James Cook: The Voyages

Fabulous detailed exhibition at the British Library looking at the voyages of James Cook.

 
The show was beautifully designed with lovely open blue interiors for the voyages and Georgian grey ones to represent the time in between journeys. There were lots of artefacts from the voyages and fantastic watercolours and illustrations.
 
There was a lot to read in this show as it seems that everyone on board the ships were keeping log books or diaries and they were all here. It felt like you were walking through a novel where you didn’t know the ending although in this case I had an inkling!
 
I loved the small stories which emerged such as the native priest, Tupai, who joined the first voyage and did paintings who were only discovered in the 1990s. Also I became a bit obsessed by the naturalist on the first voyage, Joseph Banks, who appeared again later as the chaperone for Omai, the first Polynesian to visit Britain after the second voyage.
 
Closed on 28 August 2018
 
Review
Guardian
Telegraph

 

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