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Darwin in letters, 1868: Studying sex
Summary
The quantity of Darwin’s correspondence increased dramatically in 1868 due largely to his ever-widening research on human evolution and sexual selection.Darwin’s theory of sexual selection as applied to human descent led him to investigate aspects of the…
Matches: 17 hits
- … On 6 March 1868, Darwin wrote to the entomologist and accountant John Jenner Weir, ‘If any …
- … and sexual selection. In Origin , pp. 87–90, Darwin had briefly introduced the concept of …
- … or in satisfying female preference in the mating process. In a letter to Alfred Russel Wallace in …
- … and his immediate circle of friends and relations. In July 1868 Darwin was still anticipating that …
- … Murray to intervene, complaining on 9 January , ‘M r . Dallas’ delay … is intolerable … I am …
- … it was by Gray himself, but Darwin corrected him: ‘D r Gray would strike me in the face, but not …
- … . It is a disgrace to the paper’ ( letter from A. R. Wallace, 24 February [1868] ). The review was …
- … April 1868 . The letter was addressed to ‘the Rev d C. Darwin M.d’; Binstead evidently assumed …
- … I did not see this, or rather I saw it only obs[c]urely, & have kept only a few references.’ …
- … entomologist Benjamin Dann Walsh on 25 March 1868 . Wallace maintained that males got whatever …
- … as life he wd find the odour sexual!’ ( letter to A . R. Wallace, 16 September [1868] ). Francis …
- … south of France to Sarah Elizabeth Wedgwood on 9 Novembe r, describing sphinx moths that were …
- … question of the “Origin of Species”’ ( letter from A. R. Wallace, 4 October 1868 ). …
- … hands of the enemies of Nat. Selection’ ( letter from A. R. Wallace, 8 [April] 1868 ). …
- … mission stations in Victoria, Australia ( letter from R. B. Smyth, 13 August 1868 ); lengthy …
- … of her two-month old daughter Katherine ( letter from C. M. Hawkshaw to Emma Darwin, 9 February …
- … rest mostly on faith, and on accumulation of adaptations, &c) … Of course I understand your …
Darwin’s queries on expression
Summary
When Darwin resumed systematic research on emotions around 1866, he began to collect observations more widely and composed a list of queries on human expression. A number of handwritten copies were sent out in 1867 (see, for example, letter to Fritz Muller…
Matches: 25 hits
- … When Darwin resumed systematic research on emotions around 1866, he began to collect …
- … for ease of distribution sometime in late 1867 or early 1868. Darwin went over his questions, …
- … was the collection of observations on a global scale. Darwin was especially interested in peoples …
- … cultural and conventional, or instinctive and universal. Darwin used his existing correspondence …
- … and with the mouth a little drawn back at the corners?” Darwin’s questionnaire was an extension of …
- … was also carefully devised so as to prevent the feelings of Darwin’s remote observers from colouring …
- … in Ceylon, wrote the botanist George Thwaites on 22 July 1868 , “all endeavour to drill their …
- … Scottish botanist John Scott wrote from Calcutta, 4 May 1868 : “Shame is … expressed by an …
- … and not the susceptibilities of a moral nature.” Darwin did not typically countenance such …
- … the collection of information to its display in print. After Darwin received all of the replies to …
- … nodding vertically Blair, R.H. 11 July …
- … Fuegians Brooke, C.A.J. 30 Nov 1870 …
- … Dyaks Brooke, C.A.J. 30 April 1871 …
- … Bulmer, J 13 Aug 1868 [Gipps Land, nr. Flemington? …
- … Bunnett, Templeton 13 Aug 1868 Echuca, Australia …
- … Unknown? comments from A.D. Bartlett and S. Sutton …
- … Darwin, W.E. [after 29 March 1868] Chester Place, …
- … Darwin, W.E. [7? April 1868] Southampton, England …
- … Darwin, W.E. [22? April 1868] Southampton, England …
- … Forbes, David 26 March 1868 Boulton, England (about …
- … Geach, F.F. April 1868 Johore, Malaysia …
- … from Dr. C. Browne Meyer, A.B. 25 April …
- … Reade, Winwood W. [c.8 or 9 Apr 1870] Accra, West …
- … in Hottentots Smyth, R. Brough 13 Aug 1868 …
- … Ceylon Wallace, A. R. 2 March …
Controversy
Summary
