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Meet the correspondents

HUMBOLDT-F-W-H-A-von-01-02443.jpg Alexander von Humboldt	MURRAY-J-01-03463.jpg John Murray	HUXLEY-H-A-01-02478.jpg Henrietta Huxley	STOKES-J-L-01-04574.jpg John Lort Stokes
GARRETT-ANDERSON-E-01-00104.jpg Elizabeth Garrett Anderson	FITZROY-R-01-05660.jpg Robert FitzRoy	WEDGWOOD-F-J-01-05011.jpg Julia Wedgwood	EVANS-M-A-01-01554.jpg George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)

German and Dutch photograph albums

Darwin Day 2018: To celebrate Darwin's 209th birthday, we present two lavishly produced albums of portrait photographs which Darwin received from continental admirers 141 years ago. These unusual gifts from Germany and the Netherlands are made available online for the first time through a collaboration with English Heritage and Cambridge University Digital Library.

http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/56605#page/26/mode/1up

Drosera rotundiflora, figures 4 & 5 from Insectivorous Plants

Image from the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Digitised by Princeton Theological Seminary Library (archive.org)

All Darwin's letters from 1873 go online for the anniversary of Origin

To celebrate the 158th anniversary of the publication of Origin of species on 24 November, the full transcripts and footnotes of over 500 letters from and to Charles Darwin in 1873 are now available online. Read about Darwin's life in 1873 through his letters, or see a full list of his 1873 letters. We have also added a page debunking some common myths and misconceptions about Darwin's life and work, where you can find out that Darwin did not introduce the term 'survival of the fittest' and he was not a stuffy father or an atheist.

Volume 25 (1877) now available

Flowers, bloom, a son married . . . and a suspended monkey in Cambridge at Darwin's honorary LLD ceremony. Volume 25 of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin is now available. Read more about Darwin's life in 1877 here.

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.

Darwin’s first note on marriage

CUL DAR 210.8: 1

Cambridge University Library

Darwin on marriage

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 marriage in the months immediately preceding his engagement.

Charles Darwin on his horse, Tommy

CUL DAR 225: 116

Cambridge University Library

Darwin’s Photographic Portraits

Darwin was a photography enthusiast. This is evident not only in his use of photography for the study of Expression and Emotions in Man and Animal, but can be witnessed in his many photographic portraits and in the extensive portrait correspondence that Darwin undertook throughout his lifetime. His close friend and botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker would come to call Darwin’s epistolary exchange of photographic images as his “carte correspondence”.

Emma Darwin with Leonard Darwin as a child

CUL DAR 225: 93

Cambridge University Library

Darwin in letters, 1837–1843: The London years to 'natural selection'

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 man with official responsibilities in several scientific organisations. They are also the years in which he married, started a family, and moved to Down House, Kent, his home for the rest of his life. By 1842 he was ready to write an outline of his species theory, the so-called 'pencil sketch', based on a principle that he called ‘natural selection’.

Tweets by @MyDearDarwin

Read and search the full texts of more than 9,000 of Charles Darwin’s letters, and ﬁnd information on 6,000 more. Discover complete transcripts of all known letters Darwin wrote and received up to the year 1873.

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-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
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-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
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

Home and family
Darwin-Geology.jpg

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

Geology

Darwin Correspondence Project

Meet the correspondents

HUMBOLDT-F-W-H-A-von-01-02443.jpg

MURRAY-J-01-03463.jpg

HUXLEY-H-A-01-02478.jpg

STOKES-J-L-01-04574.jpg

GARRETT-ANDERSON-E-01-00104.jpg

FITZROY-R-01-05660.jpg

WEDGWOOD-F-J-01-05011.jpg

EVANS-M-A-01-01554.jpg

German and Dutch photograph albums

Drosera-rotundiflora.jpg

All Darwin's letters from 1873 go online for the anniversary of Origin

Volume 25_Jacket.gif

Volume 25 (1877) now available

Timeline 1851.jpeg

New features for Charles Darwin's 208th birthday

MS-DAR-00210-00008-000-00001-00001.jpg

Darwin on marriage

DARWIN-C-R-03-00001.jpg

Darwin’s Photographic Portraits

DARWIN-E-01-01218.jpg

Darwin in letters, 1837–1843: The London years to 'natural selection'

Darwin for Schools

Darwin's letters: a timeline

Darwin-Human-Nature.jpg

Origin-Spines.jpg

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

MS-ADD-07984-000-00031.jpg

Darwin-Religion.jpg

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

Darwin-Geology.jpg

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Meet the correspondents

Darwin for Schools

Darwin's letters: a timeline