Editing Joseph Banks (section)

==Dispersal of Banks's papers==
Following Banks's death in 1820 a "treasure-trove of letters and papers"<ref name="fishburn">Matthew Fishburn, [https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/stories/book-joseph-banks-burned The book that Joseph Banks burned], sl.nsw.gov.au; first published in ''SL Magazine'', Summer 2017–18. Retrieved 26 September 2022.</ref> was passed to [[Sir Edward Knatchbull, 9th Baronet|Sir Edward Knatchbull]], his wife's nephew. In 1828 the latter passed bound volumes of foreign correspondence to the British Library but retained the rest of the papers in the expectation that an official biography would be written.<ref name="papers">[https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-222963290/findingaid Papers of Sir Joseph Banks], nla.gov.au. Retrieved 26 September 2022.</ref> After the death of Knatchbull and his wife, the letters and papers were passed on to their son Edward Knatchbull Hugesson, 1st Baron Brabourne, who offered to sell them to the [[British Museum]].<ref name="papers" /> However, in 1884 it declined to purchase them.<ref name="fishburn" /> Following that "notorious"<ref name="fishburn" /> decision the Agent General of New South Wales, [[Saul Samuel|Sir Saul Samuel]], issued instructions for the purchase of a large portion of the papers, which now form part of the [[State Library of New South Wales]]'s Brabourne Collection.<ref>[https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/647552 Papers (Brabourne Collection), (c. 1769-1820) (microform)], nla.gov.au. Retrieved 26 September 2022.</ref> The "large quantities of papers" which remained were then auctioned off at Sotheby's in London in March and April 1886.<ref name="fishburn" /> One of the successful bidders was [[Edward Petherick|E. A. Petherick]]. Many of those are now in the Petherick Collection at the [[National Library of Australia]].<ref>[https://www.nla.gov.au/selected-library-collections/petherick-collection Petherick Collection], nla.gov.au. Retrieved 26 September 2022.</ref> During the twentieth century the National Library continued to purchase Banks's letters and papers when they came on the market.