[DARWIN] Horace Darwin to Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker : autograph letter signed, expressing his thanks to Hooker, as his “father’s best friend”, for congratulating him on being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. Cambridge, 5 May 1903.

2 pp. manuscript in ink, written on the first two sides of an octavo-size bifolium of notepaper, 180 x 115 mm, with Horace Darwin’s letterhead ‘The Orchard, Huntingdon Road, Cambridge’; dated 5 May 1903, the letter is addressed ‘Dear Sir Joseph’ (i.e. Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker) and is signed in full at the foot of the second side ‘Horace Darwin’; the writer thanks Hooker for his congratulations (by inference, on his becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society, although this event is not referred to explicitly); mounted on a section cut from an album page; some toning from the old glue on the verso, else clean and legible.

An unpublished and hitherto unrecorded piece of private correspondence between Cambridge scientist Horace Darwin (1851-1928) – the son of Charles Darwin – and the eminent botanist, Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817-1911) – Charles Darwin’s closest friend.

Horace thanks Hooker for congratulating him on becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society, an achievement which elicits fond memories of his father: for although he had passed away more than twenty years earlier, we sense that Horace’s emotional and deeply sincere words sum up accurately and concisely how much Charles Darwin meant to both men – as a proud and loving father, as a loyal friend, and as a brilliant intellect.

‘Dear Sir Joseph,

George [Horace’s older brother] has shown me your letter and I wish to write and thank you for your congratulations. I have wished so much that I could have seen my Father & Mother’s pleasure & it adds to my pleasure to know that my Father’s best friend is glad. My wife and I are sorry that you are so far from well but we hope you may be able to get to George’s later & that we may see you then.

Ever sincerely,

Horace Darwin‘.

Horace’s obvious attachment to and respect for his father is to a large extent explained in this extract from The Darwin Correspondence Project: Darwin and Fatherhood (University of Cambridge):

‘The close relationships that developed with many of his adult children were highly prized by Darwin. So, how exceptional was Darwin as a father? In most respects the concerns and beliefs that Darwin expressed about fatherhood were ones that were very typical of men from similar backgrounds in the mid-Victorian period. He frequently discussed his own, and other people’s, children in letters to friends and relatives. He sought to ensure that his children would be successful when measured according to conventional norms of professional middle-class behaviour. The importance that Darwin attached to his paternal responsibilities and the enjoyment that he gained from his relationships with each of his sons and daughters were typical. However, the characteristic that made Darwin unusual when compared to his neighbours and friends was the nature of his work. As a gentleman scientist who worked from home and was frequently not well enough to go to public events, his life was centred on his home and family to an exceptional extent. His wife, children and servants thus contributed to his research and writing, and the practical and intellectual consequences of his scientific work were central to the relationships that he formed with his children….’

Provenance: Autograph album compiled by Jane Emma Murphy (Balcombe) (1854–1924), “The Briars,” Mornington, Victoria (Australia); à Beckett family, Melbourne (by descent).