|
William Wade Ellis
William Wade Ellis (1751 – 1785) was an artist, a naturalist, and a surgeon's mate on Captain James Cook's voyages. His middle name was wrongly identified as Webb in some sources. He is known largely from the paintings of natural history subjects that he made during Captain Cook's voyages. Ellis was baptized on 11 June 1751 at Ely Cathedral, born to Thomas, canon at Ely Cathedral, and Elizabeth. A brother of Ellis' became a vicar at Melbourn, Cambridgeshire. Little is known of his early life, but he was described by David Samwell, surgeon on HMS ''Discovery'', as "a genteel young fellow and of good education". He served on all three of Captain Cook's voyages and may have improved his artistic skills through the influence of John Webber after moving from the HMS ''Discovery'' to the HMS ''Resolution''. Descriptions of specimens in his notebooks suggest that he was scientifically trained and had a knowledge of Latin but claims that he trained at Cambridge University and at St. Bar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
White-winged Sandpiper
The Tahiti sandpiper or Tahitian Sandpiper (''Prosobonia leucoptera'') is an extinct member of the large wader family Scolopacidae that was endemic to Tahiti in French Polynesia until its extinction sometime before 1819. It was discovered in 1773 during Captain Cook's second voyage, when a single specimen seems to have been collected, but it became extinct in the nineteenth century. Only one museum specimen is known to exist, held in the Aves collection of Naturalis Biodiversity Center. The bird's name in the Tahitian language was transcribed as ''toromē''. Taxonomy The Tahiti sandpiper was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's ''Systema Naturae''. He placed it with the other sandpipers in the genus ''Tringa'' and coined the binomial name ''Tringa leucoptera''. Gmelin based his description on the "white-winged sandpiper" that had been described and illustrated in 1785 by the English o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Akialoa Obscura
''Akialoa'' is an extinct genus of Hawaiian honeycreeper in the subfamily Carduelinae of the family Fringillidae. The birds were endemic to Hawaii. Species It contains the following species: * Lesser ʻakialoa or Hawai'i ʻakialoa, ''Akialoa obscura'' - extinct (1940) * Greater ʻakialoa - extinct ** Oʻahu ʻakialoa, ''Akialoa ellisiana'' — extinct (1940, Oahu) ** Maui Nui ʻakialoa or Lanaʻi ʻakialoa, ''Akialoa lanaiensis'' — extinct (1892, Lana'i) ** Kauaʻi ʻakialoa, ''Akialoa stejnegeri'' — extinct (1969, Kauai) * Hoopoe-billed ʻakialoa, ''Akialoa upupirostris'' — extinct Late Quaternary (prehistoric) (Kaua'i, Oahu) * ''Akialoa sp.'' - extinct Late Quaternary (prehistoric) (Maui) * Giant ʻakialoa, ''Akialoa'' sp. — extinct Late Quaternary (prehistoric) See also * Asteroid 378002 ʻAkialoa __NOTOC__ Year 378 ( CCCLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Cook
James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and to New Zealand and Australia in particular. He made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand. Cook joined the British merchant navy as a teenager and joined the Royal Navy in 1755. He saw action in the Seven Years' War and subsequently surveyed and mapped much of the entrance to the St. Lawrence River during the siege of Quebec, which brought him to the attention of the Admiralty and the Royal Society. This acclaim came at a crucial moment for the direction of British overseas exploration, and it led to his commission in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ely Cathedral
Ely Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, is an Anglican cathedral in the city of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England. The cathedral has its origins in AD 672 when St Etheldreda built an abbey church. The present building dates back to 1083, and it was granted cathedral status in 1109. Until the Reformation it was the Church of St Etheldreda and St Peter, at which point it was refounded as the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Ely, continuing as the principal church of the Diocese of Ely, in Cambridgeshire. It is the seat of the Bishop of Ely and a suffragan bishop, the Bishop of Huntingdon. Architecturally, it is outstanding both for its scale and stylistic details. Having been built in a monumental Romanesque style, the galilee porch, lady chapel and choir were rebuilt in an exuberant Decorated Gothic. Its most notable feature is the central octagonal tower, with lantern above, which provides a unique internal space and, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Melbourn
Melbourn () is a large, clustered village in the far south-west of Cambridgeshire, England. Its traditional high street is bypassed by the A10, intersecting the settlement's other main axis exactly northwest of the traditional focal point of Royston, Hertfordshire, the nearest larger settlement. It has over 4,600 inhabitants and is in the South Cambridgeshire district. The Prime Meridian passes to the west of Melbourn. History The parish has a long history of occupation, stemming from the presence of springs at Melbourn Bury and the several ancient trackways that cross the parish; the Icknield Way runs to the south of the parish and Ashwell Street and the Roman Cambridge-Royston road are also believed to follow prehistoric trackways. Pottery and burial finds show evidence of Bronze Age residents, and a Roman settlement has been found at the north-east edge of the village. Excavations in the 1950s discovered 28 graves from a 7th-century Christian burial site close to Ashwell S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Webber
John Webber (6 October 1751 – 29 May 1793) was an English artist who accompanied Captain Cook on his third Pacific expedition. He is best known for his images of Australasia, Hawaii and Alaska. Biography Webber was born in London, educated in Bern and studied painting at Paris. His father was Abraham Wäber, a Swiss sculptor who had moved to London, and changed his name to Webber before marrying a Mrs Mary Quant in 1744. Webber served as official artist on James Cook's third voyage of discovery around the Pacific (1776–1880) aboard . At Adventure Bay in January 1777 he did drawings of "A Man of Van Diemen's Land" and "A Woman of Van Diemen's Land". He also did many drawings of scenes in New Zealand and the South Sea islands. On this voyage, during which Cook lost his life in a fight in Hawaii, Webber became the first European artist to make contact with Hawaii, then called the Sandwich Islands. He made numerous watercolor landscapes of the islands of Kauai and H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HMS Discovery (1774)
