From Benjamin Silliman 7 April 1840
Summary
Thanks CD for a copy of his Journal of researches which is "not second in interest and instruction to any work of the kind I have ever read".
| Author: | Benjamin Silliman, Sr |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 7 Apr 1840 |
| Classmark: | DAR 204: 184 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-565 |
From W. C. Redfield 6 May 1840
Summary
Thanks CD for information about Captain Tillard’s account of the volcanic eruption in the Azores in 1811.
| Author: | William C. Redfield |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 6 May 1840 |
| Classmark: | Yale University: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (William C. Redfield’s outbound letter book 1835–41 (z117 00151 2), pp. 179–80) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-565H |
To Robert FitzRoy [20 February 1840]
Summary
Poor health has made him give up all geological work.
Profits on their volumes [of Narrative] seem absurdly small.
Looks back on Beagle voyage as the most fortunate circumstance in his life.
Finds marriage a great happiness.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Robert FitzRoy |
| Date: | [20 Feb 1840] |
| Classmark: | DAR 144: 117 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-555 |
To Benjamin Silliman 26 February 1840
Summary
Asks that a letter on tornados be forwarded to W. C. Redfield. Hopes Silliman received a copy of Journal of Researches.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Benjamin Silliman, Sr |
| Date: | 26 Feb 1840 |
| Classmark: | Gallery of History (dealers) (4 December 1996) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-557F |
From J. G. Malcolmson 2 January 1840
Summary
Discusses CD’s Glen Roy paper; would like to see the theory put beyond dispute. Tells of Mr Stables’ observations on the parallel roads. Discusses geological features of Scotland which he is sure are marine in origin.
| Author: | John Grant Malcolmson |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 2 Jan 1840 |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 31; Geological Society of London (Membership certificates, 1840) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1147 |
From David Milne 28 March 1840
Summary
Comments on CD’s paper on South American volcanoes [Trans. of the Geol. Soc. of London, 2d ser., pt 3, 5 (1840): 601–31]. Jets of steam or flame issuing from the side of a hill in Glen Almond.
| Author: | David Milne Home |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 28 Mar 1840 |
| Classmark: | Milne Home 1891, pp. 69–72 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-562F |
To Basil Hall 15 March 1840
Summary
Discussion of the geology of Coquimbo, Chile.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Basil Hall |
| Date: | 15 Mar 1840 |
| Classmark: | Musée royal de Mariemont, Belgium (Aut. 1061/1) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-558F |
To T. C. Eyton [6 January 1840]
Summary
Has been unwell.
Thanks TCE for his descriptions [of specimens for Birds]. Has already expended a high proportion of Government grant on birds, but if TCE thinks engravings are needed, he shall have them. He may keep the bones.
CD has become a father.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Campbell Eyton |
| Date: | [6 Jan 1840] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.20) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-549 |
To William Buckland [November 1840 – 17 February 1841]
Summary
He encloses an unidentified paper received from R. I. Murchison the previous day.
Is unable to provide information about Dr Du Gard.
Appreciates the maps of Glen Roy sent by WB. Would welcome the opinions of WB and Louis Agassiz concerning the parallel roads but cannot give up the idea of their marine origin.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Buckland |
| Date: | [Nov 1840 – 17 Feb 1841] |
| Classmark: | Oxford University Museum of Natural History (Buckland papers, Glaciation /4 (iv)) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-641A |
To David Milne 20 [February 1840]
Summary
About earthquakes: the shock of February 1835 in Chile; possible connection between shocks occurring coincidentally in different parts of the world, and between earthquakes and the weather; DM’s collection of accounts of earthquakes in Scotland.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | David Milne Home |
| Date: | 20 [Feb 1840] |
| Classmark: | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Rare Book and Manuscript Library (Charles E. Mudie Collection, 1816–1897: Correspondence Post-1650 MS 0112) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-560 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter. It is concerned with the relation between weather and earthquakes. No mention is made of South American earthquakes and Kamchatka. However, CD may have been referring to an article in Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal where Carl Gustav Christoph Bischof refers to simultaneous shocks felt at Ochotsk in Kamchatka and at Bogota (see Bischof 1839 , …
From Charles Maclaren to Thomas Walker 30 March 1840
Summary
CD has asked CM whether he can supply William Kemp’s address, and CM passes the enquiry to TW.