The best-known controversies over Darwinian theory took place in public or in printed reviews. Many of these were highly polemical, presenting an over-simplified picture of the disputes. Letters, however, show that the responses to Darwin were extremely…
Matches: 13 hits
- … the disputes. Letters, however, show that the responses to Darwin were extremely variable. Many of …
- … sharp theoretical differences with him; on the other hand, a number of his public critics assisted …
- … and support sustained in spite of enduring differences. Darwin's correspondence can thus help …
- … Disagreement and Respect Darwin rarely engaged with critics publically. Letters exchanged …
- … quickly deteriorated and Darwin came to regard him as a bitter enemy. Darwin and Sedgwick …
- … but he assures Sedgwick he does not send his book out of a spirit of bravado, but a want of respect. …
- … Letter 2580 — Darwin, C. R. to Owen, Richard, 13 Dec [1859] Darwin responds to Owen’s remarks …
- … Letter 5533 — Haeckel, E. P. A. to Darwin, C. R., 12 May 1867 Haeckel thanks Darwin for the …
- … theory in England. Darwin and Wallace Much has been written …
- … Letter 6024 — Wallace, A. R. to Darwin, C. R., 19 Mar 1868 Wallace writes to Darwin with a …
- … Letter 6033 — Darwin, C. R. to Wallace, A. R., [21 Mar 1868] Darwin lets Wallace know he has …
- … Letter 6045 — Wallace, A. R. to Darwin, C. R., 24 Mar [1868] Wallace returns George Darwin’s …
- … Letter 6058 — Darwin, C. R. to Wallace, A. R., 27 Mar [1868] Darwin writes to Wallace saying …
Darwin in letters, 1869: Forward on all fronts
Summary
At the start of 1869, Darwin was hard at work making changes and additions for a fifth edition of Origin. He may have resented the interruption to his work on sexual selection and human evolution, but he spent forty-six days on the task. Much of the…
Matches: 23 hits
- … At the start of 1869, Darwin was hard at work making changes and additions for a fifth edition of …
- … appeared at the end of 1866 and had told his cousin William Darwin Fox, ‘My work will have to stop a …
- … vol. 16, letter to W. D. Fox, 12 December [1868] ). He may have resented the interruption to his …
- … views on all points will have to be modified.— Well it is a beginning, & that is something’ ( …
- … material on emotional expression. Yet the scope of Darwin’s interests remained extremely broad, and …
- … plants, and earthworms, subjects that had exercised Darwin for decades, and that would continue to …
- … Carl von Nägeli and perfectibility Darwin’s most substantial addition to Origin was a …
- … myself atrociously’, Darwin wrote to Alfred Russel Wallace on 2 February , ‘I meant to say …
- … now see is possible or probable’ (see also letter to A. R. Wallace, 22 January [1869] , and …
- … Thomson’s work challenged by both Thomas Henry Huxley and Wallace. He confided to Huxley, ‘I find …
- … of information which I have sent prove of any service to M r . Darwin I can supply him with much …
- … . Natural selection and humans: differences with Wallace But even as Darwin’s research …
- … & proximate cause in regard to Man’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 14 April 1869 ). More …
- … and the bird of paradise (Wallace 1869a; letter to A. R. Wallace, 22 March [1869] ), and …
- … an injustice & never demands justice’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 14 April 1869 ). …
- … species that Darwin had investigated in depth ( letter from C. F. Claus, 6 February 1869 ). In a …
- … genus that he had studied in the early 1860s ( letter to W. C. Tait, 12 and 16 March 1869 ). This …
- … on the German translation of Variation (Carus trans. 1868). The French translation proved …
- … the French edition of Variation (Moulinié trans. 1868), and CD now extended his permission for …
- … Sweetland Dallas’s edition of Fritz Müller’s Für Darwin (Dallas trans. 1869). The book, an …
- … creation, if he is not completely staggered after reading y r essay’. The work received a …
- … whole meeting was decidedly Huxley’s answer to D r M c Cann. He literally poured boiling oil …
- … Scientific Opinion , launched towards the end of 1868, was one of several periodicals begun in …
Fake Darwin: myths and misconceptions
Summary
Many myths have persisted about Darwin's life and work. Here are a few of the more pervasive ones, with full debunking below...
