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Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker was an English botanist and explorer in the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For 20 years he served as director of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, succeeding his father, William Jackson Hooker, and was awarded the highest honours of British science.
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culture · British botanist and explorer (1817–1911) · botanist · explorer · pteridologist · bryologist · mycologist · surgeon · writer · botanical collector · scientific collector · also Joseph Dalton Hooker, Joseph Hooker, Sir Joseph Hooker, Sir Hooker, J.D. Hooker, Hooker
Born 30 June 1817 · Died 10 December 1911 · Q157501
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“The New Englanders are most like us in language, speech and habits... The Americans are great and promiscuous eaters... beds are remarkably clean and good, but the pillows are too soft.”
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A collection of glass plate slides of paleontological fossils, some prepared by Darwin, William Nicol and others, which had been lost following Hooker's brief tenure with the Survey, were rediscovered in the Survey vault
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Awarded Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India (1977).
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Died 1911-12-10.
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Won Darwin–Wallace Medal (1908).
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Awarded Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts order (1907).
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At the age of 87, Hooker published A sketch of the Vegetation of the Indian Empire
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Awarded Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India (1897).
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Won Victoria Medal of Honour (1897).
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Was promoted Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India (being made a Knight Commander of that Order in 1877)
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Won Darwin Medal (1892).
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Hector sent a pessimistic report on a proposed tin mine on Stewart Island, and saw Brian in 1892 and 1893, after he left his family in Australia
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Won Linnean Medal (1888).
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Won Copley Medal (1887).
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Won Clarke Medal (1885).
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Won Founder’s Medal (1883).
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Won Albert Medal (1883).
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In 1876 he married Lady Hyacinth Jardine (1842–1921), daughter of William Samuel Symonds and the widow of Sir William Jardine
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Career landmark: President of the Royal Society (1873–1878).
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Awarded Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi (1870).
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Awarded Companion of the Order of the Bath (1869).
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Willy was sickly and coughing up blood, and a warmer climate was recommended
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Hooker had proposed that the whole of the huge herbarium collection of Joseph Banks should be moved from the British Museum to Kew, a reasonable idea, but a threat to Owen's plans for a museum in South Kensington to hous
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The independence of Kew was seriously threatened by the machinations of a member of parliament, Acton Smee Ayrton, whose appointment as First Commissioner of Works by Gladstone in 1869 was greeted in The Times with the p
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Was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
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The author of The Origin of Species recorded his indebtedness to Hooker's wide knowledge and balanced judgment
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Darwin wrote that Hooker was "the one living soul from whom I have constantly received sympathy"
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As Assistant Director of Kew, was the man most responsible for bringing foreign specimens to Kew
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Was appointed Assistant-Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and in 1865 he succeeded his father as full Director, holding the post for twenty years
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Won Royal Medal (1854).
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Abbreviated again in 1855 and later by the Minerva Library of Famous Books published by Ward, Lock, Bowden & Co
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The Copley in 1887 and the Darwin Medal in 1892
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Married Frances Harriet Henslow (1825–1874), daughter of Darwin's mentor, John Stevens Henslow
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(He was later briefly taken prisoner by the Raja of Sikkim)
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His father nominated him to travel to India and collect plants for Kew
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Agreed to read Darwin's "Essay" explaining the theory, and responded with notes giving Darwin calm critical feedback
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Hooker applied for the Chair of Botany at the University of Edinburgh
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Born 1817-06-30.
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