| Administrative History | Dr David Walker was ship's surgeon and naturalist on board the yacht, 'Fox', during Francis McLintock's relief expedition for Sir John Franklin's British Naval Northwest Passage Expedition, 1857 - 1859. The arctic plant specimens collected by Walker during this trip were published by Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817–1911) as 'An account of the plants collected by Dr. Walker in Greenland and Artic [sic] America during the expedition of Sir Francis M'Clintock' in the 'Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society. Botany' , 5 (1861). A year later he published his important paper on 'Outlines of the Distribution of Arctic Plants’, in the Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, vol. 23 (1862), pp. 251–348.
Franklin's ill-fated expedition had left Britain in May 1845, but it was not until McClintock's relief expedition of 1857 - 1859 that its unsuccessful conclusion and Franklin's death in 1847, were finally confirmed. For further details of McClintock's expedition see the web site of the Scott Polar Research Institute (http://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/library/archives/). |
| Custodial History | This volume was once part of the library of Alexander Thomson (1792 - 1868) of Banchory-Devenick, antiquarian and graduate of Marischal College (MA 1816, LLD 1855), whose library and museum were bequeathed to the University.
It was previously in the custody of Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817–1911), botanist, biogeographer and traveller. |
| Description | Indexed volume of pressed plant specimens collected by Dr David Walker, ship's surgeon and naturalist on board the yacht Fox, during Francis McLintock's relief expedition for Sir John Franklin, 1857 - 1859.
The volume contains 52 named specimens, with details of where they were found (Port Kennedy, Pond's Bay, Frederikshaaf, Fiskenaer) and by whom (principally, Dr Walker, Fox). |