To William Baxter or W. W. Baxter 21 March [1843–82]
Summary
Requests a mixture of verdigris, sal ammoniac, and lamp-black.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Walmisley Baxter; William Baxter |
Date: | 21 Mar [1843-82] |
Classmark: | Bromley Historic Collections, Bromley Central Library (Baxter Collection, 1136/1) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13772 |
To William Baxter or W. W. Baxter 16 March [1843–82]
Summary
Asks for a bottle to be filled with spirits of wine.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Walmisley Baxter; William Baxter |
Date: | 16 Mar [1843-82] |
Classmark: | Bromley Historic Collections, Bromley Central Library (144/1) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13772F |
To Edward Cresy 26 [December 1843 – April 1846 or September 1855 – October 1860?]
Summary
Says Hooker does not want plant.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Edward Cresy, Jr |
Date: | 26 [Dec 1843 - Apr 1846 or Sept 1855 - Oct 1860] |
Classmark: | DAR 143: 311 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13787 |
To [Susan? Darwin] [1843 – 8 March 1846]
Summary
Reports events at Down.
The "atrocious doings" of "Old Price". Price’s dispute with Sir John Lubbock over a boundary fence.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Susan Elizabeth Darwin |
Date: | [1843 – 8 Mar 1846] |
Classmark: | DAR 154: 91 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13798 |
To ? 1 March [1843–82]
Summary
Regrets not having a duplicate of one of his books to give away. "You will before long no doubt be able to borrow a copy."
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Unidentified |
Date: | 1 Mar [1843-82] |
Classmark: | Sotheby’s (dealers) (12 November 1963) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13865 |
To ? 7 August [1843–68?]
Summary
Declines invitation to ride because he is "so very subject to headache".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Unidentified |
Date: | 7 Aug [1843-68] |
Classmark: | Daniel V. Grossman (private collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13867 |
To ? 23 January [1843–6 or 1856–69]
Summary
Obliged for memoir with illustrations on most interesting point [unspecified] to occur in many years.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Unidentified |
Date: | 23 Jan [1843-6 or 1856-69] |
Classmark: | Edward Ford (private collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13873 |
To S. P. Woodward [14 January 1843]
Summary
Asks SPW to have obsidian specimens and book [Dieudonné de Gratet de Dolomieu, Voyage aux îles de Lipari (1783)] ready when he comes.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Samuel Pickworth Woodward; Geological Society of London |
Date: | [14 Jan 1843] |
Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-652 |
From [G. R. Waterhouse] [1943?]
Summary
Cancelled: enclosures to DCP-LETT-869. List of recent and fossil mammalian species of Brazil.
Author: | George Robert Waterhouse |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [1843?] |
Classmark: | DAR 205.9: 173–5 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-655 |
From [G. R. Waterhouse] [1943?]
Summary
Cancelled: enclosures to DCP-LETT-869. List of fossil Mammalia from the caverns of Minas Gerais purchased by the British Museum from Claussen.
Author: | George Robert Waterhouse |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [1843?] |
Classmark: | DAR 205.9: 172 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-656 |
To Richard Owen [March 1843 – 15 May 1846]
Summary
Invites the Owens to stay at Down, joining Falconer and a few others.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Richard Owen |
Date: | [Mar 1843 – 15 May 1846] |
Classmark: | Michael H. McHugh (private collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-657 |
To Smith, Elder & Co. [14 January 1843]
Summary
Asks for account.
Discusses delay of Reptiles by Thomas Bell. Asks them to inform R. B. Hinds of delay.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Smith, Elder & Co |
