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].
Transcript
Newhaven[sic], Connecticut
Sept 22 /[18]77
My Dear Dyer*1a
I have at last returned to Eastern American civilization & without regret, for I am pretty well fagged out with the hard work of our occidental trip. I have stopped here a day to spend it with my friend Prof[essor] Eaton*1 who with his new bride staid[sic] at Kew in 1866 & was much with us -- he was & is a great fern-man, & is bringing out an illustrated book on the Ferns of the U[nited] States. New Haven is a wonderfully pretty place & this indeed may be said of all the Eastern States that I have seen. They are all so green[,] varied in scenery[,] wooded watered & grassed with the ocean in addition on the sea-board. We travelled Eastward day & night for 6 days & nights from
Newhaven[sic], Connecticut
Sept 22 /[18]77
My Dear Dyer*1a
I have at last returned to Eastern American civilization & without regret, for I am pretty well fagged out with the hard work of our occidental trip. I have stopped here a day to spend it with my friend Prof[essor] Eaton*1 who with his new bride staid[sic] at Kew in 1866 & was much with us -- he was & is a great fern-man, & is bringing out an illustrated book on the Ferns of the U[nited] States. New Haven is a wonderfully pretty place & this indeed may be said of all the Eastern States that I have seen. They are all so green[,] varied in scenery[,] wooded watered & grassed with the ocean in addition on the sea-board. We travelled Eastward day & night for 6 days & nights from
the summit of the Sierra Nevada to Niagara*2 where we spent a day -- & where the Falls & their surroundings far exceeded my expectations. Thence by night train to Albany & so on to to Poughkeepsie the next morning where being delayed 4 hours I went to see the Vassar College for Girls, an American guitar (is that rightly spelled?) where is Miss Mitchell*3 the Astronomer & discoverer of a Comet a sort of Miss Somerville*4.-- the scale of the college is superb in all dimensions -- then to see some private grounds in lovely scenery of a Mr Sargent*5 near Fishkill on the Hudson, a gentleman who has a fine collection of American & other trees. There we slept & came on early next morning (yesterday) to New York, when I did the old & new Museum of
Nat[ural] Hist[ory] at the Central Park & the Park itself; briefly meeting (through Gray[']s forethought) Bickmore*6 the head of one & Olmstead*7 that of the other. At 3 PM I took the train to here, where I spent today (Sunday) & go on tomorrow to Boston & Cambridge. Here are Marsh*8, Dana*9 & Brewer*10, from the first & last of whom (Dana I have not yet seen) I have got some most valuable information. -- Marsh is busy with the huge Dinosaurs which have been discovered at 9000 ft elevation in the Rocky Mts. & of which I think I told you I had seen bones at Arkansas Cañon[sic] & which bones it appears were procured for Marsh. This beast (if it was a beast) must have been 70 ft. long & Marsh identifies it sits with the Wealden*11.
Brewer (a Dutchman, originally Brouwer), is a sharp Botanist who accompanied one of the Paupir[?] Surveys
into California & has helped me with some good details as to the distribution of the Pines &c. It is a good comfort to find that Gray*12 & I are at one with all the experienced ones as to the limits (specific) of the Pines, so horribly muddled by nurserymen & their collectors.
I am quite thrown out by the taking off of the Steamer of the 29th & fear that I shall have to stay at Boston till the 6th as my return ticket is only good for that boat, & I have no chance of a cabin to myself (for which I should have to pay) & the intermediate boat (Wednesdays) from New York, I hope that this will not throw you & dear Harriet*13 out) you & she cannot be more anxious to see be me home than I am to be there -- for the first time in my long life I look with pleasure to the ending of a foreign journey & as it is the delay in Boston will enable me to name my collections in Herb[arium] Gray for which Oliver*14 will be thankful & get on with Gray & my Report. & I hope too write something for my R[oyal] S[ociety] Address which *15 as heretofore presses on me with like a night mare[sic]. I shall certainly announce my retirement after this session -- with much love to Harriet I'm[?] affectionately yours Jos D Hooker [signature]
*16 No copies of the Report have been received by Botanists on this side the water..
Royal Gardens Kew
P.S.
Sept[ember] 24th [1877]
I arrived here last night in New Haven & found all our collections safe, but the boxes which will be sent from San Francisco round the Horn. I have a torrent of letters including your large & welcome one of Aug[ust] 28th with its interesting endeavor. -- I am distressed that you have had insubordination. It must be stamped out. The gardening class whether a gardener or gardening laborer are a most troublesome one to deal with.--Smith*17 & Nicholson*18 never will get on, & much as I like the former & dislike the latter, some of the fault is with Smith. He will not give clear orders when he goes as to what he wants done about his letters &c &c &c Nicholson who is not bright delights in taking advantage of this. When N[icholson] came I begged Smith over & over again to define his duties & give him some definite responsible daily duty, but he never would, suggesting several; this I thought & think was a much needed disciplinary step. He was or is a mere hanger on -- we must think what can be done -- I can feel deeply
for you with every aid away. Jackson*19 ought to be ashamed of*20 himself & I will if necessary give him a talking to -- Granger*21 I must talk over with you. After all you see the raising such men as Jackson, Moore*22, Brown*23 &c to positions that render it most difficult for us to get rid of them is a great gird[?].--They are never thoughtful & presume upon our goodness. I quite think with you as to Nicholson playing a game as soon as he goes he will turn round & abuse Kew & there are dep[artmen]ts of the O[ffice]. of W[orks]. in which he may do a great mischief.
