Darwin Correspondence Project

The letter texts, and the contextual notes which help make them accessible, are taken from the first thirteen volumes of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin (Burkhardt et al., Cambridge University Press 1985-).Letters from later volumes will be added on a rolling programme following behind publication of the print edition. Volumes 14 (1866) and 15 (1867) are already published and Volume 16 will be published in 2008.

The database also includes summaries of a further 9,000 letters still to be published.There will be 30 volumes of the print edition in total.Previously unknown letters continue to come to light.

Darwin’s letters are a rich source of information on many aspects of 19^th century science and history; they are also very readable, and we hope they will be used and enjoyed by a wide audience.

Find out more about the letters and Darwin’s correspondents here

Also on the site:

The introductions to the print volumes provide a detailed narrative of Charles Darwin’s life from childhood to the mid 1860s, covering schooldays in Shrewsbury, student life in Edinburgh and Cambridge, the years spent on board HMS Beagle, the establishment of his scientific reputation, his marriage, family life, and the work that led up to the publication of his first two major works, Origin of species, and Variation under domestication.

Find out more about the volumes and read the introductions here

The site also contains, for the first time, additional resources which will explore not only Darwin’s own life and work, but also those of his many correspondents.

The first new major content area to go online is on Darwin and design in nature. Find out more here

Acknowledgments:

We are grateful to the staff of Cambridge University’s Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies (CARET) for the technical development of the current site, and to Martin Oldfield, without whose technical expertise over several years the Online Database could not exist.

All the current and former staff of the Darwin Correspondence Project have contributed to the creation of this resource.

We are grateful to the members of the extended Darwin family for making Darwin’s manuscripts and books available to us, and giving permission for publication.

We are also grateful to Cambridge University Press for their continuing commitment to the print edition of the Correspondence, and for their generous permission to make the letters and notes freely available online.

The cartoons and line drawings on the site are by Tom Morgan Jones and are in copyright to the Darwin Correspondence Project, University of Cambridge.

The bulk of the material from our old website has been recategorised for the new site to make it easier to find. The database has been given a new interface, and we are in the process of creating additional resources to make the website more useful and user-friendly.If you have any comments about the new layout, please contact us.