Date: | [14 Jan 1843] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-658 |
To Smith, Elder & Co. 21 January [1843]
Summary
Discusses his account.
Sends addresses [for subscribers to Zoology].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Smith, Elder & Co |
Date: | 21 Jan [1843] |
Classmark: | The New York Public Library. Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. The Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature. |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-659 |
To J. S. Henslow [22 January 1843]
Summary
Comments on JSH’s botanical work with his parishioners. Lyell will be pleased that he has done some fossil botanical work.
Describes a Geological Society meeting about Edward Charlesworth’s complaints.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
Date: | [22 Jan 1843] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-660 |
To J. E. Gray 25 January [1843]
Summary
Requests that Charles Lyell be permitted to borrow the coral reef specimens he presented to the British Museum.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Edward Gray |
Date: | 25 Jan [1843] |
Classmark: | Natural History Museum, Library and Archives (Archives DF/ZOO/205/4/144) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-660F |
To Charles Maclaren [c. February 1843]
Summary
[Written on CD’s annotated copy of a pamphlet reprint of CM’s review of Coral reefs.] CD asks CM to return the pamphlet to him.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Maclaren |
Date: | [c. Feb 1843] |
Classmark: | DAR 69: A94v |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-661 |
To the Royal Geographical Society February 1843
Summary
George Suttor’s paper not worthy of publication in the Journal of the society. It contains no new facts worth insertion.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Royal Geographical Society |
Date: | Feb 1843 |
Classmark: | Royal Geographical Society |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-662A |
To the Geological Society of London 12 March [1843]
Summary
Asks how many copies of Proceedings are commonly sold.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Geological Society of London |
Date: | 12 Mar [1843] |
Classmark: | Geological Society of London (GSL/L/R/7/354) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-663 |
To William Jackson Hooker 12 March [1843]
Summary
Asks WJH to thank his son [J. D. Hooker, away on Antarctic survey] for his note. Has also read a letter JDH wrote to Lyell. Hopes JDH will publish a journal. If he publishes an Antarctic flora, CD will place his collection of South American alpine plants at his disposal.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Jackson Hooker |
Date: | 12 Mar [1843] |
Classmark: | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Directors’ Correspondence: S. American letters 1838–44, 69: 40) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-664 |
To W. D. Fox [25 March 1843]
Summary
Sympathises with WDF’s persisting grief.
Describes Down House and additions being built, which interfere with Geology [of "Beagle"].
Bodily health is improved, but cannot stand mental excitement.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
Date: | [25 Mar 1843] |
Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 66) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-665 |
letter | (94) |
Darwin, C. R. | (70) |
Kemp, William | (6) |
Waterhouse, G. R. | (4) |
Henslow, J. S. | (3) |
Hinds, R. B. | (2) |
Darwin, C. R. | (24) |
Kemp, William | (10) |
Dieffenbach, Ernst | (5) |
Henslow, J. S. | (5) |
Smith, Elder & Co | (5) |
Darwin, C. R. | (94) |
Kemp, William | (16) |
Waterhouse, G. R. | (9) |
Henslow, J. S. | (8) |
Dieffenbach, Ernst | (5) |
Darwin's works in letters
Summary
For the 163rd anniversary of the publication of Origin, we've added a new page to our Works in letters section on Cross and self fertilisation. These complement our existing pages on the 'big book' before Origin, Origin itself, the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … my works. ( letter to Ernst Dieffenbach, 2 October 1843 ) Darwin published over …

