Darwin Correspondence Project

We’re trying to find this correspondent – are you able to help?   The letter was written to Charles Darwin on 9 March 1875 from 81 Upper Leeson Street, Dublin. The correspondent says that they have just finished reading Descent. They write about their personal experience of pain, living in the country, collecting insects, a [...]

Early October inevitably brings signs of autumn to Cambridge: chilled breezes, colourful leaves, and wide-eyed Freshers wandering through town and library full of fear and anticipation for their university career. Clearly, the university experience has changed dramatically in the last two hundred years, but some student concerns remain the same – where to live, whom [...]

To conclude the Darwin & Gender research project a short film has been produced. In the film Dr Philippa Hardman presents the project’s findings saying: “Darwin was no feminist, but our research has shown that his views on gender were a lot more complex than has been acknowledged in the past.”   As a man [...]

In 1874, when Darwin was preparing the second edition of Descent of Man, he received letters from all over the world in reply to his queries about human behaviour; one in particular would have stirred up unexpected memories of his own time among the native peoples of South America.  Titus Munson Coan, an American doctor, [...]

Having successfully completed two research projects this summer – Darwin & Human Nature, and Darwin & Gender – we are making some changes to our blog and twitter feeds. So much that is intriguing, quirky, or topical in Darwin’s letters just gets passed around the table here at teatime and never makes it into our [...]