Two travels of Plants from England to Russia: Symbols and Senses of Diplomatic Presents of 1795 and 1814

Abstract

The article deals with the history of delivery of two unique botanical collections from England to Russia in 1795 and 1814. The management of preparations and sending these collections was come to life by the president of the Royal Society of London Joseph Banks. Addressee of unusual present was Russian Empress Maria Fedorovna, spouse of Paul I. In Russia, the history of these presents is extremely underexplored, and remains of collections seem lost. The correspondence of J. Banks, survived in British archives and published in the whole, is the important source of information. However, in different time historians in various ways interpreted this correspondence. The article contains the view of historiography approaches to treatment of symbolic meaning as content of collections as organization particularities of its completing and sending. The author of the article suggests to look at this cases from “botanical diplomacy” in concerned of Joseph Banks — main coordinator of 1795 collection' transition, traces Banks' personal attitude to this governmental intention and makes the conclusion about Banks indifference to diplomatic games, lack of ardor to cover a discursive distance between power and science and good faith to the idea of the common good, usual for British scientific culture. The study is novel in that in try to integrate the political context of British diplomatic presents with Banks' scientific enthusiasm and to give an appraisal of the phenomena in light of coexistence of national states and supranational community of “republic of botanists” in the second half of the 17^th and first quarter of the 19^th centuries.