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Details
SIR JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER (1817-1911)
Three autograph letters signed (one incomplete) to Dr James Croll (physical geologist, 1821-90), Kew Gardens, 28 March - 6 April 1884, discussing the 'hopelessly unintelligible' question of whether specimens of wood found in the Arctic are evidence of interglacial warming periods, expressing particular scepticism as to Sir Edward Belcher's claims to have found a tree stump embedded in frozen clay, 'Belcher you know was a notoriously untruthful man ... the best (and most deservedly) hated man of his day in the Navy', 12 pages, 8vo, on bifolia (letter of 6 April lacking second bifolium, minor soiling and occasional short tears to folds); together with contemporary copies (including complete text of letter of 6 April 1884); [with] a portrait photograph signed (on mount) by Hooker ('Jos. D. Hooker'), 149 x 111mm including mount.
Hooker had gained early experience of the Polar regions as a young botanist with Sir James Clark Ross's Antarctic expedition on Erebus, 1839-43, whose results he published in six volumes. He succeeded his father as Director of Kew Gardens in 1865. (7)
Three autograph letters signed (one incomplete) to Dr James Croll (physical geologist, 1821-90), Kew Gardens, 28 March - 6 April 1884, discussing the 'hopelessly unintelligible' question of whether specimens of wood found in the Arctic are evidence of interglacial warming periods, expressing particular scepticism as to Sir Edward Belcher's claims to have found a tree stump embedded in frozen clay, 'Belcher you know was a notoriously untruthful man ... the best (and most deservedly) hated man of his day in the Navy', 12 pages, 8vo, on bifolia (letter of 6 April lacking second bifolium, minor soiling and occasional short tears to folds); together with contemporary copies (including complete text of letter of 6 April 1884); [with] a portrait photograph signed (on mount) by Hooker ('Jos. D. Hooker'), 149 x 111mm including mount.
Hooker had gained early experience of the Polar regions as a young botanist with Sir James Clark Ross's Antarctic expedition on Erebus, 1839-43, whose results he published in six volumes. He succeeded his father as Director of Kew Gardens in 1865. (7)