JDH writes to Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer from New Haven, Connecticut where he is staying with his friend, the fern specialist, Daniel Cady Eaton. JDH admires the green & varied scenery of all the eastern states he has seen. JDH travelled from the Sierra Nevada to Niagara falls, then to Albany & to Poughkeepsie to visit the Vassar College for girls where the astronomers Miss Mitchell & Miss Sommerville are based. Also saw grounds of [Henry Winthrop] Sargent at Fishkill before going on to New York. In New York JDH went to both museums of natural history in Central Park & met their heads: Albert Smith Bickermore & Frederick Law Olmsted. At New Haven JDH has met, or soon will: Othniel Charles Marsh, James Dwight Dana & William Henry Brewer. Marsh is busy with dinosaur remains discovered in the Rocky Mountains, JDH has seen the bones in Arkansas Canon. A botanist named Brewer formerly of the California Survey gave JDH useful information on the distribution of Pines. JDH discusses his return to England from Boston, he may be delayed there & will use the time to name his specimens at Asa Gray's herbarium & work on his Royal Society address. He will resign as President of the Royal Society at the end of the session. He notes that nobody in the United States of America has received a copy of the [RBG Kew Annual] Report. In a post script dated 24 Sep 1877 JDH writes of the arrival of his collections at New Haven. JDH has received a letter from WTTD with news of insubordination from the gardeners at RBG Kew, he discusses the degree to which John Smith & George Nicholson are at fault & to a lesser degree John Reader Jackson & William Granger. JDH disapproves of the raising of such men as Jackson, [Alexander] Moore & Nicholas Edward Brown to positions that make it hard to dismiss them. For discipline of the constables they should be regularly inspected. JDH mentions that his son Charles Paget Hooker has not passed his Chemistry [exam].
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).