Cross and self fertilisation
Summary
The effects of cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom, published on 10 November 1876, was the result of a decade-long project to provide evidence for Darwin’s belief that ‘‘Nature thus tells us, in the most emphatic manner, that she abhors…
Matches: 23 hits
- … kingdom , published on 10 November 1876, was the result of a decade-long project to provide …
- … on plants with two or three different forms of flowers, Darwin had focused on the anatomical and …
- … of different forms of pollen. Although many plants that Darwin observed had flowers with adaptations …
- … rates, growth, and constitutional vigour. Although Darwin was no stranger to long months and years …
- … … is highly remarkable’ In September 1866, Darwin announced to the American botanist …
- … several years ( To Édouard Bornet, 1 December 1866 ). Darwin began a series of experiments, …
- … ( To Edouard Bornet, 20 August [1867] ). It was only after a new season of experiments that Darwin …
- … access to flowers was only the tip of the iceberg. Darwin next focused on the California …
- … unnoticed, had it existed in all individuals of such a common garden plant. Perhaps in the case of …
- … conditions’ ( From Fritz Müller, 1 December 1866 ). Darwin’s interest was piqued and he described …
- … of these seeds to Müller, hoping that he would ‘raise a plant, cover it with a net, & observe …
- … to produce capsules’ ( To Fritz Müller, 30 January [1868] ). Müller, in turn, sent seeds from his …
- … seeds of Ipomœa. I remember saying the contrary to you & M r Smith at Kew. But the result is …
- … produced by the former ( From Robert Caspary, 18 February 1868 ). Darwin eagerly requested seed …
- … their power of growth’ ( To Robert Caspary, 25 February [1868] ). By this time he had already …
- … (Variation 2: 128-9), which was published on 30 January 1868. In April 1868, Darwin informed …
- … quite intelligible to me’ ( To George Bentham, 22 April 1868 ). A month later, he had another set …
- … taken from the same plant!’ ( To J. D. Hooker, 21 May [1868] ) Pollen tubes, or rapidly elongating …
- … he told Müller ( To Fritz Müller, 28 November 1868 ). In March 1869, Müller reported results of …
- … I am already plagued by foreign Translators, Reviewers, &c.’ ( To John Murray, 4 May [1873] ). …
- … the set of all my works, I would suggest 1,500’ ( To R. F. Cooke, 16 September 1876 ). In the …
- … 16 December 1876 ). One critical review came from Alfred Wallace, who complained, ‘I am afraid this …
- … of hybrids, has not yet been produced’ ( From A. R. Wallace, 13 December 1876 ). No reply to this …
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…
Matches: 12 hits
- … the most notorious realm of controversy over evolution in Darwin's day was religion. The same …
- … nineteenth century were different in important ways. Many of Darwin's leading supporters were …
- … their religious beliefs with evolutionary theory. Darwin's own writing, both in print and …
- … although he tended to avoid the subject as much as possible. A number of correspondents tried to …
- … nor is it clear that by challenging design, he provided a position completely incompatible with all …
- … point of departure reviews of Origin . The second is a single letter from naturalist A. R. …
- … Darwin and Gray Letter 2814 — Darwin, C. R. to Gray, Asa, 22 May [1860] Darwin …
- … questions about design. Letter 6167 — Darwin, C. R. to Gray, Asa, 8 May [1868] …
- … at the base of my precipice”. Darwin and Wallace Letter 5140 — Wallace, A. R …
- … Darwin and Graham Letter 13230 — Darwin, C. R. to Graham, William, 3 July 1881 …
- … 6223 — Horsman, S. J. H. to Darwin, C. R., 2 June [1868] Horsman attempts to convince Darwin …
- … Letter 6241 — Innes, J. B. to Darwin, C. R., 13 June 1868 J. B. Innes, vicar of Down writes …
Women’s scientific participation
Summary
Observers | Fieldwork | Experimentation | Editors and critics | Assistants Darwin’s correspondence helps bring to light a community of women who participated, often actively and routinely, in the nineteenth-century scientific community. Here is a…
Matches: 19 hits
- … | Editors and critics | Assistants Darwin’s correspondence helps bring to light a …
- … Women: Letter 1194 - Darwin to Whitby, M. A. T., [12 August 1849] Darwin …
- … peculiarities in inheritance. Letter 3787 - Darwin, H. E. to Darwin, [29 October …
- … in her garden. Letter 4523 - Wedgwood, L. C. to Darwin, [6 June 1864] …
- … home in South Africa. Letter 6736 - Gray, A. & J. L to Darwin, [8 & 9 May …
- … to Darwin’s queries about Expression during a trip to Egypt. Letter 7223 …
- … Letter 5817 - Darwin to Huxley, T. H., [30 January 1868] Darwin asks Thomas Huxley to …
- … Henrietta. Letter 7179 - Wedgwood, L. C. to Darwin, [5 May 1870] …
- … 6453 - Langton, E. to Wedgwood, S. E., [9 November 1868] Darwin’s nephew, Edmund, …
