Portrait of: Mungo Park
By: W. T. Fry
Date: 1820
Style: line engraving
Dimensions: 11x 15. 4 cm
Mungo Park (1771-1805) was a botanist and traveller born in Foulshiels near Selkirk. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh where he developed an interest in botany. He went on a botanical tour of the highlands with the botanist James Dickson, who later introduced Park to Sir Joseph Banks. In 1792 Park travelled to Sumatra as a surgeon’s mate in the service of the East India Company. Here he documented his observations on the plants and fishes of Sumatra and collected botanical samples for Banks.
