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Description: | Engraved by Byrne from the painting commissioned by Joseph Banks from George Stubbs. It was based on the probably stuffed skin of a wallaby that Banks's greyhound had caught at Endeavour River, Queensland, in July 1770, and the skulls of kangaroos which Cook's party had shot and eaten while they were repairing the 'Endeavour' there after running aground on the Great Barrier Reef, during the voyage of 1768-71. The print appeared in the relevant part of John Hawkesworth's, 'An account of the Voyages undertaken by the order of His present Majesty, for making discoveries in the southern hemisphere (1773), vol 3, plate no. 20, p. 277. Cook first himself saw one of these creatures on 24 June and noted on 4 August that '?.the Animal which I have before mentioned is called by the natives Kangooroo or Kanguru.' In 1897 W. E. Ling-Roth made a study of Aborigines of north-west central Queensland and found the name may have originated from Cook trying to ask local people what the animal was called and misunderstanding the answer - ?ganguru? - which in fact meant ?I don?t understand your question?. The spelling ?kangaroo? only became standard by about 1820. The print is in reverse orientation to the original oil painting (private collection).
Ex-Queen's House Display. Ex-Cook Gallery. This object was sighted as being on display during the Collections Inventory Project (2001-2005). It will need to be checked for object numbers and its condition activity updated. In Oceans of Discovery gallery to October 2012, (mistakenly labelled as after Sidney Parkinson).
caption: An animal found on the coast of New Holland, called Kanguroo (untitled) | Publisher: | "http://collections.rmg.co.uk/" | Rights holder: | "Royal Museums Greenwich" | Subjects: | prints | Source: | Royal Museums Greenwich | Identifier: | http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections... | Go to resource |
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