- … the wallpaper. Letter 5756 - Langton, E. & C. to Wedgwood S. E., [after 9 …
- … Letter 1701 - Morris, M. H. to Prior, R. C. A., [17 June 1855] Margaretta Hare Morris …
- … Letter 6139 - Doubleday, H. to Darwin, [22 April 1868] Doubleday responds to Darwin’s …
- … Lychnis diurna. Letter 8168 - Ruck, A. R . to Darwin, H., [20 January 1872] …
- … lawn. Letter 8224 - Darwin to Ruck, A. R., [24 February 1872] Darwin …
- … Letter 1701 - Morris, M. H. to Prior, R. C. A., [17 June 1855] Margaretta Hare Morris …
- … Letter 6046 - Weir, J. J. to Darwin, [24 March 1868] John Weir describes experiments …
- … who conducted numerous experiments for Darwin and Wallace from the comfort of his “ pretty garden …
- … Letter 7858 - Darwin to Wa llace, A. R., [12 July 1871] Darwin tells Wallace that …
- … in the editorial process. Letter 9156 - Wallace, A. R . to Darwin, [19 November …
Dramatisation script
Summary
Re: Design – Adaptation of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin, Asa Gray and others… by Craig Baxter – as performed 25 March 2007
Matches: 22 hits
- … Re: Design – Adaptation of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin, Asa Gray and others… by Craig …
- … as the creator of this dramatisation, and that of the Darwin Correspondence Project to be identified …
- … correspondence or published writings of Asa Gray, Charles Darwin, Joseph Dalton Hooker, Jane Loring …
- … Actor 1 – Asa Gray Actor 2 – Charles Darwin Actor 3 – In the dress of a modern day …
- … the environment in which the play unfolds and acting as a go-between between Gray and Darwin, and …
- … indicate an edit in the original text not, necessarily, a pause in the delivery of the line. A …
- … Jane the final days of Professor Asa Gray, Harvard Botanist. A series of strokes affect adversely …
- … his Christian belief and Darwin discovers that Alfred Wallace has developed his own strikingly …
- … of the package (an essay from New Guinea from Alfred Russel Wallace) throws Darwin into a fluster. …
- … of last year… / Why I ask this is as follows: Mr Wallace who is now exploring New Guinea, has …
- … will be smashed. … 49 [Yet] there is nothing in Wallace’s sketch which is not written out …
- … that I can do so honourably, 50 knowing that Wallace is in the field…. / It seems hard on …
- … Dr Gray… I shall be glad of your opinion of Darwin and Wallace’s paper. GRAY: 58 …
- … on all hands. DARWIN: 65 My dear [Mr Wallace], I have told [my publisher] Murray …
- … fade. GRAY PAYS DARWIN A VISIT AT DOWN: 1868 In which Gray announces his …
- … apart theologically. GRAY: 175 Summer. 1868. The gist of my present note is to …
- … paragraph, in which I quote and differ from you[r] 178 doctrine that each variation has been …
- … 189 [Jane Gray. Letter to her sister. Fall, 1868.] Mr Darwin [is].. fascinating… [he has] the …
- … THE OLDER ONE GETS THE MORE THERE IS TO DO: 1868-1876 In which the friends consider the …
- … ARTS AND SCIENCES, PROCEEDINGS XVII, 1882 4 C DARWIN TO JD HOOKER 10 MAY 1848 …
- … 24 JULY 1865 175 A GRAY TO RW CHURCH, 22 JUNE 1868 176 TO A GRAY 15 AUGUST …
- … TO A GRAY 15 APRIL 1867 180 TO A GRAY 8 MAY 1868 181 FROM A GRAY 25 MAY …
Darwin in letters, 1867: A civilised dispute
Summary
Charles Darwin’s major achievement in 1867 was the completion of his large work, The variation of animals and plants under domestication (Variation). The importance of Darwin’s network of correspondents becomes vividly apparent in his work on expression in…
Matches: 18 hits
- … Charles Darwin’s major achievement in 1867 was the completion of his large work, …
- … to correct proofs, and just when completion seemed imminent, a further couple of months were needed …
- … selection in forming human races, and there was also to be a chapter on the meaning and cause of the …
- … ), published in 1871, and the chapter on expression into a book, The expression of the emotions in …
- … who might best answer the questions, with the result that Darwin began to receive replies from …
- … Variation would be based on proof-sheets received as Darwin corrected them. Closer to home, two …
- … defence of the theory in the capable hands of Alfred Russel Wallace. At the same time, Darwin was …
- … Darwin also introduced the subject to Alfred Russel Wallace, who suggested in his response of 11 …
- … see your second volume on “The Struggle for Existence &c.” for I doubt if we have a sufficiency …
- … “supplemental remarks on expression”’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, [12–17] March [1867] ). Darwin’s …
- … derived from Asa Gray’s printed queries, was published in 1868 in the Annual Report of the Board …
- … debated the topic on a theoretical level was Alfred Russel Wallace. In a letter to Wallace written …
- … aviary to see whether this was the case ( letter from A. R. Wallace, 24 February [1867] ). He also …
