Exhibition "In the Forests of Borneo"
Key personalities
Key personalities (you're here) | Margaret Brooke, the White Rani
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> The mentors of the young Odoardo
Portrait of Beccari at forty, Natural History Museum of Florence.
Several key personalities encountered by Beccari during his lifetime contributed to the conception, organisation and undertaking of the journey to Borneo, and ultimately to the publication of the book recounting the story.
In addition to his friend Giacomo Doria, with whom the project was conceived and who helped finance the journey, the advice of Irish naturalist John Ball was decisive in choosing the destination to explore. This advice led the young Odoardo to London, where he stayed for several months, both to study the island's flora through the collections preserved in the herbarium of the British Museum and Kew Botanical Gardens, under the guidance of director Sir William Jackson Hooker and his son Joseph Dalton Hooker, and to establish important contacts useful for organising the expedition.
Thanks to the intercession of the Governor of Sarawak, James Brooke, his nephew (later Rajah or “Tuan Muda”) Charles Brooke, regent of the colony, guaranteed logistical support and protection for the two explorers from the moment they first landed in Kuching.
Through Charles Brooke, a few years later, Beccari also met his young wife Margaret Brooke, who convinced him to transfer his memories and notes from the journey into the book that gives this exhibition its title.
Dear Beccari,
Just a few quick lines before I leave for a long trip to the mountains. I think your plan to go on a big trip is excellent, and I much prefer Borneo to Australia. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary, rather than useful, to go to England first, and I advise you to spend some time in Kew. When you have made up your mind, I will give you letters for Hooker Senior and Junior, who will ensure that you have all the means possible to make the most of your time there. (...) I will also try to obtain the protection and help of the Englishman Rajah Brooke, who is the most powerful man in that part of the island.
John Ball, Lettera a Odoardo Beccari, 19 luglio 1864