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To Albert Günther   25 February [1877]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.

Feb. 25th

My dear Dr. Gunther

Your note has led me to discover to my dismay that my catalogue of specimens, which I lent several years ago to the museum at Cambridge, has never been returned to me.—2 I have written about it, & if it has not been lost will hereafter answer your query. I shall be very sorry if it is lost, but it will not signify much with respect to the spiders, as the labels have been detached. That poor mad creature Adam White no doubt was the sinner.—3 It was too bad of him, for I told him that I had notes about the habits of some of the species.—

Believe me | Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

Footnotes

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to Albert Günther, 3 March 1877.
2
Günther’s note has not been found; he had enquired about the descriptions of spider specimens collected by CD on the Beagle voyage and deposited at the British Museum (see letter to Albert Günther, 28 January [1877] and n. 3; see also letter to Albert Günther, 3 March 1877). CD had also deposited specimens at the Museum of Zoology, University of Cambridge; on his catalogue of specimens, see R. D. Keynes ed. 2000, pp. 317–19).
3
CD’s letter has not been found. Adam White had worked in the zoological department of the British Museum and described some of CD’s spider specimens; he had a nervous breakdown following the death of his first wife in 1861 (ODNB). The specimen labels had been removed by White’s colleague, George Samouelle, who was dismissed from the British Museum in 1841 for this and other misdemeanors (Stearn 1981, p. 206).

Bibliography

Stearn, William T. 1981. The Natural History Museum at South Kensington: a history of the British Museum (Natural History), 1753–1980. London: Heinemann in association with the British Museum (Natural History).

Summary

His specimen catalogue has not been returned from Cambridge museum. If not lost, will answer query.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-10867
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Albrecht Carl Ludwig Gotthilf (Albert) Günther
Sent from
Down
Source of text
Natural History Museum, Library and Archives (Archives DF ZOO/200/11/114)
Physical description
ALS 2pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10867,” accessed on 23 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10867.xml

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