Darwin Correspondence Project |

Meet the correspondents

syms_covington.jpg Syms Covington	RIVERS-T-01-04019.jpg Thomas Rivers	WALLACE-A-R-02-04935.jpg Alfred Russel Wallace	JENYNS-L-01-02560.jpg Leonard Jenyns
MULLER-J-F-T-01-03070.jpg Fritz Müller	HENSLOW-J-S-01-02235.jpg John Stevens Henslow	WATERHOUSE-G-R-01-04972.jpg George Robert Waterhouse	READE-W-W-01-03950.jpg William Winwood Reade

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-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.

[Right] Charles Lyell, photograph by Ernest Edwards, 1863, From L. Reeve ed. 1863-6 CUL Ii.4.35

[Left] John Lubbock © National Portrait Gallery, London CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

The Lyell–Lubbock dispute

In May 1865 a dispute arose between John Lubbock and Charles Lyell when Lubbock, in his book Prehistoric times, accused Lyell of plagiarism. The dispute caused great dismay among many of their mutual scientific friends, some of whom took immediate action to mediate a solution. Charles Darwin had close ties with both men and both sought his advice, but Darwin’s correspondence during this period reveals his reluctance to become directly involved in the dispute.

The evolution of honeycomb

Darwin recognised that explaining the evolution of the honey-bee’s comb-building abilities was essential if his theory of natural selection was to be taken seriously, and in the 1850s he carried out his own experiments at his home at Down House in Kent, and wrote many letters on the subject.

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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

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-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
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-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-Geology.jpg

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

Geology

Darwin Correspondence Project

Meet the correspondents

syms_covington.jpg

RIVERS-T-01-04019.jpg

WALLACE-A-R-02-04935.jpg

JENYNS-L-01-02560.jpg

MULLER-J-F-T-01-03070.jpg

HENSLOW-J-S-01-02235.jpg

WATERHOUSE-G-R-01-04972.jpg

READE-W-W-01-03950.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-DAR-00048-000-00187.jpg

The writing of "Origin"

Lyell Lubbock composite.jpg

The Lyell–Lubbock dispute

Bees-cells-image-1-300x225.jpg

The evolution of honeycomb

Darwin for Schools

Darwin's letters: a timeline

Darwin-Human-Nature.jpg

Origin-Spines.jpg

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

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

Darwin-Religion.jpg

MS-ADD-07984-000-00031.jpg

Darwin-Geology.jpg

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Meet the correspondents

Darwin for Schools

Darwin's letters: a timeline