Joseph Dalton Hooker was one of Victorian Britain’s most important men of science. A botanical emperor and tireless traveller, this new exhibition at The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art, ‘Joseph Hooker: Putting plants in their place’, charts his incredible life and celebrates the years of hard work that earned him the title ‘the king of Kew’ from Dr Jim Endersby, University of Sussex*. Visitors will move through a series of delicate yet vibrant drawings, paintings and prints from his travels, alongside portraits, photographs, journals and even artefacts belonging to Hooker himself. Along the way they will discover how Hooker collected plants from all over the world, classifying them, discovering the laws that governed their distribution, and creating a place for botany alongside high status sciences, such as physics. With his father, William – the first official Director of Kew, Hooker also helped
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