To Asa Gray 3 April [1860]
Summary
Thinks AG’s review [of Origin] will aid much in making people think about subject.
Has been savagely and unfairly reviewed by Adam Sedgwick in the Spectator [24 Mar 1860],
but thinks F. J. Pictet’s review in opposition ["Sur l’origine de l’espèce", Arch. Sci. Phys. & Nat. n.s. 7 (1860): 231–55] a very fair one.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 3 Apr [1860] |
| Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (47) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2743 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … but thinks F. J. Pictet’s review in opposition ["Sur l’origine de l’espèce", Arch. Sci. …
- … had this effect & has greatly mollified opposition to my Book. — I agree largely to what …
To Asa Gray 19 October [1860]
Summary
Is thinking of publishing AG’s three-part Origin review [from Atlantic Monthly] in England.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 19 Oct [1860] |
| Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (32) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2955 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … s theory of natural selection, and in opposition to the Lamarckian notion of a monkey …
To Asa Gray 16 April [1866]
Summary
AG’s second article on Climbing plants [Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 41 (1866): 125–30].
Fritz Müller’s observations on Rubiaceae.
New edition [4th] of Origin.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 16 Apr [1866] |
| Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (96) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5057 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … McKitrick 1988 , p. 169. For CD’s opposition to slavery and his extensive correspondence …
To Asa Gray [after 15 March 1857]
Summary
Urges AG to generalise from his observations on the flora of the northern U. S.
Expected to find separation of sexes in trees because he believes all living beings require an occasional cross, and none is perpetually self-fertilising. The multitude of flowers of a tree would be an obstacle to cross-fertilisation unless the sexes tended to be separate.
The Leguminosae are CD’s greatest opposers; he cannot find that garden varieties ever cross. Could AG inquire of intelligent nurserymen on the subject?
Thanks AG for information on protean genera; much wants to know whether their great variability is due to their conditions of existence or is innate in them at all times and places.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | [after 15 Mar 1857] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (8) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2060 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … to make a very audacious remark in opposition to what I imagine Hooker has been writing & …
To Asa Gray 21 July [1861]
Summary
Is writing his paper on orchids.
Is surprised that AG gets little or no response with Drosera.
Describes the two forms of Primula and asks whether AG knows any analogous cases of dimorphism.
Reports that John Stuart Mill approves of CD’s scientific method.
Discusses American politics.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 21 July [1861] |
| Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (61) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3216 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … with the North owing to his extreme opposition to the institution of slavery ( DNB ). See …
To Asa Gray 19 April [1865]
Summary
Congratulates AG on the "grand news of Richmond".
Still interested in dimorphism and would welcome new cases.
Working on Variation
and correcting proofs of Climbing plants.
Would like seed of AG’s dimorphic Plantago.
Cannot understand how the wind could fertilise reciprocally dimorphic flowers.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 19 Apr [1865] |
| Classmark: | Gray Herbarium of Harvard University (77) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4467 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … about the American Civil War and his opposition to slavery, see the letter from Asa Gray, …
Origin
Summary
Darwin’s most famous work, Origin, had an inauspicious beginning. It grew out of his wish to establish priority for the species theory he had spent over twenty years researching. Darwin never intended to write Origin, and had resisted suggestions in 1856…
Matches: 2 hits
- … was able to tell Darwin ‘ you overrate the extent of my opposition to your method. My great desire …
- … claiming in his defence that he had become so used to ‘opposition & even contempt’ that he …
1879 Letters now online
Summary
In 1879, Darwin continued his research on movement in plants and researched, wrote, and published a short biography of his grandfather Erasmus Darwin as an introduction to a translation of an essay by Ernst Krause on Erasmus’s scientific work. Darwin’s son…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Henry Farrer, in October, after Farrer had given up his opposition to the match between his daughter …
From morphology to movement: observation and experiment
Summary
Darwin was a thoughtful observer of the natural world from an early age. Whether on a grand scale, as exemplified by his observations on geology, or a microscopic one, as shown by his early work on the eggs and larvae of tiny bryozoans, Darwin was…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Organismen . Morphology was conceived to a large extent in opposition to static Linnaean taxonomy, …
Photograph album of German and Austrian scientists
Summary
The album was sent to Darwin to mark his birthday on 12 February 1877 by the civil servant Emil Rade, and contained 165 portraits of German and Austrian scientists. The work was lavishly produced and bound in blue velvet with metal embossing. Its ornate…
Matches: 1 hits
- … that both you & your theories have outlived the fierce opposition that was made to them when …
Thomas Henry Huxley
Summary
Dubbed “Darwin’s bulldog” for his combative role in controversies over evolution, Huxley was a leading Victorian zoologist, science popularizer, and education reformer. He was born in Ealing, a small village west of London, in 1825. With only two years of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … to the Linnean Society in 1858. Despite his previous opposition to transmutation, and despite …
Dramatisation script
Summary
Re: Design – Adaptation of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin, Asa Gray and others… by Craig Baxter – as performed 25 March 2007
Matches: 3 hits