| Author: | Charles Maclaren |
| Addressee: | Thomas Walker |
| Date: | 30 Mar 1840 |
| Classmark: | Cambridge University Library (MS Add. 10252/1) (gift of Ruth Cramond and David Cramond) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-562G |
| letter | (11) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (6) |
| Maclaren, Charles | (1) |
| Malcolmson, J. G. | (1) |
| Milne Home, David | (1) |
| Redfield, W. C. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (4) |
| Buckland, William | (1) |
| Eyton, T. C. | (1) |
| FitzRoy, Robert | (1) |
| Hall, Basil | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (10) |
| Milne Home, David | (2) |
| Silliman, Benjamin, Sr | (2) |
| Buckland, William | (1) |
| Eyton, T. C. | (1) |
Darwin’s reading notebooks
Summary
In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to read in Notebook C (Notebooks, pp. 319–28). In 1839, these lists were copied and continued in separate notebooks. The first of these reading notebooks (DAR 119…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to …
Darwin in letters, 1837–1843: The London years to 'natural selection'
Summary
The seven-year period following Darwin's return to England from the Beagle voyage was one of extraordinary activity and productivity in which he became recognised as a naturalist of outstanding ability, as an author and editor, and as a professional…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The seven-year period following Darwin's return to England from the Beagle voyage was one of …
Science: A Man’s World?
Summary
Discussion Questions|Letters Darwin's correspondence show that many nineteenth-century women participated in the world of science, be it as experimenters, observers, editors, critics, producers, or consumers. Despite this, much of the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Discussion Questions | Letters Darwin's correspondence show that many nineteenth …
1.2 George Richmond, marriage portrait
Summary
< Back to Introduction Few likenesses of Darwin in his youth survive, although more may once have existed. In a letter of 1873 an old Shrewsbury friend, Arthur Mostyn Owen, offered to send Darwin a watercolour sketch of him, painted many years…
Matches: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction Few likenesses of Darwin in his youth survive, although more …
Natural Science and Femininity
Summary
Discussion Questions|Letters A conflation of masculine intellect and feminine thoughts, habits and feelings, male naturalists like Darwin inhabited an uncertain gendered identity. Working from the private domestic comfort of their homes and exercising…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Discussion Questions | Letters A conflation of masculine intellect and feminine …
Darwin’s observations on his children
Summary
Charles Darwin’s observations on the development of his children, began the research that culminated in his book The Expression of the emotions in man and animals, published in 1872, and his article ‘A biographical sketch of an infant’, published in Mind…
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- … Charles Darwin’s observations on the development of his children,[1] began the research that …
Religion
Summary
Design|Personal Belief|Beauty|The Church Perhaps the most notorious realm of controversy over evolution in Darwin's day was religion. The same can be said of the evolution controversy today; however the nature of the disputes and the manner in…
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- … Design | Personal Belief | Beauty | The Church Perhaps the most notorious …
The evolution of honeycomb
Summary
Honeycombs are natural engineering marvels, using the least possible amount of wax to provide the greatest amount of storage space, with the greatest possible structural stability. Darwin recognised that explaining the evolution of the honey-bee’s comb…
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- … Honey-bees construct wax combs inside their nests. The combs are made of hexagonal prisms – cells …
Introduction to the Satire of FitzRoy's Narrative of the Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle
Summary
'a humble toadyish follower…': Not all pictures of Darwin during the Beagle voyage are flattering. Published here for the first time is a complete transcript of a satirical account of the Beagle’s brief visit in 1836 to the Cocos Keeling islands…
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- … I naturally wished to have a savant at my elbow – in the position of a humble toadyish …
Syms Covington
Summary
