Darwin Correspondence Project

Meet the correspondents

COBBE-F-P-01-00984.jpg http://wellcomeimages.org/ Frances Power Cobbe, Fom: Life of Frances Power Cobbe by Herself, Published: 1894 L0010481 Wellcome Library, London CC BY 4.0 Frances Power Cobbe	Isitt.jpg Virginia Isitt: Darwin’s secretary?	COAN-T-01-07505.jpg https://archive.org/details/tituscoanmemoria01coan Titus Coan Image from archive.org. Digitised by The Library of Congress Titus Coan	JENYNS-L-01-02560.jpg Leonard Jenyns, aged 85 CUL Q479.c.8.8 Cambridge University Library Leonard Jenyns
BLACKWELL-A-L-B-01-00471.jpg https://archive.org/stream/historyofwomansu01stan#page/n465/mode/2up Antoinette Louisa Brown Blackwell Image from archive.org. Digitised by Wellesley College Library, Boston Library Consortium Antoinette Brown Blackwell	YARRELL-W-01-05275.jpg http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw194286/William-Yarrell? William Yarrell by Thomas Herbert Maguire, printed by M & N Hanhart lithograph, 1849, NPG D36232 mw194286 © National Portrait Gallery, London CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 William Yarrell	EVANS-M-A-01-01554.jpg http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw01624/George-Eliot-Mary-Ann-Cross-ne-Evans? George Eliot (Mary Ann Cross (née Evans)), replica by François D'Albert Durade, oil on canvas, 1849, NPG 1405 mw01624 © National Portrait Gallery, London CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)	GRAY-J-L-01-01960.jpg http://botlib.huh.harvard.edu/libraries/Gray_Bicent/gray_jane.htm Jane Loring Gray , 1886 Courtesy of the Gray Herbarium © Jane Gray

'I hear that Ladies think it delightful reading, but that it does not do to talk about it, which no doubt promotes the sale.' For the first time online you can now read the full texts of nearly 800 letters Darwin wrote and received during 1871, the year in which his controversial first public statement on human evolution was published. The extraordinary number of letters reflects the excitement the book – Descent of man and selection in relation to sex – caused. All 2500 copies of the first printing sold immediately, and 5000 more copies were published during the year.

http://wellcomeimages.org/

Frances Power Cobbe, Fom: Life of Frances Power Cobbe by Herself, Published: 1894

L0010481

Wellcome Library, London

CC BY 4.0

Darwin and vivisection

Darwin played an important role in the controversy over vivisection that broke out in late 1874. Public debate was sparked when the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals brought an unsuccessful prosecution against a French physiologist who had performed vivisection on dogs.

Thomas Henry Huxley, Vanity Fair, Jan 28th 1871

Cambridge University Library

British Association meeting 1860

Several letters refer to events at the British Association for the Advancement of Science held in Oxford, 26 June – 3 July 1860. Darwin had planned to attend the meeting but in the end was unable to. The most famous incident of the meeting was the verbal encounter between Samuel Wilberforce, bishop of Oxford, and Thomas Henry Huxley in a discussion of Darwin's theories. This account of the meeting has been drawn from the Athenæum, which provided the most complete contemporary report and which Darwin himself read.

William Winwood Reade

CUL Misc.7.91.18

Cambridge University Library

Darwin in letters, 1875: Pulling strings

‘I am getting sick of insectivorous plants’ Darwin confessed in January1875. He had worked on the subject intermittently since 1859, and had been steadily engaged on a book manuscript for nine months. January also saw the conclusion of a bitter dispute with the zoologist St George Jackson Mivart. In April and early May, Darwin was occupied with a heated debate over vivisection, and at the end of the year, he campaigned vigorously on behalf of a young zoologist, whose blackballing by the Linnean Society infuriated him: ‘I have not felt so angry for years.’

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Read and search the full texts of more than 8,500 of Charles Darwin’s letters, and ﬁnd information on 6,500 more. Discover complete transcripts of all known letters Darwin wrote and received up to the year 1871.

Darwin for Schools

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

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

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

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

Evolution