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A stone adze with a wooden handle tied to it with plated rows of straw from Benjamin Franklin's collect[ion]

Object Status:

Unlocated

Accession Date:

August 1777

Primary Source Reference:

Du Simitière Memorandum Books, Library of Congress, fol. 22v

Additional Source Text:

"Brought from the Island Otaheity by Dr. Solander & by him given to Dr. Franklin."

Notes:

Daniel Charles Solander (1733-1782) was a Swedish naturalist and an apostle of Carl Linnaeus. In 1768 he accompanied Joseph Banks on James Cook's first voyage to the Pacific Ocean aboard the Endeavour. They were the botanists who inspired the name Botanist Bay (which later became Botany Bay) for the first landing place of Cook's expedition in Australia.

The donor, Richard Bache (1737-1811), was Benjamin Franklin's son-in-law.