrangement ceased, the Royal Society had accumulated 3,750 specimens" (Sterns 2003 411+).
This would have been an impetus for botanical artworks, many of which would doubtless have been copies by the engravers and perhaps used in other ways. It was certain, however, that Sloane's collections influenced the painters and designers of the day. "On his death in 1753, his herbarium and Cabinet of Curiosities, the most comprehensive collection in England, was bequeathed to the city of London for a sum far below its worth" (Sterns 2003 411+).
The Chelsea Physic Garden was also a great favorite of the Duchess of Somerset, who wrote that the garden "demonstrates the interconnectedness of the natural sciences, history, geography and so on. Not to mention literature and art, where representations of gardens, both the enchanted and the enchanting, abound. Perhaps there is no such thing as a garden 'simple' after all" (Sterns 2003 411+).
A president of the Royal Society subsequent to Sloane, Sir Joseph Banks, was one of the most powerful men in the British scientific community at the time, and he commissioned or caused to be published significant numbers of botanical illustrations that would have influenced both artists in other genres and the public, still hungry for information about exotic plants (Tobin 1999 175). Banks was also unofficial director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, giving him yet another platform from which to influence the public taste.
Banks himself had sailed with Captain Cook on the first of Cook's voyages around the world in 1768. "Banks brought with him Dr. Daniel Solander, a botanist and pupil of Carl von Linne (Linnaeus), the naturalist Herman Sporing, two artists, Sydney Parkinson and Alexander Buchan, and four servants to assist in an ambitious undertaking: the cataloguing of all the new plants they encountered on their voyage" (Tobin 1999 175). Banks collected many "Brazilian fruits: melons, pineapples, oranges, limes, lemons, mangoes, and bananas" (Tobin 1999 176). He later transplanted many of the seeds in Tahiti: the artists had drawn all of them.
Years later, during Banks' time at Kew from 1772 to 1780, "approximately seven thousand new plants arrived in England from around the world" (Tobin 1999 175). The gardens are often credited with converting knowledge to profit and power, "for the Empire and for the industrial world system of which Britain was then the leader" (Tobin 1999 176). In addition, Banks "monitored the activities of botanical gardens that were established by the British in their West Indian and East Indian colonies" (Tobin 1999 176) and also corresponded with botanists in Calcutta, being convinced that Britain's prosperity and that of its colonies would be "enhanced by the bold and imaginative utilization of the world's natural resources" (Tobin 1999 777). He believed this despite an unfortunate end to one of his early attempts at plant transfer for the empire's benefit. It was Captain Bligh's Bounty that was to be used to take breadfruit from Tahiti to...
The architects are not simply referencing a general Neoclassical style but evoking specific elements of Roman architectural style that suggested wealth and success. The Los Angeles Stock Exchange on Spring St. (which no longer houses the stock exchange) includes the neoclassical elements of symmetry and alternating bands of vertical and horizontal elements. It also features three bas-relief panels carved into the granite over the central entrance that reflect Roman and
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