Syms Covington
Summary
When Charles Darwin embarked on the Beagle voyage in 1831, Syms Covington was ‘fiddler & boy to Poop-cabin’. Covington kept an illustrated journal of his observations and experiences on the voyage, noting wildlife, landscapes, buildings and people and,…

George Robert Waterhouse
Summary
George Waterhouse was born on 6 March 1810 in Somers Town, North London. His father was a solicitor’s clerk and an amateur lepidopterist. George was educated from 1821-24 at Koekelberg near Brussels. On his return he worked for a time as an apprentice to…
Matches: 1 hits
- … their ‘ descent from common stock’ in a letter of 1843 . In the same year, Darwin …
Darwin’s study of the Cirripedia
Summary
Darwin’s work on barnacles, conducted between 1846 and 1854, has long posed problems for historians. Coming between his transmutation notebooks and the Origin of species, it has frequently been interpreted as a digression from Darwin’s species work. Yet…
Matches: 1 hits
- … correspondence with George Robert Waterhouse. On [26 July 1843] ( Correspondence vol. 2), for …

Darwin’s reading notebooks
Summary
In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to read in Notebook C (Notebooks, pp. 319–28). In 1839, these lists were copied and continued in separate notebooks. The first of these reading notebooks (DAR 119…
Matches: 27 hits
- … [DAR *119: 13v.] Yarrel’s Birds [Yarrell 1843] (1 Vol read) Last Edit of Malthus …
- … 1825–36] Prescott. Hist. of Mexico [W. H. Prescott 1843], strongly recommended by Lyell (read …
- … Travels into the interior of New Zealand [Dieffenbach 1843]. Capt. Porter, Journ of Cruize in …
- … Prichards. Nat: History of Man. Bailliere. 1.10 [Prichard 1843] must be studied . London Library …
- … Essay on serpent (1844). 6 s . 6 d . Edinburgh [Schlegel 1843]. Geograph. Distrib &c &c. …
- … “Scenes in Sandwich Isl d & Central America [Jarves 1843] contains good account of Silkworm, …
- … } Much Botany & [Backhouse 1843] Nat: Hist.— …
- … be read. Paper on transmutation of shells [Haldeman 1843–4] already (1844) VI. vols. …
- … . 42 [P. Miller 1724] Life of Wilkie [Cunningham 1843] & Chantry [G. Jones 1849]. …
- … 1833] (Boot) Leslie life of Constable [Leslie 1843]. (Emma) (read) M rs Fry’s Life …
- … 1847].— Cunningham Life of Wilkie [Cunningham 1843] [DAR *119: 23v.] …
- … 3 d Part of Clarendons History [Hyde 1704]. 1843 Jan 10. Last Vol of Clarendons …
- … 1842–6] Mar 1. Lieut. Eyres Narrative [?V. Eyre 1843].— May 7 th . F. Horner’s life …
- … Bremer [Bremer 1843a].— [DAR 119: 13a] 1843 Feb 20 th . L. Jenyns notes …
- … d[itt]o. —— 26 Hinds Regions of Vegetation [Hinds 1843]. June 10 th . Linnæan Trans. …
- … of London ] to end of Vol: XVIII & Part I. of V. 19 (1843) 25. Murray Domestic Poultry.— …
- … Nov 30. Dieffenbach’s New Zealand [Dieffenbach 1843] 1844 Wiegman on Hybrids—German— …
- … Phillips 1822] (very poor) [DAR 119: 13b] 1843 May 20 th Carlyle’s Past …
- … 1844 Jan 7 th Borrow’s Bible in Spain [Borrow 1843]. 22. Hallam Constitu History …
- … 30 1. Vol of Prescotts Hist of Mexico [W. H. Prescott 1843] /Oct 1 st / 2 d & 3 d Vol …
- … July 5 th Owens Lectures on Invertebrata [R. Owen 1843–6] Aug 1 Bradley’s Husbandry 3. …
- … —— d[itt]o Salmon Fishing in Tweed [Scrope 1843]. (d[itt]o) 20 th Reflections on the Study …
- … Nov. 20 Liebig’s familiar letters on Chemistry [Liebig 1843] —— Ranke’s Popes of Rome 3 vols …
- … 3 d . 25 th Forbes Alps [J. D. Forbes 1843] —— Crawfords Embassy to Siam …
- … Philadelphia ]; skimmed. 24 th . Report. Zoolog. 1843. 1844. Ray Soc. [Ray Society 1847] …
- … —— 10 Neander’s Life of St Bernard [Neander 1843] interesting —— Feuerbachers Trials …
- … 27 Abbott Travels from Khiva to Heraut [James Abbott 1843] (very good) Nov. 7 th Leslie’s …

Darwin & Glen Roy
Summary
Although Darwin was best known for his geological work in South America and other remote Beagle destinations, he made one noteworthy attempt to explain a puzzling feature of British geology. In 1838, two years after returning from the voyage, he travelled…
Matches: 1 hits
- … October 1842] To William Darwin Fox, [4 September 1843] To Charles Lyell, 8 …

Darwin in letters, 1837–1843: The London years to 'natural selection'
Summary
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…
Matches: 8 hits
- … of the living species he had collected. By the end of 1843 he had also completed the writing of a …
- … the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle from February 1838 to October 1843. The correspondence provides a …
- … in articles on Sagitta , finished during the autumn of 1843, and Planariae, described in 1844 …
- … unless they went to some other authority. Towards the end of 1843, he increasingly hoped that …
- … thinking during this period and in his letters of 1843, Darwin was clearly testing his evolutionary …
- … I am looking for' ( Letter to G. R. Waterhouse, [26 July 1843] ). It is interesting to …
- … twelve letters from Darwin to Kemp in the years 1840 to 1843 have come to light; they were published …
- … flowers’ to the Gardeners’ Chronicle , [late August 1843], expresses his interest in ‘unity of …
Scientific Networks
Summary
Friendship|Mentors|Class|Gender In its broadest sense, a scientific network is a set of connections between people, places, and things that channel the communication of knowledge, and that substantially determine both its intellectual form and content,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … 714 — Darwin, C. R. to Hooker, J. D., [13 or 20 Nov 1843] Darwin knows Cambridge botanist J. …

