Marian Osgood Hooker, (1875-1968)

Marian Osgood Hooker was born in San Francisco in 1875 to parents with impressive lineage. Her mother, Katharine Putnam Hooker, was the niece of famous geologist Josiah Dwight Whitney, and her father, John Daggett Hooker, was a direct descendent of Connecticut’s founder Thomas Hooker. The family, which also included Marian’s older brother Laurence Whitney Hooker (1873-1894), moved to Los Angeles in 1886 in search of economic opportunity. In Los Angeles, which experienced boom times during the later half of the 19thcentury, John Hooker established a successful steel pipe manufacturer. They moved to a mansion on Adams Street, where they entertained scientists, poets, and authors. During this time, John Muir frequented the house and became a close friend of Katharine Hooker.

Marian, surrounded by intellectuals in her childhood home, developed a love of art and science. At the prestigious Marlborough School in Los Angeles, she studied art history under school founder Mary Caswell, who likely inspired Marian to travel abroad. In 1896, two years after graduation, Marian and her mother embarked on their first of five trips abroad. She meticulously documented her travels in Gibraltar, Spain, Tangier, Italy, Greece, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Amsterdam, and England in a scrapbook. In 1899 and 1903, she and Katharine returned to Italy. In 1913-1914, they travelled to Constantinople, England, Ireland, Egypt, and Italy. In 1922, they made their final trip abroad to the southern Italian province of Apulia.

Marian’s photographs from these adventures demonstrate her particular fascination with remote destinations. She and her mother sought to capture in image and writing the daily lives of the people they encountered. Marian’s prints and illustrations were published in her mother’s travel books Byways in Southern Tuscany, Wayfarers in Italy, and Through the Heel of Italy, which were unique for veering away from typical tourist locations. In 1925, Marian published her own book of images called Farmhouses and Small Provincial Buildings in Southern Italy, which included introductions by Katharine and architect Myron Hunt. Hunt credited Farmhouses for inspiring some of his Mediterranean-style architecture.

In 1910, Marian earned a degree in medicine from the University of California, Berkeley. She co-authored several scientific papers with Dr. Martin Fischer during her stay at the University of Cincinnati and in later years. In 1912, she returned to the west coast to become Assistant Medical Examiner at the University of California.

After her father’s death in 1911, Marian and her mother moved to a house designed by Willis Polk and Bruce Porter in San Francisco. They moved again in 1924 to Santa Barbara, where Katharine died in 1935. In addition to their adventures abroad, Katharine and Marian visited Death Valley and travelled throughout California and Canada.

Marian was a member of the San Francisco Women’s Club, the San Francisco Women’s Athletic Club, the Women’s Club of Santa Barbara, the Sierra Club, the California Historical Society, and others. She died in 1968.

Sources: Watts, Jennifer A. “Wayfarer In Italy: The Photography of Marian Osgood Hooker.” Southern California Quarterly, Vol. 85 No 1, Spring 2003: 83-100. Reprint. (accessed July 13, 2015)