To Ebenezer Norman 17 [August 1856]
Summary
Thanks EN for copying a MS [on "Geographical distribution" (Natural selection, pp. 534–66)]. Increases his payment and offers EN work in the future.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Ebenezer Norman |
| Date: | 17 [Aug 1856] |
| Classmark: | Mrs K. M. B. Thompson (private collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1941A |
To T. C. Eyton 21 August [1856]
Summary
Asks whether offspring of cross between African pig and common pig are fertile. Are Lord Rowland Hill’s African pigs domesticated?
Mentions pigeons’ skeletons.
Is working at a book on variation [Natural selection].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Campbell Eyton |
| Date: | 21 Aug [1856] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.135) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1942 |
To W. B. Tegetmeier 23 August [1856]
Summary
Instructions for delivering pigeons to Down.
Has Scandaroons for WBT.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
| Date: | 23 Aug [1856] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1943 |
To Asa Gray 24 August [1856]
Summary
Rarity of intermediate varieties.
Variability of introduced plants.
Ranges of plants common to Europe and U. S.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Asa Gray |
| Date: | 24 Aug [1856] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (36) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1944 |
To J. D. Hooker 26 [July 1856]
Summary
Tristan da Cunha flora.
Aquatic plants.
Density and diversity of plants in small plots in Kent, Keeling Islands, and Himalayas.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 26 [July 1856] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 175 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1945 |
To T. C. Eyton 27 [August 1856]
Summary
Asks about strains of Herefordshire cattle.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Campbell Eyton |
| Date: | 27 [Aug 1856] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.136) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1946 |
To W. B. Tegetmeier 30 August [1856]
Summary
Will forward the Scandaroons.
Is crossing all his pigeons to see which are fertile.
Hopes WBT’s work on fowls’ skulls is not forestalled by T. C. Eyton who also has a grand collection of skeletons.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
| Date: | 30 Aug [1856] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1947 |
To T. C. Eyton 31 August [1856]
Summary
Asks whether number of incisors varies in domestic pigs. Is testing views of J. M. Bechstein.
Comments on TCE’s book [Herd book of Hereford cattle (1846–59)]. Mentions variations in the breed.
Will quote TCE on geese [Mag. Nat. Hist. 4 (1840): 90–2].
Problem of geographical distribution; his seed-salting experiments. Asks about distribution of seeds to islands. Do water-birds ever have dirty feet?
Could Eyton’s gamekeepers collect owl and hawk pellets? Asks for dace stomachs and contents.
Asks for cats’ skeletons.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Campbell Eyton |
| Date: | 31 Aug [1856] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.137) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1948 |
To John Lubbock 5 September [1856]
Summary
Quotes passage from [Frédéric?] Gerard on distribution of certain Lepidoptera.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury |
| Date: | 5 Sept [1856] |
| Classmark: | DAR 263: 9 (EH 88206458) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1949 |
To J. D. Hooker 8 September [1856]
Summary
Whether or not there should be movement of particles according to Tyndall’s theory of glacial action ["Observations on glaciers", Not. Proc. R. Inst. G. B. 2: 54–8, 441–3].
CD subscribes to H. C. Sorby’s view of gneiss [Edinburgh New Philos. J. 55 (1853): 137–50].
Seed-salting.
Pigeons.
Significant differences in skeletons of domesticated rabbits.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 8 Sept [1856] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 176 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1950 |
From J. D. Dana 8 September 1856
Summary
Responds to CD’s query about the blind fauna of Mammoth Cave.
Gives information from L. Agassiz. Distribution of Crustacea, especially along southern coastlines.
| Author: | James Dwight Dana |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 8 Sept 1856 |
| Classmark: | DAR 205.3: 269 (Letters), DAR 162: 38 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1951 |
To Joseph Augustin Hubert de Bosquet 9 September [1856]
Summary
On JAHdeB’s discovery of Cretaceous Chthamalus. Cites his own acceptance of negative evidence about Chthamali in Fossil Lepadidae.
Comments on JAHdeB’s cirripede drawings.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Augustin Hubert de Bosquet |
| Date: | 9 Sept [1856] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.138) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1952 |
From Peter Wallace 10 September 1856
Summary
Reports on the naturalised animal life of Ascension.
| Author: | Peter Wallace |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 10 Sept 1856 |
| Classmark: | DAR 205.2: 261 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1953 |
To Laurence Edmondston 11 September [1856]
Summary
Requests observations on pigeons.
Knew LE’s son [Thomas] and deplores his fate [accidental death in 1846].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Laurence Edmondston |
| Date: | 11 Sept [1856] |
| Classmark: | L. D. Edmondston (private collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1954 |
To W. B. Tegetmeier [18 September 1856]
Summary
CD concerned with rabbits and ducks because evidence of their single origin is "better … than in most cases".