HMS ''Discovery'' was the consort ship of James Cook's third expedition to the Pacific Ocean in 1776–1780. Like Cook's other ships, ''Discovery'' was a Whitby-built collier originally named ''Diligence'' when she was built in 1774. Purchased in 1775, the vessel was measured at 299 tons burthen. Originally a brig, Cook had her changed to a full-rigged ship. She was commanded by Charles Clerke, who had previously served on Cook's first two expeditions, and had a complement of 70. After Cook was killed in a skirmish following his attempted kidnapping of Hawaiian leader Kalaniʻōpuʻu, Clerke transferred to the expedition's flagship HMS ''Resolution'' and John Gore assumed command of ''Discovery''. She returned to Britain under the command of Lieutenant James King, arriving back on 4 October 1780. After returning to the Nore in 1780, ''Discovery'' was fitted out as a transport at Woolwich Dockyard, serving as such between December 1780 and May 1781. She then became a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HMS Resolution (1771)
HMS ''Resolution'' was a sloop of the Royal Navy, a converted merchant collier purchased by the Navy and adapted, in which Captain James Cook made his second and third voyages of exploration in the Pacific. She impressed him enough that he called her "the ship of my choice", and "the fittest for service of any I have seen". Purchase and refitting ''Resolution'' began her career as the North Sea collier ''Marquis of Granby'', launched at Whitby in 1770, and purchased by the Royal Navy in 1771 for £4,151 (equivalent to £ today). She was originally registered as HMS ''Drake'', but fearing this would upset the Spanish, she was soon renamed ''Resolution'', on 25 December 1771. She was fitted out at Deptford with the most advanced navigational aids of the day, including an azimuth compass made by Henry Gregory, ice anchors, and the latest apparatus for distilling fresh water from sea water. Her armament consisted of 12 6-pounder guns and 12 swivel guns. At his own expense Coo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Banks
Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. Banks made his name on the 1766 natural-history expedition to Newfoundland and Labrador. He took part in Captain James Cook's first great voyage (1768–1771), visiting Brazil, Tahiti, and after 6 months in New Zealand, Australia, returning to immediate fame. He held the position of president of the Royal Society for over 41 years. He advised King George III on the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and by sending botanists around the world to collect plants, he made Kew the world's leading botanical garden. He is credited for bringing 30,000 plant specimens home with him; amongst them, he was the first European to document 1,400. Banks advocated British settlement in New South Wales and the colonisation of Australia, as well as the establishment of Botany Bay as a place for the reception of convicts, and advised the British government on all Australian matte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Naturalists
English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national identity, an identity and common culture ** English language in England, a variant of the English language spoken in England * English languages (other) * English studies, the study of English language and literature * ''English'', an Amish term for non-Amish, regardless of ethnicity Individuals * English (surname), a list of notable people with the surname ''English'' * People with the given name ** English McConnell (1882–1928), Irish footballer ** English Fisher (1928–2011), American boxing coach ** English Gardner (b. 1992), American track and field sprinter Places United States * English, Indiana, a town * English, Kentucky, an unincorporated community * English, Brazoria County, Texas, an unincorporated community * Engli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1751 Births
In Britain and its colonies (except Scotland), 1751 only had 282 days due to the British Calendar Act of 1751, which ended the year on 31 December (rather than nearly three months later according to its previous rule). Events January–March * January 1 – As the American colony in Georgia prepares the transition from a trustee-operated territory to a British colonial province, the prohibition against slavery is lifted by the Board of Trustees. At the time, the African-American population of Georgia is about 400 people who have been kept as slaves in violation of the law. By 1790, the slave population increases to over 29,000 and by 1860 to 462,000. * January 7 – The University of Pennsylvania, conceived 12 years earlier by Benjamin Franklin and its other trustees to provide non-denominational higher education "to train young people for leadership in business, government and public service". rather than for the ministry, holds its first classes as "Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1785 Deaths
Events January–March * January 1 – The first issue of the ''Daily Universal Register'', later known as ''The Times'', is published in London. * January 7 – Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travel from Dover, England to Calais, France in a hydrogen gas balloon, becoming the first to cross the English Channel by air. * January 11 – Richard Henry Lee is elected as President of the U.S. Congress of the Confederation.''Harper's Encyclopaedia of United States History from 458 A. D. to 1909'', ed. by Benson John Lossing and, Woodrow Wilson (Harper & Brothers, 1910) p167 * January 20 – Battle of Rạch Gầm-Xoài Mút: Invading Siamese forces, attempting to exploit the political chaos in Vietnam, are ambushed and annihilated at the Mekong River, by the Tây Sơn. * January 27 – The University of Georgia in the United States is chartered by the Georgia General Assembly meeting in Savannah. The first students are admi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.svg "Click for more on -> HMS Resolution (1771)")