As to discipline of constables &c it never will be good till Smith has a systematic inspection of them by some trusty deputy. This was to have been one of his assistant duties -- but Smith never would put Nicholson on it.
Your letter is so full that I could be all day answering it & I have loads of others to write. Thank God I am quiet here! I am utterly sick of travelling & collecting & feel like a dray horse kept at the gallop for 3 months. A thousand thanks for your kindness to Charlie*24. I knew he could not pass in Chemistry[?] & told him so over & over again[.]
1a. Sir William Thiselton-Dyer (1843--1928). British botanist and third Director of the Royal Botanic gardens, Kew (1885--1905). He succeeded Joseph Hooker in the role after serving as his Assistant Director for ten years. He also married Hooker's eldest daughter Harriet in 1877.
1. Daniel Cady Eaton (1834--1895). American botanist and author, studied with Asa Gray at Harvard University.
2. Hooker avoided writing on the reverse side of the embossed letterhead resulting in a blank space in the midst of the next three lines of text on the page.
3. Maria Mitchell (1818--1889). American astronomer, discovered a comet via telescope, C/1847 T1, which became known as 'Miss Mitchell's Comet'.
4. Mary Somerville (1780--1872). Scottish science writer, first female member of the Royal Astronomical Society along with Caroline Herschel.
5. Henry Winthrop Sargent (1810--1882). American horticulturist and landscape gardener.
6. Albert Smith Bickmore (1839--1914). American naturalist and a founder of the American Museum of Natural History.
7. Frederick Law Olmsted (1822--1903). American landscape architect, co-designer of Central Park in New York City.
8. Othniel Charles Marsh (1831--1899). American paleontologist, fossil hunter, rival of Edward Drinker Cope in the Bone Wars.
9. James Dwight Dana (1813--1895). American geologist, mineralogist, volcanologist and zoologist.
10. William Henry Brewer (1828--1910). American botanist, worked on first California Geological Survey, First Chair of Agriculture at Yale University's Sheffield Scientific School.
11. Wealden, referring most likely to the age of the fossil and not the actual Wealden Strata.
12. Asa Gray (1810--1888). Asa Gray (1810--1888). Harvard University Professor of Botany. Considered the most important American botanist of the 19th century, Gray was instrumental in unifying the taxonomic knowledge of the plants of North America. Gray, Hooker and Darwin were lifelong friends and colleagues. Hooker accompanied Gray on a botanizing tour of North America in 1877. Author of Gray's Manual.
13. Harriet Anne Thiselton--Dyer née Hooker (1854--1945). Oldest child of Joseph Hooker and his first wife Frances. Botanical illustrator and wife of William Turner Thiselton--Dyer. Her husband was Assistant Director of RBG Kew (1875--1885) and later Director (1885--1905), succeeding her father.
14. Daniel Oliver (1830--1916). British botanist, Keeper of the Herbarium and Library at Kew, 1864--1890, Professor of Botany at University College, London, 1861--1888
15. The placement of this text through the valediction is along the left hand margin on the first page of the letter.
16. The location of this text is on the first page of the letter in the upper left corner, written in the same direction as and below the text in Endnote 14.
17. John Smith (1821--1888). Curator or 'head gardener' of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew from 1864--1886. His predecessor as Curator was also named John Smith.
18. George Nicholson (1847--1908). English horticulturalist and botanist. Started working at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 1873 succeeding John Smith as Curator of the Gardens in 1886, until his own retirement due to ill health in 1901.
19. John Reader Jackson (1837--1920). Curator of the Museums of Economic Botany at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew from 1858 to 1901.
20. Hooker avoided writing on the reverse side of the embossed letterhead resulting in a blank space in the midst of the next three lines of text on the page
21. William Granger (1822--1915). Office keeper and store keeper, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 1850--1893.
22. Probably Alexander Moore (c.1855--1884). Gardener at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
23. Nicholas Edward Brown, Esq. (1849--1934). English plant taxonomist, Assistant Keeper, 1909-1914, Herbarium at Kew.
24. Charles Paget Hooker (1855--1933). Joseph Hooker's third child, second son, with his first wife Frances. Charles, often called Charlie, became a medical doctor with a practice at Cirencester in Gloucestershire.
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