Death of William Yarrell.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
| Date: | [18 Sept 1856] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1955 |
From Victor de Robillard 20 September 1856
Summary
C. T. Beke has communicated to the Mauritius Natural History Society a letter he received from CD. VdeR attempts to answer questions on transport of seeds by the ocean.
| Author: | Jean Aimé Victor (Victor) de Robillard |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 20 Sept 1856 |
| Classmark: | DAR 205.3: 286 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1956 |
To W. B. Tegetmeier 21 September [1856]
Summary
States his requirements with regard to pigeons and his interest in ducks and rabbits. Inquires about poultry seen at Leith Hill.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
| Date: | 21 Sept [1856] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1957 |
To Philip Henry Gosse 22 September [1856]
Summary
CD is working hard on variations.
Asks if PHG’s bald-pate pigeon [described in A naturalist’s sojourn in Jamaica (1851)] is a true rock-pigeon.
Can he obtain a specimen of the rabbits that have run wild, and a wild canary, and the body of any domestic or fancy pigeon which has been in the West Indies for some generations?
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Philip Henry Gosse |
| Date: | 22 Sept [1856] |
| Classmark: | Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1958 |
From Asa Gray 23 September 1856
Summary
Plants that are social in the U. S. but are not so in the Old World.
Distribution of U. S. species common to Europe.
Gives Theodor Engelmann’s opinion on the relative variability of indigenous and introduced plants and notes the effects of man’s settlement on the numbers and distribution of indigenous plants.
| Author: | Asa Gray |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 23 Sept 1856 |
| Classmark: | DAR 165: 94 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1959 |
To John Lubbock 23 September [1856]
Summary
Sends review by Quatrefages [de Bréau] of Owen’s Parthenogenesis [1849].
J. D. Dana’s congratulations on JL’s marriage.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury |
| Date: | 23 Sept [1856] |
| Classmark: | DAR 283: 12 (EH 88206461) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1960 |
| letter | (260) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (189) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (9) |
| Watson, H. C. | (7) |
| Blyth, Edward | (6) |
| Wollaston, T. V. | (5) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (69) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (30) |
| Tegetmeier, W. B. | (24) |
| Lubbock, John | (10) |
| Lyell, Charles | (9) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (258) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (39) |
| Tegetmeier, W. B. | (24) |
| Lyell, Charles | (12) |
| Lubbock, John | (10) |
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 …
- … Charles Lyell and Joseph Dalton Hooker, who were joined in 1856 by Hooker’s friend the American …
- … only source of information about his preoccupations during 1856 and 1857. They reveal little noticed …
- … might work in nature ( letter from Charles Lyell, 1–2 May 1856, n. 10 ). He was surprised that no …
- … remarked to Hooker ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 8 September [1856] ). I mean to make my …
- … on plants. Expanding projects set up during 1855 and 1856 (see Correspondence vol. 5), he tried …
- … first two chapters of his species book, completed by October 1856 (‘Journal’; Appendix II). …
- … Gray, vary in the United States ( letter to Asa Gray, 2 May 1856 )? What about weeds? Did they …
- … hermaphrodite’ ( letter to to T. H. Huxley, 1 July [1856] ), which became a source of amusement in …
- … that Asa Gray and Hooker confirmed during the course of 1856. Science at home: the botanical …
- … many different experiments on plants through the summers of 1856 and 1857, particularly with garden …
- … have grown well.’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 10 December [1856] ). His faith in his ideas …
- … trees (see letters to William Erasmus Darwin, [26 February 1856] and to Charles Lyell, 3 May …
- … Waring Darwin, the sixth and last, was born on 6 December 1856) was a constant worry, particularly …
- … in New South Wales ( letter to Syms Covington, 9 March 1856 ). Many other topics, …
- … the geological phenomenon of cleavage, still unresolved in 1856, with John Phillips and entered into …
- … visited the Darwins at Down House for several days in April 1856, and Darwin took this opportunity …
- … made in a letter written by Lyell from London on 1–2 May 1856. Darwin took the suggestion seriously …
- … him to write up his views ( letters to J. D. Hooker, 9 May [1856] ). Darwin had also …
- … At a second weekend party held at Down on 26 and 27 April 1856, he had discussed the question of …
- … doctrine.’ ( letter from Charles Lyell, 1–2 May 1856, n. 7 ). The excitement and intellectual …
Darwin and Fatherhood
Summary
Charles Darwin married Emma Wedgwood in 1839 and over the next seventeen years the couple had ten children. It is often assumed that Darwin was an exceptional Victorian father. But how extraordinary was he? The Correspondence Project allows an unusually…
Matches: 4 hits
- … were built to the area (Darwin to J. D. Hooker, 8 April [1856] ). This meant that most of the …
- … family duties (Darwin to W. B. Tegetmeier, 19 November [1856] ) made him unable to travel to many …
- … his son William, [30 October 1858] ). In one letter in 1856, he explained his paternal feelings …
- … in this world.’ (Darwin to Syms Covington, 9 March 1856 ) In the late nineteenth century, …
Dramatisation script
Summary
Re: Design – Adaptation of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin, Asa Gray and others… by Craig Baxter – as performed 25 March 2007
Origin
Summary
Darwin’s most famous work, Origin, had an inauspicious beginning. It grew out of his wish to establish priority for the species theory he had spent over twenty years researching. Darwin never intended to write Origin, and had resisted suggestions in 1856…
Six things Darwin never said – and one he did
Summary
Spot the fakes! Darwin is often quoted – and as often misquoted. Here are some sayings regularly attributed to Darwin that never flowed from his pen.
