page_title: William Jackson Hooker
section_title: Career at Kew
hierarchical_section_title: William Jackson Hooker / Biography / Career at Kew
caption_attribution_description: English: Kew Gardens Palm House - Tallis's Illustrated London, volume 2
context_page_description: Sir William Jackson Hooker KH FRS FRSE FLS was an English botanist and botanical illustrator. The standard author abbreviation Hook. is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.
  Born and educated in Norwich, an inheritance gave him the means to travel and to devote himself to the study of natural history, particularly botany. He published his account of an expedition to Iceland in 1809, but only after his notes and specimens were destroyed during his voyage home. He married Maria, the eldest daughter of the Norfolk banker Dawson Turner, in 1815, afterwards living in Halesworth for eleven years, where he established a herbarium that was renowned amongst botanists at the time.
  He held the post of Regius Professor of Botany at Glasgow University, where he worked with the botanist and lithographer Thomas Hopkirk. Hooker enjoyed the friendship and support of Sir Joseph Banks for his exploring, collecting and organising work. in 1841 he succeeded William Townsend Aiton as Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
context_section_description: In 1841 he was appointed Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, on the resignation of William Townsend Aiton. Following his appointment as director, he wrote "I feel as if I were to begin life over again", in a letter to Dawson Turner. He started on an annual salary of £300, with an additional allowance of £200. According to the author Mea Allan, who described Hooker as a man with "drive, enthusiasm and creative ability", he was eminently suited for the post, being a professional botanist, an artist, a leader with connections to others in the botanical world, who was knowledgeable about plants from Britain and those collected from around the world.
  Under his direction, the gardens expanded considerably in size. Initially about 10 acres (4.0 ha) in size, they were extended to 15 acres (6.1 ha) in 1841. During his directorship, an arboretum of 270 acres (1.1 km²) was introduced, many new glass-houses were erected, and a museum of economic botany was established. The gardens and glasshouses were opened daily to the visiting public, who were allowed to wander freely there for the first time. Sir William himself wandered around during opening hours, lending his advice.
  Hooker lived with his family at West Park, a large house in which he accommodated 13 rooms of books in his library, which was seen as a public institution by the world's botanical experts, who were never turned away.
  In 1843 the Palm House was constructed at Kew
  .
caption: The Kew Gardens Palm House, from Tallis's Illustrated London (1851)
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