A scientist who added sketching flair to his work

This coloured sketch of a North Island kokako is among eight reproductions of works by John Buchanan shown in the Buller’s Birds exhibition on display at the South Canterbury Museum.

Buchanan’s woodcuts and coloured sketches were included in Walter Buller’s Manual of the Birds of New Zealand (1882) which was aimed at a wider audience with much cheaper pricing than the earlier A History of the Birds of New Zealand.

John Buchanan (1819–98) combined a flair for drawing and print making with a passion for botany. He migrated here from Scotland in 1852, and from 1862 to 1885 he worked for James Hector, founder of the New Zealand Geological Survey and Colonial Museum (now Te Papa).

His talents were immediately apparent, and he was employed as both draughtsman and botanist. He drew maps and illustrations of geographical features, plants, and animals. As well as illustrating his own scientific research, he contributed drawings and prints to a number of other scientists publishing works on New Zealand flora and fauna.

Buchanan worked closely with James Hector, accompanying him on expeditions to record landscapes through his sketches and paintings, and gathering plants to establish New Zealand’s first herbarium at the Colonial Museum.

Buchanan also supplied plants to British scientists, with a number of plants established at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew.

Buchanan’s own research saw him publish 39 scientific papers, and a three-volume illustrated work The Indigenous Grasses of New Zealand, published between 1878 and 1880.