Matches: 1 hits
- … Spot the fakes! Darwin is often quoted – and as often misquoted. Here are some sayings regularly …
Dates of composition of Darwin's manuscript on species
Summary
Many of the dates of letters in 1856 and 1857 were based on or confirmed by reference to Darwin’s manuscript on species (DAR 8--15.1, inclusive; transcribed and published as Natural selection). This manuscript, begun in May 1856, was nearly completed by…
Matches: 5 hits
- … Many of the dates of letters in 1856 and 1857 were based on or confirmed by reference to Darwin’s …
- … as Natural selection ). This manuscript, begun in May 1856, was nearly completed by June 1858. At …
- … 2 13 October 1856 [Variation under domestication] [2] …
- … 11 13 October 1856 Geographical distribution (DAR 14; …
- … 3 16 December 1856 On the possibility of all organic …
Descent
Summary
There are more than five hundred letters associated with the research and writing of Darwin’s book, Descent of man and selection in relation to sex (Descent). They trace not only the tortuous route to eventual publication, but the development of Darwin’s…
Matches: 1 hits
- … research notes, including letters going back to at least 1856 . Among them were accounts of …
Species and varieties
Summary
On the origin of species by means of natural selection …so begins the title of Darwin’s most famous book, and the reader would rightly assume that such a thing as ‘species’ must therefore exist and be subject to description. But the title continues, …or…
Matches: 1 hits
- … undefinable’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 24 December [1856] ). The idea that sterility was a test …
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 *128: 160] Mansfield’s Paraguay [Mansfield 1856] } read Chesterton Prison Life …
- … Hutchison Dog Breaking 3 d . Edit [Hutchinson 1856] new information on Pointer & Retriever …
- … Annal des Sc. Nat. 4 th Series. Bot. Vol 6 [Naudin 1856]. Read Notes to Jardine & …
- … 1855 Sept. Tegetmeier on Poultry [Tegetmeier 1856–7] —— 27 th . Mem. de l’Acad. …
- … Das Ganze der Landwirttschaft [Kirchhof 1835].— 1856. Jan 10 th G. Colin Traite de …
- … [Rudolphi 1812] [DAR 128: 16] 1856 Jan 21. Huc’s Chinese Empire [Huc …
- … Mar 1 Veith Naturgeschichte Haussaugethiere [Veith 1856].— 3 d Knox Races of Man.— 1850 [R …
- … 1741–55] d[itt]o [DAR 128: 17] 1856 . Jan 28. Watt’s Life by Muirhead …
- … [Pepys 1848–9]— April 21 Sandwitt Kars [Sandwith 1856]. [DAR 128: 18] March …
- … 1851–6] —— Wollaston on Variation [Wollaston 1856] F. Smith on Apidæ [F. Smith 1855] …
- … 1835 [H. C. Watson 1835] [DAR 128: 20] 1856 June 26. Davis J. Barnard. …
- … 1855] —— 19 Von Tschudi Alpine life [Tschudi 1856] 30. Brehm Handbuch Vogel …
- … 1857 Nov. 15. Andersson Lake Gnami [Andersson 1856] —— 26 Slightly skimmed Forbes …
- … 1765] Oct. 23. Tracings of Iceland Chambers [Chambers 1856]. —— Mansfield Travels in …
- … 2 vols July D r . Kane’s Arctic Voyage [Kane 1856] Sept. 12. Ch. Napiers Life …
- … rubbish yet amusing Nov. 15. Tender & True [Spence] 1856]: H. Coverdale [Smedley [1854–6] …
- … Travels I ever read) Sept. Froude Henry VIII [Froude 1856]. 4 vols very interesting. …
- … —— 16 Zoologist [ Zoologist ]. up Vol. 14. 1856 May 9 th Voyage au Pol. Sud. Consid. Gen …
- … 1859 Feb. 28 Olmstead S. States [Olmsted 1856] (excellent) March 21. Mill on Liberty …
- … The revised edition of Johnston’s Physical atlas (1856) included ‘Map of the distribution of …
- … 113 The Cottage Gardener ceased publication in 1856. 114 CD marked this entry …
- … vols. London. 119: 14a Andersson, Carl Johan. 1856. Lake Ngami; or, explorations and …
- … [Darwin Library.] 119: 20a; *128: 173 ——. 1856. Tracings of Iceland and the Faröe …
- … [Other eds.] 119: 9a Chesterton, George Laval. 1856. Revelations of prison life; …
- … 128: 5 Davis, Joseph Barnard and Thurnam, John. 1856–65. Crania Britannica. …
- … Three visits to Madagascar during the years 1853, 1854, 1856 . London. 128: 24 …
- … . Lundæ. *119: 5v. Froude, James Anthony. 1856. History of England from the fall of …