- … level. In his response to Wallace ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 26 February [1867] ), Darwin defended …
- … to the work I shall find it much better done by you than I c d have succeeded in doing’ ( letter …
- … I have not a word to say against it but such a view c d hardly come into a scientific book’ ( …
- … Wallace published a long article, ‘Creation by law’ (A. R. Wallace 1867c), which responded to Jenkin …
- … work itself.’ Variation was published on 30 January 1868. …
Darwin in letters,1870: Human evolution
Summary
The year 1870 is aptly summarised by the brief entry Darwin made in his journal: ‘The whole of the year at work on the Descent of Man & Selection in relation to Sex’. Descent was the culmination of over three decades of observations and reflections on…
Matches: 19 hits
- … The year 1870 is aptly summarised by the brief entry Darwin made in his journal: ‘The whole of the …
- … in relation to Sex’. Always precise in his accounting, Darwin reckoned that he had started writing …
- … gathered on each of these topics was far more extensive than Darwin had anticipated. As a result, …
- … of natural selection to humans from Alfred Russel Wallace and St George Jackson Mivart, and heated …
- … Lyell, ‘thank all the powers above & below, I shall be a man again & not a horrid grinding …
- … Finishing Descent; postponing Expression Darwin began receiving proofs of some of the …
- … ( letter to Albert Günther, 13 January [1870] ). Darwin was still working hard on parts of the …
- … style, the more grateful I shall be’ ( letter to H. E. Darwin, [8 February 1870] ). She had …
- … eighteen years of age. Darwin clearly expected her to make a considerable contribution, instructing …
- … He worried that parts of the book were ‘too like a Sermon: who wd ever have thought that I shd. turn …
- … disagreed: ‘Certainly to have you turned Parson will be a change I expect I shall want it enlarging …
- … looking exclusively into his own mind’, and himself, ‘a degraded wretch looking from the outside …
- … the folded margin. Darwin, who had posed for the sculptor in 1868, an experience he described as …
- … vol. 16, letter to J. D. Hooker, 26 November [1868] ; this volume, letter to Thomas Woolner, 10 …
- … who sent a sketch of a baby’s brows ( letter from L. C. Wedgwood, [5 May 1870] ). He also wrote to …
- … debate over human evolution grew more heated. Alfred Russel Wallace had expressed reservations about …
- … year (see Correspondence vol. 17, letter to A. R. Wallace, 14 April 1869 ). His views were …
- … (in retrograde direction) naturalist’ (letter to A. R.Wallace, 26 January [1870]). …
- … they had in the past to sustain goodwill and mutual respect. Wallace’s new book, titled …
Inheritance
Summary
It was crucial to Darwin’s theories of species change that naturally occurring variations could be inherited. But at the time when he wrote Origin, he had no explanation for how inheritance worked – it was just obvious that it did. Darwin’s attempt to…
Matches: 13 hits
- … may often be of service to science, when they involve a certain portion of incompleteness, and even …
- … to advance the hypothesis of Pangenesis (Charles Darwin, Variation , vol. 2, p. 357). …
- … worked – it was just obvious that it did. Darwin’s attempt to describe how heredity might …
- … ‘The whole subject of inheritance is wonderful’ Darwin wrote,‘When a new character arises, whatever …
- … were orginally derived. They could also lie dormant 'for a thousand or ten-thousand generations …
- … 26 [March 1863] ). Years before he published, Darwin sent a draft manuscript on Pangenesis …
- … Huxley was worried that its speculative nature would give Darwin’s critics ammunition, but didn’t …
- … Somebody rummaging among your papers half a century hence will find Pangenesis & say “See this …
- … his publishing them” . . . I am not going to be made a horrid example of in that way. ( T. H …
- … H. Huxley, [17 July 1865] ). He was forced to confess in a letter to Hooker , that it was indeed …
- … says the view is quite different from his (& this a great relief to me, as I feared to be …
- … some other name. ( to J. D. Hooker, 23 February '1868] ) And took …
- … place,—and that I think hardly possible. ( from A. R. Wallace, 24 February 1868 ) …
Darwin in letters, 1858-1859: Origin
Summary
The years 1858 and 1859 were, without doubt, the most momentous of Darwin’s life. From a quiet rural existence filled with steady work on his ‘big book’ on species, he was jolted into action by the arrival of an unexpected letter from Alfred Russel Wallace…
Matches: 22 hits
- … 1858 and 1859 were, without doubt, the most momentous of Darwin’s life. From a quiet rural existence …
- … by the arrival of an unexpected letter from Alfred Russel Wallace. This letter led to the first …
- … the composition and publication, in November 1859, of Darwin’s major treatise On the origin of …
