Dragonfly Data Science is now located on level 4 of 158 Victoria St, instead of level 5. “It’s a floor down but a size up, so we now have a dedicated meeting area and our own kitchen, as well as more desk space,” says Edward.
Edward and Finlay have been aware of the need for a larger space for some time – especially a place to hold meetings – but were reluctant to leave their handy location.
“We’re still settling in and finishing things off, but we’d love people to come by and see where we are.”
The new white office walls are soon to be adorned by a set of six historic botanical prints from the Bank’s Florilegium. The beautiful images were originally painted by Sydney Parkinson, who was employed to travel with Joseph Banks on James Cook’s first visit to the Pacific from 1768 to 1771. He made more than 280 botanical paintings and 900 sketches and unfinished drawings, before dying of dysentery on the way home.
Back in England, Banks hired 18 engravers to create more than 700 copperplate line engravings from the paintings and drawings, but the plates were never printed. He eventually bequeathed them to the British Museum.
“My mum worked at the Natural History Museum in London in the 1950s and some of the Sydney Parkinson’s original drawings were stored in a desk drawer in her office. Once the plates were finally printed in the 1980s, Mum and Dad bought a few because of the connection and because Dad was an enthusiastic botanist.”
Edward says the new office was an ideal opportunity to drag the prints out from under his parent’s bed, “where all the treasures live” and get them framed and hung up for people to enjoy.
Read more about Sydney Parkinson and the Florilegium or drop by for a coffee sometime soon.