From:
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
Sir Henry Barkly
Date:
12 October 1876
Source of text:
JDH/2/3/1 f.256-258, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Summary:
No summary available.
Contributor:
Hooker Project
From:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
13 Oct 1876
Source of text:
DAR 104: 66–7
Summary:
JDH back from his honeymoon.
Finds he has gout, as his father and grandfather had.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
William Henry Smith
Date:
14 October 1876
Source of text:
JDH/1/14/1 f.51, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Summary:
This letter appears to be a draft copy, it is not signed by Joseph Dalton Hooker, though it is written in his hand, & it contains extensive corrections & struck through text. JDH writes to [William Henry] Smith regarding a potential conflict over the HMS 'Challenger' expedition collections, which he fears may arise between the scientific staff of the expedition & the British Museum. His fears stem from correspondence sent to the Royal Society by the Admiralty & Treasury. JDH offers his services as a mediator to head off this dispute as he knows the parties involved & has experience dealing with scientific expeditions. He asks to be put in contact with anyone at the Treasury who takes an interest in the matter.
Contributor:
Hooker Project
From:
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
William Spottiswoode
Date:
16 October 1876
Source of text:
JDH/2/18 f.100, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Summary:
No summary available.
Contributor:
Hooker Project
From:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
29 Oct 1876
Source of text:
DAR 104: 68
Summary:
JDH looking for Hoya for CD.
Hookers tried to visit Down on foot, but weather was too inclement.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff
Date:
29 October 1876
Source of text:
JDH/2/22/2 f.79, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Summary:
No summary available.
Contributor:
Hooker Project
From:
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
William Henry Smith
Date:
2 November 1876
Source of text:
JDH/1/14/1 f.52, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Summary:
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.
Contributor:
Hooker Project
From:
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
Asa Gray
Date:
4 November 1876
Source of text:
JDH/2/22/1/1 f.59-60, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Summary:
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.
Contributor:
Hooker Project
From:
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
Sir William Turner Thiselton-Dyer
Date:
12 November 1876
Source of text:
JDH/2/16 f.38, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Summary:
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.
Contributor:
Hooker Project
From:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
14 Nov 1876
Source of text:
DAR 104: 69–70
Summary:
JDH prepares Anniversary Address to the Royal Society [Proc. R. Soc. Lond. (1876): 339–62].
Return of Challenger.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
Sir Charles Wyville Thomson
Date:
24 November 1876
Source of text:
JDH/1/14/1 f.48-49, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Summary:
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.
Contributor:
Hooker Project
From:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
8 Dec 1876
Source of text:
DAR 111: A85, DAR 104: 73
Summary:
He has examined Hoya flowers with Bentham and Oliver, but they are not satisfied about the five processes alternating with the sepals. [See Forms of flowers, pp. 331–2.] Sends specimens of plants.
Babington’s surprise at JDH’s advocacy of Darwinian views at Norwich [BAAS meeting].
Criticism of the behaviour of the trustees of the British Museum [in the Challenger affair].
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
13 Dec 1876
Source of text:
DAR 104: 71–2
Summary:
Complains at Albert Günther’s imputations against Charles Wyville Thomson [as a result of the dispute between Thomson and the British Museum, regarding the disposal of the specimens from the Challenger].
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
Lady Hyacinth Hooker (nee Symonds, then Jardine)
Date:
13 December 1876
Source of text:
JDH/2/22/2 f.14, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Summary:
No summary available.
Contributor:
Hooker Project
From:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
18 Dec 1876
Source of text:
DAR 110: B78a
Summary:
Notes variation in style and stamen length in Forsythia.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
William Henry Smith
Date:
19 December 1876
Source of text:
JDH/1/14/1 f.53, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Summary:
JDH writes that he is waiting to hear whether the Royal Society has accepted the proposal that it undertake the work on Sir Wyville Thomson's specimens [from the HMS 'Challenger' expedition]. If the suggestion is approved JDH will submit a detailed plan. The plan has already been prepared, a complex procedure as a work of such scope has never been undertaken before. The plan will ask for £3500 for 1877-1878 for the publication of the work. JDH asks Smith to authorise the submission of the plan to the Navy[?].
Contributor:
Hooker Project