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: 9 hits
- … naturalist Edward Forbes. Darwin declared to Hooker in July 1856 ‘y ou continental extensionists …
- … of his old friend, the geologist Charles Lyell, who, in May 1856, twenty months after Darwin had …
- … urgency to publish and, following Lyell’s advice in May 1856, began to write a sketch his theory. ‘I …
- … without full details. ’ Writing to his cousin Fox in June 1856, Darwin openly confessed his fears …
- … work ’ he had ‘desisted’. By November 1856, he had both good and bad news to report to Lyell: ‘ …
- … press. Although Darwin had decided in the autumn of 1856 to write only from the materials he …
- … wrote ten and a half chapters of his Big Book between May 1856 and June 1858. With a total of …
- … length ’, he had complained to Hooker in December 1856. By mid-1858, only the first chapter on …
- … being the second part of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858 (Cambridge University …
Thomas Henry Huxley
Summary
Dubbed “Darwin’s bulldog” for his combative role in controversies over evolution, Huxley was a leading Victorian zoologist, science popularizer, and education reformer. He was born in Ealing, a small village west of London, in 1825. With only two years of…
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…
4.16 Joseph Simms, physiognomy
Summary
< Back to Introduction In September 1874, the American doctor Joseph Simms, then on a three-year lecture tour of Britain, sent Darwin a copy of his book, Nature’s Revelations of Character; Or, Physiognomy Illustrated. He was seeking a public…
Matches: 1 hits
- … of the human form’, Quarterly Review , 99:198 (Sept. 1856), pp. 452-491. Joseph Simms, Nature’s …
Darwin in letters, 1882: Nothing too great or too small
Summary
In 1882, Darwin reached his 74th year Earthworms had been published the previous October, and for the first time in decades he was not working on another book. He remained active in botanical research, however. Building on his recent studies in plant…
Matches: 1 hits
- … to me’ ( letter to E. W. V. Harcourt, 24 June [1856] ). In a follow-up letter, Darwin hinted at …
Hermann Müller
Summary
Hermann (Heinrich Ludwig Hermann) Müller, was born in Mühlberg near Erfurt in 1829. He was the younger brother of Fritz Müller (1822–97). Following the completion of his secondary education at Erfurt in 1848, he studied natural sciences at Halle and Berlin…
Matches: 1 hits
- … it was the subject of his first scientific paper (Müller 1856). In the autumn of 1855, Müller …
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
- … Letter 1979 — Darwin, C. R. to Lubbock, John, 27 Oct [1856] Darwin provides detailed …
Correlation of growth: deaf blue-eyed cats, pigs, and poison
Summary
As he was first developing his ideas, among the potential problems Darwin recognised with natural selection was how to account for developmental change that conferred no apparent advantage. He proposed a ‘mysterious law’ of ‘correlation of growth’ where…
Darwin in letters, 1872: Job done?
Summary
'My career’, Darwin wrote towards the end of 1872, 'is so nearly closed. . . What little more I can do, shall be chiefly new work’, and the tenor of his correspondence throughout the year is one of wistful reminiscence, coupled with a keen eye…
Matches: 1 hits
- … `big book’, Natural selection , begun in 1856. Coming hard on the heels of The descent of man …
3.2 Maull and Polyblank photo 1
Summary
< Back to Introduction The rise of professional photographic studios in the mid nineteenth century was a key factor in the shaping of Darwinian iconography, but Darwin’s relationship with these firms was from the start a cautious and sometimes a…
Begins 'Natural Selection'
Summary
Darwin begins writing his 'big book', Natural Selection. The book was never finished, but later formed the basis for On the Origin of Species
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin begins writing his 'big book', Natural Selection. The book was never finished, but …
