To John Maurice Herbert 2 January [1856]
Summary
Thanks JMH for book of poems.
Recalls early days together. He cannot visit due to health.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Maurice Herbert |
| Date: | 2 Jan [1856] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.121) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1814 |
To W. D. Fox 3 January [1856]
Summary
Thanks WDF for his help and reports on progress in "the Cock and Hen line of business". Has written to every quarter of the world for skins of poultry and pigeons.
As for seeds, Hooker and Bentham obstinately refuse to believe they can live even a few years in the ground.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
| Date: | 3 Jan [1856] |
| Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 86) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1815 |
To John Stevens Henslow 3 January [1856]
Summary
Thanks for JSH’s letter, which has been of real use.
Complains of the trouble caused by reports to Government required of Benefit Clubs.
Interested in case of Canada geese with seed in crop, because means of distribution is now a great hobby.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
| Date: | 3 Jan [1856] |
| Classmark: | DAR 93: A106–A107 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1816 |
To John Davy 3 January [1856]
Summary
Delighted to hear that JD’s research is continuing. CD has heard that JD’s paper will at last be published. He is flattered by the form [as a letter addressed to CD] of communication. [See 1651a and 1819a, published in Phil. Trans. R. S. 146 (1856): 21–9 and Proc. R. S. London 8 (1856–7): 27–33.]
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Davy |
| Date: | 3 Jan [1856] |
| Classmark: | David Schulson (dealer) (Catalogue 61, 1991) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1816A |
From Edward Blyth 8 January [1856]
Summary
Encloses "notes for Mr. D" [see 1818] and a memorandum on the wild cattle of southern India [see 1819].
Breeds of silky fowl of China and Malaya. Black-skinned fowl.
Doubts any breed of canary has siskin blood; all remain true to their type.
Wild canary and finch hybrids.
Hybrids between one- and two-humped camels.
Does not regard zebra markings on asses as an indication of interbreeding but as one of the many instances of markings in the young which more or less disappear in the adult.
Crossing of Coracias species at the edges of their ranges.
Regional variations and intergrading between species of pigeons.
Regards the differences in Treron as specific [see Natural selection, p. 115 n. 1].
Gives other instances of representative species or races differing only in certain details of colouring.
| Author: | Edward Blyth |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 8 Jan [1856] |
| Classmark: | DAR 98: A110–13, A117–21 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1817 |
From Charles Wade Crump to Edward Blyth [before 8 January 1856]
Summary
Reports upon a breed of wild cattle found in southern India. The herd is reputedly descended from a wild, red bull that mated with tame cows.
[This memorandum was forwarded to CD enclosed with 1817.]
| Author: | Charles Crump |
| Addressee: | Edward Blyth |
| Date: | [before 8 Jan 1856] |
| Classmark: | DAR 98: A114–A116 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1819 |
From John Davy 10 January 1856
Summary
On the vitality of the ova of the Salmonidae at different stages of development.
