After much deliberation we have finally decided on a name for our 500L spirits still- Lady Banks. “Lady Banks” is named after Sir Joseph Banks’s sister Sarah Sophia Banks, who not unlike our still, was a bit on the rotund side!

Sarah Sophia Banks was very influential when it came to her brother’s writings and was an avid collector of antiques, coins, and ephemera. Sarah wrote many letters to her brother while he was on his scientific voyage around the Pacific and helped him to organize and catalogue his specimens upon return to England.

Unfortunately, like many great women of her time, Sarah’s collection and works were often dismissed and ridiculed. The people of her day often mocked her “lack of femininity” and studious nature, something that would have been praised had she been born a man. Upon her death, Sarah’s collection was donated to the British Museum. It was “the largest and most varied collection of printed ephemera the museum had ever accepted”. This along with the fact that it was a woman’s collection made the donation even more extraordinary.