Images from an Imagined Ocean
On 13 July 1771 James Cook’s Endeavour anchored off the Kent coast, back from its 34-month voyage around the globe. Objects and records accumulated on its Pacific voyage would shortly enter the collection of the British Museum and, around 1780, go on display in its South Sea Room. Cook was the man of the moment; an 1803 guidebook noted that ‘perhaps no age or country were ever more happy in the choice of a navigator and his companions in science and perseverance’. Later that century Cook was ‘enshrined in the pantheon of inspirational imperial heroes killed in the line of duty’, but there was little, if anything, in the way of events to mark the centennial of his voyages. However, his historical role was recognised during celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of the foundation of Australia in 1938, and New Zealand’s Centennial in 1940, while the publication of John C. Beaglehole’s three volumes of Cook’s journals (1955–67) and Bernard Smith’s European Vision and the South Pacific (1960) contributed to a growing interest in his exploits.
An early Cook-related exhibition was a collection of ten paintings by William Hodges, artist on the explorer’s second voyage, made available by the British Admiralty for display in at the British Museum in 1968 and New Zealand’s national touring show, , the following year. Other exhibitions were held at the Musée de l’Homme in Paris (1972) and Vancouver Centennial Museum (1978), and in 1977 the Auckland Art Gallery presented , inspired by the young man from the Society Islands who in 1774 returned with Cook on his second voyage and became the first Polynesian to visit Britain.
