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To William John Broderip   [August–December 1838]

Dear Broderip

I am anxious to have two minute’s conversation with you about shells. Mr Sowerby is now in town, & I hope, if you can screw a little time out of your innumerable avocations, that you will be able to begin, & then end will soon be made with my small collection.1

Shall you dine at the Athenæum2 any day soon? If you would send me a note & tell me, the first day, you thought you should be there, I would meet you & have my short say, as I dine there almost every day.—

Believe me | Yours truly obliged | Chas. Darwin 36 Grt. Marlbro’ St

Friday

Footnotes

1
Broderip had an ‘unrivaled conchological cabinet’, ultimately purchased by the British Museum (DNB). He is cited by CD in South America, p. 30, as having identified South American shells similar to some CD had collected; his advice was being sought on the fossil shells described by George Brettingham Sowerby in the Appendixes of Volcanic islands and South America.
2
CD had been elected to the Athenæum on 21 June 1838, under a special ruling by which forty new members were added to the Club. The elections were left to a committee ‘with the instructions that the persons chosen should … [be] men distinguished in literature, art or science, or well known as patrons of one or other of them. The election was to be exercised with due formalities, and must be unanimous.’ Charles Dickens was among those elected with CD (T. H. Ward 1926, p. 53). CD first dined at the Club early in August (see letter to Charles Lyell, 9 August [1838]).

Bibliography

DNB: Dictionary of national biography. Edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee. 63 vols. and 2 supplements (6 vols.). London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1912. Dictionary of national biography 1912–90. Edited by H. W. C. Davis et al. 9 vols. London: Oxford University Press. 1927–96.

Volcanic islands: Geological observations on the volcanic islands, visited during the voyage of HMS Beagle, together with some brief notices on the geology of Australia and the Cape of Good Hope. Being the second part of the geology of the voyage of the Beagle, under the command of Capt. FitzRoy RN, during the years 1832 to 1836. By Charles Darwin. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1844.

Ward, Thomas Humphry. 1926. History of the Athenæum, 1824-1925. London: printed for the Athenæum Club.

Summary

Would like to arrange a meeting about CD’s collection of shells [from the Beagle voyage].

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-422
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
William John Broderip
Sent from
London, Gt Marlborough St, 36
Source of text
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (GEN/D/DARWIN (C)/3)
Physical description
ALS 3pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 422,” accessed on 23 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-422.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 2

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