Forster, Johann Reinhold

1729

1798

S0017 in PGC and B0135 and B0136 in the Richard Bebb Collection catalogue are identified incorrectly as of David Garrick. They are now identified as of Johann Reinhold Forster, the explorer and scholar of natural history. The Forster family was originally from Britain, but had been dispossessed by Parliamentary forces in the 1640’s for their support of the Royalist cause and had moved to Polish Prussia, where Johann Reinhold was born. Forster originally began his career as a reluctant pastor and theologian, but after twelve years in the priesthood he went to Russia to work as a commissioner for Catherine the Great, in which role he was an unrepentant disaster, however he did lead an expedition 2,500 miles to the Volga, where he got a taste for exploration. In 1766 he came to England with his eleven-year old son Johann George Adam Reinhold (commonly known as George), and here he became the first person ever to publicly teach natural history, with a series of lectures at the progressive Warrington Academy. He was consulted by Oxford philologists and consulted by politicians, scientists and antiquaries. He is reputed to have mastered 17 languages. 1771 saw the publication of Forster’s translation Louis de Bourgainville’s journal from his voyage round the world, and deciding that he would like to participate on Captain Cook’s next South Seas voyage, befriended Joseph Banks, who had led the team of scientists on Cook’s first voyage on the Endeavour. The following year he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society, while Banks was effectively excluding himself from the voyage by insisting on only sailing on HMS Resolution if certain modifications were carried out. However these were found to make the ship un-sea-worthy, the modifications removed and Forster, accompanied by his son, employed as a replacement for Banks. On July 13th 1772, the Resolution, accompanied by HMS Adventure, sailed from Plymouth sound for the South Seas, with the Forsters on-board, not to return until July 30th 1775. The many discoveries that Forster and his son would make on this voyage would be published in 1778, as “Characteres Generum Plantarum quas in Itinere ad Insulas Maris Australis collegerunt, descripserunt, delinearunt, annis mdcclxxii-mdcclxxv”. Notable among these was the discovery of Emperor Penguins, which were named after him (aptenodytes forsteri). He has also been credited for saving Captain Cook’s life. Cook had become seriously ill with stomach complaints, his condition requiring constant nursing. Forster had his dog killed and a broth made from it that was carefully fed to Cook, and apparently did the trick! Back in Britain the Admiralty was not prepared to accept any of Forster’s contributions for the official account of the voyage, which Cook was determined to write himself, so he gave his manuscripts to his son, who published them a full six months before the official version. Forster found himself ostracised and condemned, which along with the poor sales for both books, forced him and his son to the continent. Johann went to Germany, where at the University of Halle, he became professor of natural history, mineralogy and medicine, to much acclaim. By the time of his death in 1798 he was recognised as the father of geography in Europe, and his influence on German science and scholarship was considerable.