skip to content

Darwin Correspondence Project

Search: contains ""

Darwin Correspondence Project
Search:
1859::01 in date disabled_by_default
1859::01 in date disabled_by_default
12 Items
Sorted by:  
Page: 1

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

thumbnail

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]

thumbnail

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]

thumbnail

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

thumbnail

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]

thumbnail

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]

thumbnail

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]

thumbnail

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
Search:
in keywords
231 Items
Page:  1 2 3 4 5  ...  Next

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,…

Matches: 4 hits

  • … "A child of God" (1) Abberley, John (1) …
  • … (2) Aitken, Thomas (1) Albano, Louisa …
  • … (2) Allen, Frances (1) Allen, Grant …
  • … (4) Althaus, Julius (1) Ambrose, J. L. …

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…

Matches: 2 hits

  • … when grown together for several years ( To Édouard Bornet, 1 December 1866 ). Darwin began a …
  • … in divergent climatic conditions’ ( From Fritz Müller, 1 December 1866 ). Darwin’s interest was …

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…

Matches: 2 hits

  • … the answers from the interview.     1. According to Darwin, how did language …
  • … after his death? Transcription 1. According to Darwin, how did language …

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…

Matches: 1 hits

  • … creation 1853 
 computer-readable date 1853-01-01 to 1853-12-31 
 medium and …

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…

Matches: 1 hits

  • … or early 1855 
 computer-readable date 1854-01-01 to 1855-05-01 
 medium and …

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…

Matches: 1 hits

  • … March 1882 
 computer-readable date 1882-01-01 to 1882-03-07   
 medium and …

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 …

Matches: 1 hits

  • … c. 1872-3 
 computer-readable date c. 1872-01-01 to 1873-12-31 
 medium and …

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…

Matches: 3 hits

  • … sono; Chè quanto io posso dar, tutto vi dono.” 1 To the master of …
  • … sono; Chè quanto io posso dar, tutto vi dono”. 1 —§—   …
  • … still it shines bright! 1. Non che poco io dia, da imputar sono; …

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: 2 hits

  • … the chapters ( Natural selection ) are also given. Chapter 1 is not extant nor was it recorded in …
  • … title and references 1 [Not known] …

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…

Matches: 2 hits

  • … Erasmus’s life and other bits of family history. On 1 January , a distant cousin, Charles …
  • … to his daughter Henrietta ( letter to H. E. Litchfield, 1 February [1880] ). ‘The world will only …

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.  

Matches: 0 hits

Page:  1 2 3 4 5  ...  Next