From William Charles Linnaeus Martin [1859–61]
Summary
MS of a paper called "Comments on Mr Darwin’s grand theory", which generally supports CD but proposes that present flightless birds are primitive. Paper supplemented by a diagram showing the phylogeny of birds.
| Author: | William Charles Linnaeus Martin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [1859–61] |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 56/1–15 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13827 |
From A. C. Ramsay 6 January 1859
Summary
Responds to CD’s queries concerning faults; is sending sections of the kind he wants. The Merionethshire fault with a downthrow of 12000ft. [See Origin, p. 285.]
| Author: | Andrew Crombie Ramsay |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 6 Jan 1859 |
| Classmark: | DAR 205.9: 399 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2398 |
From Richard Hill 10 January 1859
Summary
Will secure information on indigenous and naturalised bees as CD requests.
Believes Mexican and Jamaican Melipona are different.
| Author: | Richard Hill |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 10 Jan 1859 |
| Classmark: | DAR 166: 218 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2399 |
To Syms Covington 16 January 1859
Summary
Regrets SC’s increasing deafness, but advises that aurists are humbugs.
Tells of illnesses in family and his own poor health. "I never know 24 hours comfort."
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Syms Covington |
| Date: | 16 Jan 1859 |
| Classmark: | Brian Sirl (private collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2400 |
To J. D. Hooker 20 January [1859]
Summary
At work on abstract.
Continues argument on effectiveness of dispersal. Has doubts about relationship of isolation to highness of Australian flora. Questions about survival of European plants introduced in Australia.
CD receives the Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 20 Jan [1859] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 2 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2401 |
To John Phillips 21 January [1859]
Summary
Acknowledges the honour that the Council [of the Geological Society] have conferred upon him [award of Wollaston Medal]. Will attend the anniversary meeting if his health permits, but cannot attend the dinner.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Phillips |
| Date: | 21 Jan [1859] |
| Classmark: | Oxford University Museum of Natural History (Geological collections) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2402 |
To J. D. Hooker 23 January [1859]
Summary
Wallace has written and is well satisfied with the joint presentation.
CD requests some facts to make case in his abstract for former glacial action in Himalayas.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 23 Jan [1859] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 3 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2403 |
From J. D. Hooker 25 January 1859
Summary
Relieved by Wallace’s letter.
At work on introductory essay to Flora Tasmaniae.
European plants naturalised in Australia are almost all adapted to invading disturbed ground.
JDH supports Asa Gray against Alphonse de Candolle as foreign member of Royal Society.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 25 Jan 1859 |
| Classmark: | DAR 100: 131–2 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2404 |
To A. R. Wallace 25 January [1859]
Summary
Expresses pleasure and relief at ARW’s response to joint publication of their pieces about natural selection.
Plans for the "abstract" [Origin].
Birds’ nests as evidence of variation of instincts.
Their collection of bees’ combs.
Praises ARW’s article.
Lyell’s and Hooker’s views [of species issue].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Alfred Russel Wallace |
| Date: | 25 Jan [1859] |
| Classmark: | The British Library (Add MS 46434) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2405 |
To J. D. Hooker 28 January [1859]
Summary
CD not convinced that naturalisation of European plants abroad is strictly dependent on creation by agriculture of disturbed ground.
More than half through his chapter on geographical distribution.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 28 Jan [1859] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 4 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2406 |
From W. C. L. Martin [1859–61]
Summary
Examples of animals that dwell in dark places, some of which are blind, some not. Asks: where causes are the same, why is not the effect? Does not think disuse is the answer, but arrested development.
Comments also on the absence of a ligament in four mammals and asks how natural selection accounts for this.
| Author: | William Charles Linnaeus Martin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [1859–61] |
| Classmark: | DAR 47: 211–13 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2629 |
To J. S. Henslow 10 January [1859]
Summary
Thanks JSH for specimens. Comments on the structure of a hornet comb and asks JSH to obtain some fresh combs for him and to make observations for him. He is greatly interested in "these wondrous architectural instincts".
