Travel album of Joseph Dalton Hooker, 1867-1873, with sketches, watercolors, and 17 of some of the earliest photographs of Morocco

Folio album, with sketches, watercolors, and photographs by Joseph Dalton Hooker, 1867-1873, with a total of 51 pieces on paper mounts, sheet size 14" x 10", including 17 captioned photographs of Morocco, taken during his 1871 visit to North Africa.

Joseph Dalton Hooker is best known for his role as the Director of Kew Gardends, and as Charles Darwin's closest friend and confidant. During his lifetime, he was a noted botanist, naturalist, and explorer, having traveled to the Antarctic with the Ross Expedition from 1839-1843, and in the Himalayas from 1847-1851. Along with these lengthier trips, he made a number of shorter excursions, with those made from 1867-1873 represented here, most notably his trip to Morocco in the company of John Ball, where they were among the first Europeans to explore the Atlas Mountains. (The Hooker family copy of this book, Journal of a Tour in Marocco and the Great Atlas, is included with the lot). The album also contains sketches from a number of other short excursions taken in Europe, including Eifel, Puy de Sancy, and around Silsersee.

The portion devoted to Morocco contains one folding, full page watercolor of the Kutubiyya Mosque of Marrakesh, with the note that it was sketched from window of the apartment owned by Moses Montefiore; a watercolor of the Atlas Mountains; 2 large, full page pencil sketches, and three smaller sketches accomplished in ink and in pencil; and 17 gelatin photographs, 7" x 4.5", taken during the course of their trip, all with Hooker's hand-captions.

Apparently unpublished and unknown to scholars, this collection of photos is one of the earliest archives of photography taken in Morocco. The Maison de la Photographie de Marrakech, holder of the largest public collection of Moroccan photography, begins their collection in 1870. Sites include the Kasbah, Ben Salah, Sidi Bel Abbes, and Kutubiyya Mosques of Marrakesh, as well the Bab Doukkala gate, along with Zaouiet Ben Sassi, multiple views of Ourika around the Atlas Mountains, and the Hassan Tower in Rabat, among others. The focus of the photographs is architectural, with it is clear that Hooker was fascinated by the Almohad architecture.

Aside from the items related to the Moroccan journey, there are 6 sketches from around Silsersee, Switzerland, from 1867 (two of which have incomplete botanical sketches to reverse); 8 sketches from travels around the Eifel mountain range in 1870, along with two sheets related to Hooker's itinerary; and 11 large sketches of from a trip around Puy de Sancy, France, in 1873.

All items are mounted to the album pages, with the exception of a single large sheet pencil sketch of Morocco. Some staining to boards. Photographs slightly foxed and faded.

This album had remained in the Hooker family by descent until earlier this year.