Joseph Dalton Hooker
Summary
The 1400 letters exchanged between Darwin and Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817-1911) account for around 10% of Darwin’s surviving correspondence and provide a structure within which all the other letters can be explored. They are a connecting thread that spans…
People featured in the Dutch photograph album
Summary
Here is a list of people that appeared in the photograph album Darwin received for his birthday on 12 February 1877 from scientific admirers in the Netherlands. Many thanks to Hester Loeff for identifying and researching them. No. …

John Murray
Summary
Darwin's most famous book On the origin of species by means of natural selection (Origin) was published on 22 November 1859. The publisher was John Murray, who specialised in non-fiction, particularly politics, travel and science, and had published…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Murray, who followed his father as head of the business in 1843, had spent a year studying geology …
Henrietta Darwin born
Summary
Daughter, Henrietta Emma, born
Matches: 1 hits
- … Daughter, Henrietta Emma, born …
Meets Joseph Hooker
Summary
Darwin begins a 40-year friendship with Joseph Dalton Hooker. In November Hooker begins work on Darwin's Beagle plant specimens.
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin begins a 40-year friendship with Joseph Dalton Hooker. In November Hooker begins work on …
Suggested reading
Summary
Contemporary writing Anon., The English matron: A practical manual for young wives, (London, 1846). Anon., The English gentlewoman: A practical manual for young ladies on their entrance to society, (Third edition, London, 1846). Becker, L. E.…
Matches: 1 hits
- … domestic influence and social obligations , (London, 1843). Somerville, M., On …
People featured in the Dutch photograph album
Summary
List of people appearing in the photograph album Darwin received from scientific admirers in the Netherlands for his birthday on 12 February 1877. We are grateful to Hester Loeff for providing this list and for permission to make her research available.…
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: 1 hits
- … Letter 717 - Hooker, J. D. to Darwin, [28 November 1843] Hooker thanks Darwin for his …

Darwin in letters, 1844–1846: Building a scientific network
Summary
The scientific results of the Beagle voyage still dominated Darwin's working life, but he broadened his continuing investigations into the nature and origin of species. Far from being a recluse, Darwin was at the heart of British scientific society,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … vol. 2, letter to A. Y. Spearman, 9 October 1843, n. 1). Darwin's inner circle: first …

John Lort Stokes
Summary
John Lort Stokes, naval officer, was Charles Darwin’s cabinmate on the Beagle voyage – not always an enviable position. After Darwin’s death, Stokes penned a description of their evenings spent working at the large table at the centre, Stokes at his…
Matches: 1 hits
- … command in 1841, and eventually returned to England in 1843. Shortly after, he unwittingly involved …

Darwin’s observations on his children
Summary
Charles Darwin’s observations on the development of his children, began the research that culminated in his book The Expression of the emotions in man and animals, published in 1872, and his article ‘A biographical sketch of an infant’, published in Mind…
Matches: 5 hits
- … in exact manner of grown up person.— March 1 st . 1843. Annie shows no signs of skill in …
- … was natural acting & deceit. 39v. [54] Jan. 20 1843 Willy 3 years & a month. …
- … to something he used to say when a baby. 40 Feb 1843. Willy says “No” in the fiercest way …
- … later; Anne Elizabeth was born in 1841 and Henrietta Emma in 1843. Mrs Locke was probably the …
- … name and address of a Mrs Locke are noted in Emma Darwin’s 1843 diary. [16] The following …
George James Stebbing
Summary
George James Stebbing (1803—1860) travelled around the world with Charles Darwin on board HMS Beagle and helped him with measuring temperature on at least one occasion. However, Stebbing barely registers in Darwin’s correspondence. The only mention omits…
Matches: 1 hits
- … instrument maker George Stebbing (1774—1847). By 1843, he was established enough in the town to be …