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
| Date: | 10 Jan [1859] |
| Classmark: | DAR 93: A120–A121 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2648 |
| letter | (12) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (7) |
| Martin, W. C. L. | (2) |
| Hill, Richard | (1) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (1) |
| Ramsay, A. C. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (5) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
| Covington, Syms | (1) |
| Henslow, J. S. | (1) |
| Phillips, John | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (12) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (4) |
| Martin, W. C. L. | (2) |
| Covington, Syms | (1) |
| Henslow, J. S. | (1) |
List of correspondents
Summary
Below is a list of Darwin's correspondents with the number of letters for each one. Click on a name to see the letters Darwin exchanged with that correspondent. "A child of God" (1) Abberley,…
Darwin The Collector
Summary
Look at nature more closely and create and record your own natural collections.
Matches: 1 hits
- … Activities provide an introduction to Charles Darwin, how and why he collected so many specimens …
Detecting Darwin
Summary
Who was Charles Darwin? What is he famous for? Why is he still important?
Matches: 1 hits
- … Pupils act as Darwin detectives, exploring clues about Darwin’s life and work. No prior knowledge …
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…
4.18 'Figaro' chromolithograph 1
Summary
< Back to Introduction In a cartoon of 1874 by Figaro’s French-born artist Faustin Betbeder (known as Faustin), Darwin holds up a mirror reflecting himself and the startled ape sitting beside him. Their hairy bodies, seen against a background of palm…
Matches: 1 hits
- … 1874 computer-readable date c. 1874-02-01 to 1874-02-17 medium and material …
Language: Interview with Gregory Radick
Summary
Darwin made a famous comment about parallels between changes in language and species change. Gregory Radick, Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at Leeds University, talks about the importance of the development of language to Darwin, what…
1 Belgrave Street, London
Summary
Marriages and gossip
Matches: 1 hits
- … A family friend relates news of her marriage and other gossip. …
1.4 Samuel Laurence drawing 1
Summary
< Back to Introduction Samuel Laurence’s intimate chalk drawing of Darwin is dated 1853. It is likely that Darwin sat for the portrait at Down House, and Francis Darwin, in his catalogue of portraits of his father painted or drawn ‘from life’, noted…
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…
4.44 'Puck' cartoon 1
Summary
< Back to Introduction In March 1882, a month before Darwin’s death, an admiring image of him appeared in the American comic journal Puck. It was in a cartoon drawn by Joseph Keppler, Puck’s co-publisher, co-editor and chief cartoonist, titled Reason…
4.21 Gegeef, 'Our National Church', 1
Summary
< Back to Introduction A print with the ironic title Our National Church: The Aegis of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity was issued by the London publisher Edmund Appleyard in c.1872-3, and sold at a penny. The artist who drew it signed himself …
3.4 William Darwin, photo 1
Summary
< Back to Introduction In the 1860s Darwin increasingly turned to two of his sons - first to William and later to Leonard - for the fashioning of his image. William, the eldest, apparently took up photography c.1857, when still in his teens, and…
Matches: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction In the 1860s Darwin increasingly turned to two of his sons - …
4.34 'Punch', Sambourne cartoon 1
Summary
< Back to Introduction Linley Sambourne’s cartoon in Punch, a ‘Suggested Illustration’ for Darwin’s forthcoming book on The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants (1875) is another playful transformation of the author into an ape or monkey. However,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … December 1875 computer-readable date 1875-12-01 to 1875-12-10 medium and …
German poems presented to Darwin
Summary
Experiments in deepest reverence The following poems were enclosed with a photograph album sent as a birthday gift to Charles Darwin by his German and Austrian admirers (see letter from From Emil Rade, [before 16] February 1877). The poems were…
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…
Darwin in letters, 1880: Sensitivity and worms
Summary
‘My heart & soul care for worms & nothing else in this world,’ Darwin wrote to his old Shrewsbury friend Henry Johnson on 14 November 1880. Darwin became fully devoted to earthworms in the spring of the year, just after finishing the manuscript of…
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: 0 hits
Darwin And Evolution
Summary
What is evolution? What did Darwin discover and how did he come to his conclusions?
Matches: 1 hits
- … Activities give an introduction to Charles Darwin and his theories of evolution. Specimens brought …
Henrietta Darwin's diary
Summary
Darwin's daughter Henrietta kept a diary for a few momentous weeks in 1871. This was the year in which Descent of Man, the most controversial of her father's books after Origin itself, appeared, a book which she had helped him write. The small…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Lena much excited about the Mission which was just over. 1 Whilst it is fresh in my mind I …
Home learning: 7-11 years
Summary
Do try this at home! Support your children’s learning by downloading our free and fun activities for those aged between 7-11 and 11-14 years, using Darwin’s letters.