| Author: | John Davy |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 10 Jan 1856 |
| Classmark: | Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 8 (1856–7): 27–33 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1819A |
To W. B. Tegetmeier 14 January [1856]
Summary
Is attempting to get skins of poultry from all quarters of the world. Wants to inspect poultry collections.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
| Date: | 14 Jan [1856] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1820 |
To John Edward Gray 14 January [1856]
Summary
Requests that JEG secure the assistance of Samuel Birch in regard to information about varieties of domesticated animals and plants in China. Encloses memorandum.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Edward Gray |
| Date: | 14 Jan [1856] |
| Classmark: | British Museum (Department of the Middle East, correspondence 1826–67: 1490, 1488) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1820A |
To W. B. Tegetmeier [1 February 1856]
Summary
Has been invited to see Mr Bult’s pigeons.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
| Date: | [1 Feb 1856] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1821 |
To John Phillips 18 January [1856]
Summary
Discusses chapter [6] on cleavage and foliation in South America. Notes especially cleavage where two series cross and cleavage as basis of foliation in metamorphosed rock. Notes foliation in rocks that have been liquefied by heat. Mentions case described in his "Geology of the Falkland Islands" [Collected papers 1: 203–12]. Discusses relationship of cleavage to beds. Speculations on association between grauwacke and clay-slates.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Phillips |
| Date: | 18 Jan [1856] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.122) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1822 |
To J. E. Gray 19 January [1856]
Summary
Is obliged for JEG’s assistance.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Edward Gray |
| Date: | 19 Jan [1856] |
| Classmark: | British Museum (Department of the Middle East, correspondence 1826–67: 1491) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1822A |
To J. S. Henslow 22 January [1856]
Summary
Alphonse de Candolle’s Géographie botanique [raisonnée (1855)] strikes him as a wonderful, admirable work.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
| Date: | 22 Jan [1856] |
| Classmark: | DAR 93: A108–A109 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1823 |
To Walter Elliot 23 January 1856
Summary
Requests WE’s measurements of tigers.
Asks about a work on domestic pigeons in an Eastern language. Will consult [Ayeen Akbery or, the institutes of the Emperor Akber, trans. from Persian by Francis Gladwin, 2 vols. (1777, 1800)].
Asks for specimen skins of domestic pigeons and poultry. [See Variation 1: 205.]
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Walter Elliot |
| Date: | 23 Jan 1856 |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.123) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1824 |
From Edward Blyth 23 January 1856
Summary
Believes the goldfish originates from a wild, gold variety of Chinese carp.
Gallinaceous birds.
Crested turkeys.
EB divides the gallinaceous birds into five families on anatomical distinctions.
Wild dog species of India and Asia; ranges of some species, specific identity of others.
The fauna of the Seychelles.
Breeding of fowls in India and Africa.
Occurrence of turkeys in Africa.
Refers to some of his own papers giving fuller details of points raised previously.
| Author: | Edward Blyth |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 23 Jan 1856 |
| Classmark: | DAR 98: A122–A125 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1825 |
To Katharine Murray Lyell 26 January [1856]
Summary
Suggests that J. E. Gray and/or G. R. Waterhouse might be willing to set her butterfly collection. Recommends that her children should collect their own butterflies.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Katharine Murray Horner; Katharine Murray Lyell |
| Date: | 26 Jan [1856] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.124) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1827 |
To John Phillips 28 January [1856]
Summary
Thanks JP for beautiful book [? The rivers, mountains and sea-coast of Yorkshire, 2d ed. (1855)].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Phillips |
| Date: | 28 Jan [1856] |
| Classmark: | Oxford University Museum of Natural History Archive Collections (John Phillips collection)) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1828 |
To William Yarrell 6 [February 1856]
Summary
"The Pigeons are all quite well".
Sends thanks to Mrs Cotton.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Yarrell |
| Date: | 6 [Feb 1856] |
| Classmark: | Cleveland Health Sciences Library (Robert M. Stecher collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1829 |
To Samuel Birch 6 February [1856]
Summary
Is grateful for SB’s note and assistance. Will call upon him in London in a fortnight.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Samuel Birch |
| Date: | 6 Feb [1856] |
| Classmark: | British Museum (Department of the Middle East, correspondence 1826–67: 1492) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1829A |
From Charles James Fox Bunbury 7 February 1856
Summary
Has heard CD is much interested in questions relating to varieties and species. Mentions a case of a seminal variety of Colletia spinosa, described by John Lindley, which appears identical with another wild species of Colletia from S. America. Hopes CD will one day "enlighten us very much" on "the laws of species". There are many different views on the limits of species; M. F. Dunal made 50 species of Solanum which George Bentham considers are all varieties of S. nigrum.
| Author: | Charles James Fox Bunbury, 8th baronet |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 7 Feb 1856 |
| Classmark: | DAR 160: 374, DAR 205.4: 97 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1830 |
| 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 …
