Description
Autograph Letter Signed ‘J.W.Hulke’, to Mr. Cooke [probably Edward Cooke, the marine painter], hoping Cooke can visit, explaining that Hulke will be “away early in the morning at my Eye Hospital”. 2 pp. 7 x 4 inches, fine. 10 Old Burlington Street, 4 April 1879. John Whitaker Hulke (1830-1895), early pioneer of vertebrate palaeontology. At various times he was President of the Geological Society, President of the Royal College of Surgeons, President of the Clinical Society and President of the Pathological Society. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society and Consulting Surgeon at Moorfields Eye Hospital. His initial research into dinosaurs was based around specimens collected by Mr Mansel Pleydell of Blandford in Dorset. He devoted his spare time to geology and especially to the fossil reptilia, describing many remains of dinosaurs from the Isle of Wight.