Silver medal celebrating the life of Daniel Carl Solander.

An apostle of Carl Linnaeus, the Swedish naturalist Daniel Solander (1733-1782) studied at the renowned University of Uppsala, before travelling to England in 1760 to spread the word of Linnaeus' new system of classification. He began cataloguing the British Museum's natural history collections in 1763, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in the following year. With his assistant Herman Spörring, Solander gained a leave of absence from the British Museum and joined Sir Joseph Banks on Capt. Cook's first voyage to the Pacific Ocean in the Endeavour. Solander became the first university-educated European scientist to step foot in Australia, describing an important collection of Australian plants which became the basis for Banks' Floriligeum. The flower behind the head of the Solander on the obverse of the medal is a genus of Atropaecea named Solandra by his friend Linnaeus. As a member of the First Voyage he also became the first Swede to sail round the world. He died of a stroke aged just 49 at Banks' house in Soho Square.

Ljungberger (1734-1787) who executed this fine medal in honour of Solander was appointed Court Medalist in 1780.

Silver medal (37mm); obverse bare head bust of Solander right, vertical legend 'daniel solander' to right, with flowering solandra stem to left; reverse legend in six lines 'iosepho banks effigiem amici merito d.d.d.cl et ioh alstroemer' [To Joseph Banks this portrait of his friend is deservedly presented and dedicated by Claus and Johann Alstroemer]; small die flaw to left of bust, a few hairlines, otherwise extremely fine with residual lustre.

BHM 252.