When Charles Darwin embarked on the Beagle voyage in 1831, Syms Covington was ‘fiddler & boy to Poop-cabin’. Covington kept an illustrated journal of his observations and experiences on the voyage, noting wildlife, landscapes, buildings and people and,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … When Charles Darwin embarked on the Beagle voyage in 1831, Syms Covington was ‘ fiddler & boy …
Journal of researches
Summary
Within two months of the Beagle’s arrival back in England in October 1836, Darwin, although busy with distributing his specimens among specialists for description, and more interested in working on his geological research, turned his mind to the task of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The Journal of researches , Darwin’s account of his travels round the world in H.M.S. Beagle …
George James Stebbing
Summary
George James Stebbing (1803—1860) travelled around the world with Charles Darwin on board HMS Beagle and helped him with measuring temperature on at least one occasion. However, Stebbing barely registers in Darwin’s correspondence. The only mention omits…
Matches: 1 hits
- … George James Stebbing (1803—1860) travelled around the world with Charles Darwin on board HMS …
Bibliography of Darwin’s geological publications
Summary
This list includes papers read by Darwin to the Geological Society of London, his books on the geology of the Beagle voyage, and other publications on geological topics. Author-date citations refer to entries in the Darwin Correspondence Project’s…
Matches: 1 hits
- … This list includes papers read by Darwin to the Geological Society of London, his books on the …
Darwin in letters, 1821-1836: Childhood to the Beagle voyage
Summary
Darwin's first known letters were written when he was twelve. They continue through school-days at Shrewsbury, two years as a medical student at Edinburgh University, the undergraduate years at Cambridge, and the of the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle.…
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- … Darwin's first known letters were written when he was twelve. They continue through his school …
Experimenting with emotions
Summary
Darwin’s interest in emotions can be traced as far back as the Beagle voyage. He was fascinated by the sounds and gestures of the peoples of Tierra del Fuego. On his return, he started recording observations in a set of notebooks, later labelled '…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin’s interest in emotions can be traced as far back as the Beagle voyage. He was fascinated by …
Darwin's works in letters
Summary
For the 163rd anniversary of the publication of Origin, we've added a new page to our Works in letters section on Cross and self fertilisation. These complement our existing pages on the 'big book' before Origin, Origin itself, the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … … praise from men, like yourself, is the only, though quite sufficient, …
Orchids
Summary
Why Orchids? Darwin wrote in his Autobiography, ‘During the summer of 1839, and, I believe, during the previous summer, I was led to attend to the cross-fertilisation of flowers by the aid of insects, from having come to the conclusion in my…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Why Orchids? Darwin wrote in his Autobiography , ‘During the summer of 1839, and, I …
Darwin in letters, 1879: Tracing roots
Summary
Darwin spent a considerable part of 1879 in the eighteenth century. His journey back in time started when he decided to publish a biographical account of his grandfather Erasmus Darwin to accompany a translation of an essay on Erasmus’s evolutionary ideas…
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- … There are summaries of all Darwin's letters from the year 1879 on this website. The full texts of …
Darwin on marriage
Summary
On 11 November 1838 Darwin wrote in his journal ‘The day of days!’. He had proposed to his cousin, Emma Wedgwood, and been accepted; they were married on 29 January 1839. Darwin appears to have written these two notes weighing up the pros and cons of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … On 11 November 1838 Darwin wrote in his journal ‘The day of days!’. He had proposed to his cousin, …
Darwin and Fatherhood
Summary
Charles Darwin married Emma Wedgwood in 1839 and over the next seventeen years the couple had ten children. It is often assumed that Darwin was an exceptional Victorian father. But how extraordinary was he? The Correspondence Project allows an unusually…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Charles Darwin married Emma Wedgwood in 1839 and over the next seventeen years the couple had ten …