- … exceeded my wildest hopes By the end of 1859, Darwin’s work was being discussed in …
- … and ‘bitter opponents’; compiling corrections for a second and then a third edition of his book; and …
- … that my book w d be successful; but I never even built a castle-in-the air of such success as it …
- … Charles Lyell, 25 [November 1859] ). This transformation in Darwin’s personal world and the …
- … The 'big book' The year 1858 opened with Darwin hard at work preparing his ‘big …
- … his ninth chapter, on hybridism, on 29 December 1857, Darwin began in January 1858 to prepare the …
- … appropriate. The correspondence shows that at any one time Darwin was engaged in a number of …
- … the problem of bees The chapter on instinct posed a number of problems for Darwin. ‘I find my …
- … Among these, the cell-making instincts of hive-bees posed a particular challenge to his overall …
- … constructed by hive-bees had long been celebrated as a classic example of divine design in nature. …
- … works. The question was, Do the species of large genera have a higher proportion of distinct …
- … work—& that I confess made me a little low—but I c d . have borne it, for I have the …
- … the occurrence of reversion in nature. Alfred Russel Wallace and the rush to publish …
- … by the arrival of the now-famous letter from Alfred Russel Wallace, enclosing an essay in which …
- … in the letter he subsequently wrote to Charles Lyell, as Wallace had requested, informing Lyell of …
- … to Lyell. ‘I never saw a more striking coincidence. if Wallace had my M.S. sketch written out in …
- … Lyell. He simply dated the letter ‘18’ and referred to Wallace’s letter as having been received …
- … in his two-volume work on Variation published in 1868 but occupies only a few pages in Origin …
- … it is impossible that men like Lyell, Hooker, Huxley, H. C. Watson, Ramsay &c would change their …
Darwin in letters, 1876: In the midst of life
Summary
1876 was the year in which the Darwins became grandparents for the first time. And tragically lost their daughter-in-law, Amy, who died just days after her son's birth. All the letters from 1876 are now published in volume 24 of The Correspondence…
Matches: 17 hits
- … The year 1876 started out sedately enough with Darwin working on the first draft of his book on the …
- … games. ‘I have won, hurrah, hurrah, 2795 games’, Darwin boasted; ‘my wife … poor creature, has won …
- … and cosseting regarding the ailments that were so much a feature of Darwin family life. But the calm …
- … Cross and self fertilisation , that the family suffered a devastating loss. The Darwins must have …
- … expected in September. Their joy at the safe delivery of a healthy boy was soon replaced by anguish …
- … his anxiety about Francis. By the end of the year there was a different order at Down House with …
- … Year's resolutions Darwin began the year by making a resolution. He would in future …
- … Origin for the very last time, and made minor changes to a reprint of the second edition of …
- … voyage, Volcanic islands and South America , in a new single-volume edition titled …
- … effected by his forthcoming pamphlet, Darwin confounded (C. O’Shaughnessy 1876), which, he …
- … and who had succeeded in giving him pain ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 17 June 1876 ). Although …
- … without the least foundation’, Darwin told Alfred Russel Wallace on 17 June . It was the still …
- … expressed in the pangenesis hypothesis, first published in 1868 ( Variation 2: 357–404). Others …
- … year’s experiments’ ( letter from G. J. Romanes, [ c . 19 March 1876] ). A less welcome reaction …
- … because of a ‘long and terrible illness’ ( letter to C. S. Wedgwood, 20 April 1876 ). By the time …
- … in harmony with yours’ ( letter from George Henslow, [ c. 7 December 1876] ). A more typical …
- … was the criterion for a physiological species. Alfred Russel Wallace was not convinced. ‘I am afraid …
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: 14 hits
- … Discussion Questions | Letters A conflation of masculine intellect and feminine …
- … feminine powers of feeling and aesthetic appreciation, Darwin and his male colleagues struggled to …
- … Letters Letter 109 - Wedgwood, J. to Darwin, R. W., [31 August 1831] Darwin …
- … professional work on his return. Letter 158 - Darwin to Darwin, R. W., [8 & 26 …
- … are as alike “as two peas” and his work fits neatly into a broader domestic routine made up of meals …
- … in Expression and in an 1877 article titled, ‘ A Biographical Sketch of an Infant ’. …
- … had gathered and brought into the house immediately after a rain storm. Here, Darwin’s scientific …
- … family life. Letter 4377 - Haeckel, E. P. A. to Darwin, [2 January 1864] …
- … March 1864] Darwin thanks Hooker for posting to him a number of plants to aid his work on …
