Marian Osgood Hooker

In 1896, Hooker and her mother embarked on their first of five trips abroad. She documented her travels through Gibraltar, Madrid, Tangier, Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Amsterdam, and England in a scrapbook. She and Katharine returned to Italy in 1899 and again in 1903. In 1913–1914, they travelled to Constantinople, England, Ireland, Egypt, and Italy, and in 1922 they made their final trip abroad to the Italian province of Apulia. Hooker and her mother captured 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. 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. Hooker was most prolific while traveling Europe, but continued making photographs at home and while traveling the United States. In 1903, John Muir asked her to hike up Mount Whitney with him and small group, scaling the mountain named after her maternal great uncle and geologist Josiah Dwight Whitney.

There are two Marian Osgood Hooker Collections. One resides at San Diego State University and consists of two albums from 1894 to 1896 documenting Marian's early interest in photography while at the Marlborough School. The second is at the Environmental Design Archives and consists of 23 albums documenting her travels through Europe and California, as well as portraits, negatives, and a scrapbook. The Hooker Family Papers are at the Bancroft Library and contain correspondence between Marian and her mother, as well as other correspondence, family portraits, snapshots, and drawings.