Sarah Sophia Banks
| Sarah Sophia Banks | |
|---|---|
Portrait by Angelica Kauffman
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| Born |
October 28, 1744 Soho |
| Died | September 27, 1818 (aged 73) |
| Residence | London |
| Nationality | English |
| Fields |
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| Known for | Collections in the British Museum, British Library, and the Royal Mint Museum |
| Influenced |
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Sarah Sophia Banks (28 October 1744 – 27 September 1818) was an English antiquarian collector and sister and collaborator of botanist Joseph Banks. She collected coins and medals and ephemera which are now historically valuable like broadsheets, newspaper clippings, visiting cards, prints, advertisements and playbills.
She was born on 28 October 1744 at 30 Argyll Street in Soho, the daughter of William Banks, the MP for Grampound, and his wife Sarah.
She "discussed questions of plant biology with her brother..." and "...influenced him greatly." Many "of her ideas made their way into his writings [and she] also provided valuable support be recopying and editing the entire manuscript of Banks' Newfoundland voyage (published 1766)."
Her varied collections were left to her brother and sister-in-law who presented them to the British Museum and the Royal Mint Museum. Her coin collection is now divided between the British Museum and the Royal Mint, while her prints are housed between the British Museum and British Library. The rediscovery of her scrapbook on the London Monster, a man who attacked dozens of women 1788–90, led directly to Jan Bondeson's book on the subject in 2000.
Catherine Eagleton, 'Collecting African money in Georgian London: Sarah Sophia Banks and her collection of coins', Museum History Journal, vol. 6, no. 1, 2013, pp. 23–38.
Catherine Eagleton, 'Collecting America: Sarah Sophia Banks and the 'Continental Dollar' of 1776', Numismatic Chronicle, vol. 174, 2014, pp. 293–301.
Arlene Leis, 'Displaying Art and Fashion: Ladies' Pocket-Book Imagery in the Paper Collections of Sarah Sophia Banks', Konsthistorisk tidskrift/Journal of Art History, vol. 82, no. 3, 2013, pp. 252–71.
Anthony Pincott, 'The Book Tickets of Sarah Sophia Banks', The Bookplate Journal, vol. 2, no.1, March 2004, pp. 3–30.
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