- … Letter 6044 - Darwin to Darwin, G. H., [24 March 1868] Darwin relays his discussion with …
- … Letter 6046 - Weir, J. J. to Darwin, [24 March 1868] John Weir describes experiments he …
- … Letter 6139 - Doubleday, H. to Darwin, [22 April 1868] Doubleday details his experiments …
- … Letter 6453 - Langton, E. to Wedgwood, S. E., [9 November 1868] Darwin’s nephew, Edmund, …
- … on the bedroom wallpaper. Letter 10821 - Graham C. C. to Darwin, [30 January 1877] …
Darwin in letters, 1856-1857: the 'Big Book'
Summary
In May 1856, Darwin began writing up his 'species sketch’ in earnest. During this period, his working life was completely dominated by the preparation of his 'Big Book', which was to be called Natural selection. Using letters are the main…
Matches: 21 hits
- … On 14 May 1856, Charles Darwin recorded in his journal that he ‘Began by Lyell’s advice writing …
- … this manuscript. Although advised by Lyell to publish only a brief outline—probably more for the …
- … quantities of information, pursuing his own experiments in a variety of different areas, analysing …
- … Natural selection . Determined as he was to publish, Darwin nevertheless still felt cautious …
- … specialist in Madeiran entomology, Thomas Vernon Wollaston. Darwin also came to rely on the caustic …
- … valued the views of Thomas Henry Huxley, at that time a somewhat precariously placed lecturer and …
- … in London. Natural Selection Not all of Darwin’s manuscript on species has been …
- … of pigeons, poultry, and other domesticated animals. As Darwin explained to Lyell, his studies, …
- … can William Bernhard Tegetmeier continued to help Darwin acquire much of the material for …
- … on domestic animals in India and elsewhere. William Darwin Fox supplied information about cats, dogs …
- … mastiffs. The disparate facts were correlated and checked by Darwin, who adroitly used letters, …
- … can.’ ( letter to W. D. Fox, 8 February [1857] ). Darwin also attempted to test ideas …
- … garden species with their wild congeners. Many of Darwin’s conclusions about the variation of …
- … these chapters are not extant. It seems likely that Darwin used the manuscript when compiling The …
- … and this, since it was composed so many years later, is not a safe guide to his pre- Origin …
- … plants to be more hairy than their lowland relatives. But a last-minute check with Hooker revealed …
- … but all they actually showed was the self-evident fact that a large genus was more likely to contain …
- … not a bird be killed (by hawk, lightning, apoplexy, hail &c) with seeds in crop, & it would …
- … naturalists held about Darwin. Alfred Russel Wallace Most significant in terms of …
- … the surviving correspondence that Darwin initially wrote to Wallace in order to obtain specimens of …
- … and the preparation of his manuscript ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 1 May 1857 ) seem innocuous and …
Have you read the one about....
Summary
... the atheistical cats, or the old fogies in Cambridge? We've suggested a few - some funny, some serious - but all letters you can read here.
Matches: 1 hits
- … cats, or the old fogies in Cambridge? We've suggested a few - some funny, some serious - but …
Darwin in letters, 1864: Failing health
Summary
On receiving a photograph from Charles Darwin, the American botanist Asa Gray wrote on 11 July 1864: ‘the venerable beard gives the look of your having suffered, and … of having grown older’. Because of poor health, Because of poor health, Darwin…
Matches: 22 hits
- … On receiving a photograph from Charles Darwin, the American botanist Asa Gray wrote on 11 …
- … … of having grown older’. This portrait, the first of Darwin with his now famous beard, had been …
- … of dimorphic plants with William’s help; he also ordered a selection of new climbing plants for his …
- … 52 hours without vomiting!! In the same month, Darwin began to consult William Jenner, …
- … physician-in-ordinary to Queen Victoria. Jenner prescribed a variety of antacids and purgatives, and …
- … the dimorphic aquatic cut-grass Leersia . In May, Darwin finished his paper on Lythrum …
- … continued throughout the summer. When he finished a preliminary draft of his paper on climbing …
- … he had set aside the previous summer. In October, Darwin let his friends know that on his …
- … and he received more letters of advice from Jenner. In a letter of 15 December [1864] to the …
- … As Darwin explained to his cousin William Darwin Fox in a letter of 30 November [1864] , ‘the …
- … arose over the grounds on which it was conferred, brought a dramatic conclusion to the year. Darwin …
- … oxlip ( P. elatior ), and published his results in an 1868 article (‘Illegitimate offspring of …
- … 5 September 1864 ). Fritz Müeller sent his book, Für Darwin , and Darwin had it translated by a …
- … but Lyell says when I read his discussion in the Elements [C. Lyell 1865] I shall recant for fifth …
