Darwin Correspondence Project |

Meet the correspondents

MARTENS-C-01-03181.jpg Conrad Martens	HOOKER-J-D-01-02357.jpg Joseph Dalton Hooker	ROYER-C-A-01-04113.jpg Clémence Auguste Royer	MULLER-H-L-H-01-03069.jpg Hermann Müller
BEDDOE-J-01-00359.jpg John Beddoe	SEDGWICK-A-01-04276.jpg Adam Sedgwick	COBBE-F-P-01-00984.jpg Frances Power Cobbe	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.

Down House hothouse, engraving from Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, Jan. 1883

Q900:1.c.2.25

Cambridge University Library

Darwin in letters, 1863: Quarrels at home, honours abroad

At the start of 1863, Charles Darwin was actively working on the manuscript of The variation of animals and plants under domestication, anticipating with excitement the construction of a hothouse to accommodate his increasingly varied botanical experiments, and continuing a massive scientific correspondence. Six months later the volume of his correspondence dropped markedly, reflecting a decline in his already weak health. Although Darwin worried about the effect of the quarrels on public perceptions, his theory was gathering support in influential scientific circles. He struggled with leaf angles, fractions, diagrams, and shoot dissections.

William Bernhard Tegetmeier

CUL DAR 193: 22

Cambridge University Library

Darwin in letters, 1856-1857: the 'Big Book'

In May 1856, Darwin began writing up his 'species sketch’ in earnest. During this period, his working life was completely dominated by the preparation of his 'Big Book', which was to be called Natural selection. Using letters are the main source for much of his research he amassed data, carried out breeding experiments, and struggled with statistical analysis. Several of his experiments: seeds would not germinate; beans failed to cross; newly-hatched molluscs refused to do what he hoped. Most significant in terms of Darwin’s future, however, was the beginning of his correspondence with Alfred Russel Wallace.

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”.

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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-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
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
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
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
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 Correspondence Project

Meet the correspondents

MARTENS-C-01-03181.jpg

HOOKER-J-D-01-02357.jpg

ROYER-C-A-01-04113.jpg

MULLER-H-L-H-01-03069.jpg

BEDDOE-J-01-00359.jpg

SEDGWICK-A-01-04276.jpg

COBBE-F-P-01-00984.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

PR-Q-00900-00001-C-00002-000-00025_p423.jpg

Darwin in letters, 1863: Quarrels at home, honours abroad

TEGETMEIER-W-B-01-04682.jpg

Darwin in letters, 1856-1857: the 'Big Book'

DARWIN-C-R-03-00001.jpg

Darwin’s Photographic Portraits

Darwin for Schools

Darwin's letters: a timeline

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

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

Origin-Spines.jpg

Darwin-Religion.jpg

Darwin-Human-Nature.jpg

Darwin-Geology.jpg

MS-ADD-07984-000-00031.jpg

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Meet the correspondents

Darwin for Schools

Darwin's letters: a timeline