Darwin Correspondence Project |

Meet the correspondents

TREAT-M-L-A-01-04796.jpg Mary Treat	york_minster_1832.jpg York Minster (Elleparu)	fuegia_basket_1833.jpg Fuegia Basket (Yokcushlu)	john_maurice_herbert-1.jpg John Maurice Herbert
GRAY-A-01-01957.jpg Asa Gray	BUSK-G-01-00760.jpg George Busk	LYELL-C-01-03051.jpg Charles Lyell	jemmy_button_1833.jpg Jemmy Button (Orundellico)

German and Dutch photograph albums

Darwin Day 2018: To celebrate Darwin's 209th birthday, we present two lavishly produced albums of portrait photographs which Darwin received from continental admirers 141 years ago. These unusual gifts from Germany and the Netherlands are made available online for the first time through a collaboration with English Heritage and Cambridge University Digital Library.

http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/56605#page/26/mode/1up

Drosera rotundiflora, figures 4 & 5 from Insectivorous Plants

Image from the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Digitised by Princeton Theological Seminary Library (archive.org)

All Darwin's letters from 1873 go online for the anniversary of Origin

To celebrate the 158th anniversary of the publication of Origin of species on 24 November, the full transcripts and footnotes of over 500 letters from and to Charles Darwin in 1873 are now available online. Read about Darwin's life in 1873 through his letters, or see a full list of his 1873 letters. We have also added a page debunking some common myths and misconceptions about Darwin's life and work, where you can find out that Darwin did not introduce the term 'survival of the fittest' and he was not a stuffy father or an atheist.

Volume 25 (1877) now available

Flowers, bloom, a son married . . . and a suspended monkey in Cambridge at Darwin's honorary LLD ceremony. Volume 25 of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin is now available. Read more about Darwin's life in 1877 here.

https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letters/darwins-letters-timeline

New features for Charles Darwin's 208th birthday

The website has been updated with an interactive timeline (try it!) and enhanced secondary school resources for ages 11-14. What's more, the full texts of the letters for 1872 are now online for the first time, and a selection of Darwin's correspondence with women has been published in print.

http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-07984/35

The volcano of Mt Osorno, Chile, from a contemporary sketch by the Beagle’s artist, Conrad Martens

CUL Add. 7984

Cambridge University Library

Darwin’s earthquakes

Darwin experienced his first earthquake in 1834, but it was a few months later that he was really confronted with their power. Travelling north along the coast of Chile, Darwin and Robert FitzRoy, captain of HMS Beagle, were confronted with a series of violent natural events that they were perfectly placed to study.

http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-DAR-00048/187

Part of a letter from W. H. Miller to Darwin exploring the geometrical architecture of honey-combs

CUL DAR 48: B1bbr

Cambridge University Library

The writing of "Origin"

From a quiet rural existence at Down in Kent, filled with steady work on his ‘big book’ on the transmutation of species, Darwin was jolted into action in 1858 by the arrival of an unexpected letter (no longer extant) from Alfred Russel Wallace outlining a remarkably similar mechanism for species change. This letter led to the first announcement of Darwin’s and Wallace’s respective theories of organic change at the Linnean Society of London in July 1858 and prompted the composition and publication, in November 1859, of Darwin’s major treatise On the origin of species by means of natural selection.

Charles Darwin on his horse, Tommy

CUL DAR 225: 116

Cambridge University Library

Darwin’s Photographic Portraits

Darwin was a photography enthusiast. This is evident not only in his use of photography for the study of Expression and Emotions in Man and Animal, but can be witnessed in his many photographic portraits and in the extensive portrait correspondence that Darwin undertook throughout his lifetime. His close friend and botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker would come to call Darwin’s epistolary exchange of photographic images as his “carte correspondence”.

Tweets by @MyDearDarwin

Read and search the full texts of more than 9,000 of Charles Darwin’s letters, and ﬁnd information on 6,000 more. Discover complete transcripts of all known letters Darwin wrote and received up to the year 1873.

Darwin for Schools

Discover our new and improved schools resources for 11-14 year olds.

Visit the schools section

Darwin's letters: a timeline

Explore the letters to and from Charles Darwin over time

MS-DAR-00219-00012-000-00009.jpg

Some of the Darwin’s relaxing at Down House
CUL DAR 219.12: 9
Cambridge University Library

Home and family
Darwin-Geology.jpg

Some of Darwin's geological drawings
after CUL DAR 44: 13 & 33
Cambridge University Library

Geology
MS-ADD-07984-000-00031.jpg

http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-07984/31
The Adventure and Beagle at Point Punta Arenas and Isla de Cochinos, Chiloé, by Conrad Martens
CUL Add. 7984: 19
Cambridge University Library

Voyage of HMS Beagle
Darwin-Human-Nature.jpg

http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-DAR-00053-00001
Darwin and human nature - Expression photos
after CUL DAR 53.1: C38r, C52r, C72r & C74r
Cambridge University Library

Human nature
Origin-Spines.jpg

http://wellcomeimages.org/
6 editions of 'The Origin of Species' by Charles Darwin
L0051092
Wellcome Library, London
CC BY 4.0

Origin
MS-DAR-00121-000-p36-Tree-of-Life.jpg

Darwin's Tree of Life sketch from his “B” notebook on Transmutation of Species
CUL DAR 121, page 36
Cambridge University Library

Evolution

Darwin Correspondence Project

Meet the correspondents

TREAT-M-L-A-01-04796.jpg

york_minster_1832.jpg

fuegia_basket_1833.jpg

john_maurice_herbert-1.jpg

GRAY-A-01-01957.jpg

BUSK-G-01-00760.jpg

LYELL-C-01-03051.jpg

jemmy_button_1833.jpg

German and Dutch photograph albums

Drosera-rotundiflora.jpg

All Darwin's letters from 1873 go online for the anniversary of Origin

Volume 25_Jacket.gif

Volume 25 (1877) now available

Timeline 1851.jpeg

New features for Charles Darwin's 208th birthday

MS-ADD-07984-000-00035.jpg

Darwin’s earthquakes

MS-DAR-00048-000-00187.jpg

The writing of "Origin"

DARWIN-C-R-03-00001.jpg

Darwin’s Photographic Portraits

Darwin for Schools

Darwin's letters: a timeline

MS-DAR-00219-00012-000-00009.jpg

Darwin-Religion.jpg

Darwin-Geology.jpg

MS-ADD-07984-000-00031.jpg

Darwin-Human-Nature.jpg

Origin-Spines.jpg

MS-DAR-00121-000-p36-Tree-of-Life.jpg

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Meet the correspondents

Darwin for Schools

Darwin's letters: a timeline