- … Now this leads me to make a very audacious remark in opposition to what I imagine Hooker has been …
- … Selection’ and provokes strong reactions in favour and in opposition. Gray and Hooker establish …
- … dear Gray…. Your article [on Origin] has greatly mollified opposition to my Book. GRAY: A …
Origin is 160; Darwin's 1875 letters now online
Summary
To mark the 160th anniversary of the publication of Origin of species, the full transcripts and footnotes of nearly 650 letters to and from Charles Darwin in 1875 are published online for the first time. You can read about Darwin's life in 1875…
Matches: 1 hits
- … a winter reading room for working men, despite Ffinden’s opposition, and that a temperance society …
Darwin in letters, 1863: Quarrels at home, honours abroad
Summary
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…
Matches: 2 hits
- … viper’, Darwin wrote a letter to the Athenæum in opposition to Owen’s review, in which he sought …
- … that Owen, a member of the council, had placed Sedgwick in opposition to him ( see letter to J. D. …
Darwin in letters, 1861: Gaining allies
Summary
The year 1861 marked an important change in the direction of Darwin’s work. He had weathered the storm that followed the publication of Origin, and felt cautiously optimistic about the ultimate acceptance of his ideas. The letters from this year provide an…
Matches: 2 hits
- … and the Scottish divine Gilbert Rorison published tracts in opposition to Darwin’s theory. …
- … than the younger generation. Even religiously motivated opposition to his views was dying down, in …
Darwin in letters, 1862: A multiplicity of experiments
Summary
1862 was a particularly productive year for Darwin. This was not only the case in his published output (two botanical papers and a book on the pollination mechanisms of orchids), but more particularly in the extent and breadth of the botanical experiments…
Matches: 2 hits
- … demonstrated that Orchids had ‘nearly overcome his opposition to the Origin ’ ( letter from …
- … of the council of the Geological Society, and there was opposition to its publication. Ramsay wanted …
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Summary
The 1400 letters exchanged between Darwin and Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817-1911) account for around 10% of Darwin’s surviving correspondence and provide a structure within which all the other letters can be explored. They are a connecting thread that spans…
Matches: 1 hits
- … ); Darwin’s views were chiefly coloured by his staunch opposition to slavery. The letter in …
Robert FitzRoy
Summary
Robert FitzRoy was captain of HMS Beagle when Darwin was aboard. From 1831 to 1836 the two men lived in the closest proximity, their relationship revealed by the letters they exchanged while Darwin left the ship to explore the countries visited during the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … unscientific. Others were dismayed by FitzRoy’s opposition to Darwin’s theory of evolution. In 1866, …
Darwin and religion in America
Summary
Thomas Dixon, 'America’s Difficulty with Darwin', History Today (2009), reproduced by permission. Darwin has not been forgotten. But he has, in some respects, been misremembered. That has certainly been true when it comes to the relationship…
Matches: 1 hits
- … to a deep cultural divide. The Court was acting in direct opposition to the wishes of that large …
Darwin in letters, 1864: Failing health
Summary
On receiving a photograph from Charles Darwin, the American botanist Asa Gray wrote on 11 July 1864: ‘the venerable beard gives the look of your having suffered, and … of having grown older’. Because of poor health, Because of poor health, Darwin…
Matches: 2 hits
- … was settled by a ‘splendid majority’, despite rumours of opposition that had caused some of Darwin’s …
- … Sabine’s power on the Council of the Royal Society and his opposition to Origin had already …
Darwin in letters, 1858-1859: Origin
Summary
The years 1858 and 1859 were, without doubt, the most momentous of Darwin’s life. From a quiet rural existence filled with steady work on his ‘big book’ on species, he was jolted into action by the arrival of an unexpected letter from Alfred Russel Wallace…
Matches: 1 hits
- … and other collections of the museum and signed a memorial in opposition. Then, when he was convinced …
Darwin in letters, 1860: Answering critics
Summary
On 7 January 1860, John Murray published the second edition of Darwin’s Origin of species, printing off another 3000 copies to satisfy the demands of an audience that surprised both the publisher and the author. It wasn't long, however, before ‘the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Monthly . Although intended to counter the powerful opposition to Origin in America by Louis …
Darwin in letters, 1878: Movement and sleep
Summary
In 1878, Darwin devoted most of his attention to the movements of plants. He investigated the growth pattern of roots and shoots, studying the function of specific organs in this process. Working closely with his son Francis, Darwin devised a series of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … of evolution in schools. Haeckel’s speech provoked opposition from the eminent physician Rudolf …
St George Jackson Mivart
Summary
In the second half of 1874, Darwin’s peace was disturbed by an anonymous article in the Quarterly Review suggesting that his son George was opposed to the institution of marriage and in favour of ‘unrestrained licentiousness’. Darwin suspected, correctly,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … his attempts to join the Athenaeum Club, probably because of opposition from Darwin’s supporters, …
Interview with John Hedley Brooke
Summary
John Hedley Brooke is President of the Science and Religion Forum as well as the author of the influential Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives (Cambridge University Press, 1991). He has had a long career in the history of science and…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Huxley refers to theology as a science, so despite his opposition to it? that use of language is …
Darwin in letters, 1867: A civilised dispute
Summary
Charles Darwin’s major achievement in 1867 was the completion of his large work, The variation of animals and plants under domestication (Variation). The importance of Darwin’s network of correspondents becomes vividly apparent in his work on expression in…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Ernst Haeckel, to moderate his public attacks on the opposition. Darwin’s German translator, Julius …
