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The Joseph Dalton Hooker Collection
The Joseph Dalton Hooker Correspondence Project at Kew is making available online the personal and scientific correspondence of the botanist and explorer Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817–1911), Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens’ Kew from 1865-1885. The project was conceived by staff of The University of Sussex and Kew's Library, Art and Archive department and began as a partnership between Kew and the University of Sussex's Centre for World Environmental History. It has been made possible by support from the Stevenson Family Charitable Trust. Letter summaries can be searched through Ɛpsilon, with links to images and transcriptions at the project site at Kew (https://www.kew.org/explore-our-collections/correspondence-collections/joseph-hooker-collections).
At the behest of the Royal Society officers JDH requests a meeting with an officer of the Treasury. This is in response to a letter from Mr Law. JDH will call at the Treasury the following day; Friday 3 Nov 1876, in hope of seeing William Henry Smith.
JDH thanks Asa Gray for a letter of 16 Oct pointing out a mistake in a plant description, the plant as identified incorrectly by Thompson & [John Gilbert] Baker & JDH missed the mistake in the absence of [Daniel] Oliver. JDH asks Gray to explain why he has kept D. elegans & D. puchella [pulchella?] separate as it is not clear from Gray's BOTANY OF CALIFORNIA. Baker & Oliver are certain Gray is wrong about an Iris. Baker is progressing fast with the Mauritian flora. Bennett has bequeathed RBG Kew a share of the Brownian Australia Herbarium. George Bentham is working on Cyperaceae & waiting for Muller to send Australian specimens. Munro is working on Gramineae for Alphonse De Candolle. JDH is busy with Royal Society affairs & preparing his Royal Society Presidential Anniversary Address. Discusses a dispute between the British Museum & Sir Wyville Thomson over distribution & publication of the Challenger expedition collections. The expedition was arranged by the Royal Society so they will adjudicate the dispute on behalf of the government. JDH is strongly against the collections going to the British Museum but is in a difficult position regarding the dispute as he is a Trustee of the British Museum as well as President of the Royal Society & Director of RBG Kew. JDH states that Richard Owen [Superintendant of the natural history department of the British Museum] is unpopular. JDH incredulously cites a claim Owen made to the Treasury that the Keepers of Botany at the British Museum, from Robert Brown to William Carruthers, were responsible for describing the plants collected on Government expeditions dating from the voyages of James Cooke & Matthew Flinders to Berthold Carl Seemann. JDH is especially busy as Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer is on holiday in Italy.
JDH thanks Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer [WTTD] for his letter about his travels in North Italy containing admiration for Verona & Saint Marks of Venice. JDH recalls admiring the whole of Venice & the powerful paintings of Titian & Paul Veronese in the Scuola or Academia. Neither JDH nor WTTD like Tintoretto's paintings. JDH recommends WTTD go to Antibes. JDH updates WTTD on the ongoing dispute with the British Museum regarding the collections from the HMS 'Challenger' Expedition. JDH does not think the Treasury should have been involved & will argue that control should go to [Sir Charles Wyville] Thomson with oversight from the Royal Society. JDH is hopeful that the money will be granted for the herbarium men. JDH describes the appointee to the position of Bailiff of the Parks & his salary. Humphreys has been asking about WTTD in connection with an examination. Two seeds of Welwitschia have germinated but been killed by carelessness, there is also a young Welwitschia a foot long. JDH complains about [Richard] Lynch, who has lost all the [George] Nares plants. JDH declares that running an establishment such as RBG Kew requires scientific method. JDH describes the 'No. 4' [green] house as 'miserable', Seward is to be dismissed & JDH or WTTD will have to take the house in hand. JDH is going to spend 3 days with [George] Allman & will work on his Royal Society address.
JDH informs Sir Charles Wyville Thomson [CWT] that he has received copies of the latter's correspondence with the Admiralty & Treasury regarding the publication & dispersal of the results of the HMS 'Challenger' Expedition. The Treasury has asked for the advice of the Royal Society Council on how this can best be done independently & for the greatest scientific benefit. JDH quotes at length from the Treasury's request which asks especially for advice on what the limits of the published works should be, given CWT's insistence that they be restricted to the particular objects of the expedition. To help the Royal Society deliberations JDH asks CWT for his opinions on how the collections should be 'worked up' & what audience he has in mind for the published works & who should write them. Also as regards payment for & ultimate length of the work & whether or not the deep & shallow ocean fauna could be considered & published separately. He asks for the information promptly as the Challenger Committee must report for the Parliamentary Settlement of 1877-1878.