Darwin Correspondence Project |

Meet the correspondents

TREAT-M-L-A-01-04796.jpg http://www.vinelandhistory1864.org/ Mary Treat Courtesy of the Vineland Historical and Antiquarian Society © Mary Treat	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	NORTH-M-01-03557.jpg http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw122179/Marianne-North? Marianne North, 1880s, NPG x128767 mw122179 © National Portrait Gallery, London CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 Marianne North	BEDDOE-J-01-00359.jpg http://www.archive.org/stream/shortbiographies00brow#page/n31/mode/2up John Beddoe Image from archive.org. Digitised by Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center John Beddoe
RIVERS-T-01-04019.jpg http://www.rhso.co.uk/history.php Thomas Rivers, 1873 Courtesy of the Rivers Heritage Site and Orchard Thomas Rivers	Isitt.jpg Virginia Isitt: Darwin’s secretary?	LYELL-C-01-03051.jpg Charles Lyell, photograph by Ernest Edwards, 1863, From L. Reeve ed. 1863-6 CUL Ii.4.35 Cambridge University Library Charles Lyell	CRICHTON-BROWNE-J-01-00677.jpg http://wellcomeimages.org/ Sir James Crichton Browne, Photograph, ICV No 29012 V0028544 Wellcome Library, London CC BY 4.0 James Crichton-Browne

Timeline 1851.jpeg

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.

Volume 24 (1876) now available

Birth, tragic death . . . and cardigan jackets. Volume 24 of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin is now available. Read more about Darwin's life in 1876 here.

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.’

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.

http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-07984/35

The volcano of Mt Osorno, Chile, from a contemporary sketch by the Beagle’s artist, Conrad Martens

CUL Add. 7984

Cambridge University Library

Darwin’s earthquakes

Darwin experienced his first earthquake in 1834, but it was a few months later that he was really confronted with their power. Travelling north along the coast of Chile, Darwin and Robert FitzRoy, captain of HMS Beagle, were confronted with a series of violent natural events that they were perfectly placed to study.

Tweets by @MyDearDarwin

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 1872.

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-Geology.jpg

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

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

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

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Darwin Correspondence Project

Meet the correspondents

TREAT-M-L-A-01-04796.jpg

BLACKWELL-A-L-B-01-00471.jpg

NORTH-M-01-03557.jpg

BEDDOE-J-01-00359.jpg

RIVERS-T-01-04019.jpg

Isitt.jpg

LYELL-C-01-03051.jpg

CRICHTON-BROWNE-J-01-00677.jpg

Timeline 1851.jpeg

New features for Charles Darwin's 208th birthday

DCP-Vols3.jpg

Volume 24 (1876) now available

READE-W-W-01-03950.jpg

Darwin in letters, 1875: Pulling strings

MS-DAR-00048-000-00187.jpg

The writing of "Origin"

MS-ADD-07984-000-00035.jpg

Darwin’s earthquakes

Darwin for Schools

Darwin's letters: a timeline

Darwin-Geology.jpg

Darwin-Human-Nature.jpg

Darwin-Religion.jpg

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

Origin-Spines.jpg

MS-ADD-07984-000-00031.jpg

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

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Meet the correspondents

Darwin for Schools

Darwin's letters: a timeline