- … the slavery practised in North America. Alfred Russel Wallace Unlike in the preceding …
- … with very little commentary. However, when Alfred Russel Wallace sent him a copy of his recently …
- … Some other readers were also aware of the significance of Wallace’s paper as the first published …
- … to J. D. Hooker, 22 [May 1864] ). He added that he wished Wallace had written Lyell’s section on …
- … the question of human origins ( Correspondence vol. 11). Wallace, however, traced a possible path …
- … by natural selection in humans, was new to Darwin. Wallace’s paper dealt not only with human …
- … that Darwin, who later endorsed monogenism, supported Wallace’s attempt to mediate in the …
- … on intellectual & moral qualities’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 28 [May 1864] ). …
Before Origin: the ‘big book’
Summary
Darwin began ‘sorting notes for Species Theory’ on 9 September 1854, the very day he concluded his eight-year study of barnacles (Darwin's Journal). He had long considered the question of species. In 1842, he outlined a theory of transmutation in a…
Matches: 18 hits
- … Darwin began ‘sorting notes for Species Theory’ on 9 September 1854, the …
- … day he concluded his eight-year study of barnacles ( Darwin's Journal ). He had long …
- … was ‘almost convinced’ that species were not immutable—a view so controversial that it was, he …
- … & on the question of what are species’, and possessed ‘a grand body of facts’ from which he …
- … Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation caused a publishing sensation in October 1844, the …
- … of Vestiges to him. It took another ten years before Darwin felt ready to start collating his …
- … six months before he started sorting his species notes, Darwin had worried that the process would …
- … I shall feel, if I when I get my notes together on species &c &c, the whole thing explodes …
- … geograph. distribution, geological history—affinities &c &c &c.. And it seems to me, …
- … expressed his satisfaction that the naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, who was collecting in the …
- … theoretical ideas’. ‘I am a firm believer’, he told Wallace, ‘ that without speculation there is no …
- … establishment in Surrey. While there, he wrote to Wallace. Praising Wallace’s 1855 article on …
- … his own work on species was finished he might benefit from Wallace’s ‘large harvest of facts’ from …
- … do species & varieties differ from each other’, he told Wallace in May 1857, before stating ‘ I …
- … I do not suppose I shall go to press for two years. ’ Wallace was intrigued as to whether …
- … was to be tried far more sorely in the following month. Wallace, who had continued to pursue his …
- … Darwin had published Variation under domestication in 1868 , which was based on the first two …
- … and a half chapters were edited and published in 1975 by R. C. Stauffer under the title Charles …
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…
Matches: 18 hits
- … There are summaries of all Darwin's letters from the year 1879 on this website. The full texts …
- … 27 of the print edition of The correspondence of Charles Darwin , published by Cambridge …
- … the sensitivity of the tips. Despite this breakthrough, when Darwin first mentioned the book to his …
- … to Francis Galton, 15 [June 1879] ). Even the prospect of a holiday in the Lake District in August …
- … W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, [after 26] July [1879] ). From July, Darwin had an additional worry: the …
- … Darwin, despite his many blessings, was finding old age ‘a dismal time’ ( letter to Henry Johnson, …
- … old age, which creeps slily upon one, like moss upon a tree, and wrinkles one all over like a baked …
- … way round?’ At least the last letter of 1879 contained a warmer note and the promise of future …
- … nice and good as could be’ ( letter from Karl Beger, [ c. 12 February 1879] ). The masters of …
- … of the Admiralty described the unknown young man as ‘A M r Darwin grandson of the well known …
- … him on 9 June not to ‘expend much powder & shot on M r Butler’, for he really was not worth …
- … leaving Darwin ‘more perplexed than ever about life of D r . D’ ( letter to Francis Darwin, 12 …
- … the highest point, for his “why”—“what for” &c are incessant’, Darwin joked on 2 July (first …
- … and Farrer had corresponded on scientific topics since 1868 and after Farrer’s second marriage to …
- … which is his profession tho’ not a profitable one; also D r C[lark]’s opinion that he was so …
- … greatly amused Darwin, who felt it was ‘very acute of M r Ruskin to know that I feel a deep & …
- … February 1879 ). One of Allen’s targets was Alfred Russel Wallace, Darwin’s strongest critic on the …
- … and prevent ‘Cattle diseases, Potato diseases &c’, probably did not know that Darwin had already …
