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 |
To James Dwight Dana 11 November [1859]
Summary
Has sent JDD a copy of Origin; knows it will horrify him, but hopes JDD will credit him with an honest search for truth. Believes that JDD may come to think there is more to be said "in favour of mutability of species than is at first appreciated".
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | James Dwight Dana |
| Date: | 11 Nov [1859] |
| Classmark: | Yale University Library: Manuscripts and Archives (Dana Family Papers (MS 164) Series 1, Box 2, folder 44) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2516 |
To Armand de Quatrefages 5 December [1859]
Summary
Mentions English scientists who support mutability of species.
Asks QdeB whether he could help locate a French translator and publisher.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Jean Louis Armand (Armand de Quatrefages) Quatrefages de Bréau |
| Date: | 5 Dec [1859] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.183) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2571 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … letters to J. L. A. de Quatrefages de Bréau, 21 January [1860] and 30 March [1860]. The first French translation of Origin was eventually prepared by Clémence Auguste Royer and published in 1862 ( …
- … letter has not been found. Quatrefages de Bréau, a disciple of Henri Milne-Edwards , held a view of transformism based on the developmental processes of organisms (see Appel 1987 , pp. 234 and 236). Nevertheless, he found it impossible to accept CD’s views. Copies of some of Quatrefages de Bréau’s books, including those in which he developed his ideas of the distinctness of man from the animal world and the single origin of the human races ( Quatrefages de Bréau 1861 and 1862), …
To Benjamin Collins Brodie 26 April [1859]
Summary
CD suggests George Bentham or Joseph Prestwich for Royal Medal.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Benjamin Collins Brodie, Sr, 1st baronet |
| Date: | 26 Apr [1859] |
| Classmark: | The Royal Society |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2454F |
To William Henry Sykes 20 December [1859]
Summary
Urges appointment of Edward Blyth as naturalist on an expedition to China.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Henry Sykes |
| Date: | 20 Dec [1859] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.185) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2588 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letters from Edward Blyth , 23 February 1856 and 26 February 1856 ). The ‘China expedition’ was a second British expeditionary mission, being organised under James Bruce , Earl of Elgin, against the Chinese as a result of the emperor’s failure in June 1859 to ratify the treaty of Tientsin. It set out early in 1860. See Walrond ed. 1872, pp. 315–16. There is no record of a naturalist accompanying this expedition. Blyth remained in Calcutta until his retirement in 1862. …
| letter | (5) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (4) |
| Martin, W. C. L. | (1) |
| Brodie, B. C., Sr | (1) |
| Dana, J. D. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (1) |
| Quatrefages de Bréau, Armand de Quatrefages | (1) |
| Sykes, W. H. | (1) |
Darwin in letters, 1862: A multiplicity of experiments
Summary
1862 was a particularly productive year for Darwin. This was not only the case in his published output (two botanical papers and a book on the pollination mechanisms of orchids), but more particularly in the extent and breadth of the botanical experiments…
Matches: 1 hits
- … As the sheer volume of his correspondence indicates, 1862 was a particularly productive year for …
Origin: the lost changes for the second German edition
Summary
Darwin sent a list of changes made uniquely to the second German edition of Origin to its translator, Heinrich Georg Bronn. That lost list is recreated here.
Matches: 1 hits
- … In March 1862, Heinrich Georg Bronn wrote to Darwin stating his intention to prepare a second …
Dramatisation script
Summary
Re: Design – Adaptation of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin, Asa Gray and others… by Craig Baxter – as performed 25 March 2007
Matches: 1 hits
- … Re: Design – performance version – 25 March 2007 – 1 Re: Design – Adaptation of the …
Darwin’s hothouse and lists of hothouse plants
Summary
Darwin became increasingly involved in botanical experiments in the years after the publication of Origin. The building of a small hothouse - a heated greenhouse - early in 1863 greatly increased the range of plants that he could keep for scientific…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Towards the end of 1862, Darwin resolved to build a small hothouse at Down House, for …
I beg a million pardons: To John Lubbock, [3 September 1862]
Summary
Alison Pearn looks at a letter Darwin wrote to his neighbour and friend, John Lubbock, after making a mistake in his research on bees in 1862.
Matches: 1 hits
- … Alison Pearn looks at a letter Darwin wrote to his neighbour and friend, …
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
- … Observers | Fieldwork | Experimentation | Editors and critics | Assistants …
Evolution: Selected Letters of Charles Darwin 1860-1870
Summary
This selection of Charles Darwin’s letters includes correspondence with his friends and scientific colleagues around the world; letters by the critics who tried to stamp out his ideas, and by admirers who helped them to spread. It takes up the story of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … This selection of Charles Darwin’s letters includes correspondence with his friends and scientific …
Floral Dimorphism
Summary
Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment Floral studies In 1877 Darwin published a book that included a series of smaller studies on botanical subjects. Titled The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species, it consisted primarily of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Sources | Discussion Questions | Experiment Floral studies In 1877 …
Women as a scientific audience
Summary
Target audience? | Female readership | Reading Variation Darwin's letters, in particular those exchanged with his editors and publisher, reveal a lot about his intended audience. Regardless of whether or not women were deliberately targeted as a…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Target audience? | Female readership | Reading Variation Darwin's …
Darwin in letters, 1865: Delays and disappointments
Summary
The year was marked by three deaths of personal significance to Darwin: Hugh Falconer, a friend and supporter; Robert FitzRoy, captain of the Beagle; and William Jackson Hooker, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and father of Darwin’s friend…
Matches: 1 hits
- … In 1865, the chief work on Charles Darwin’s mind was the writing of The variation of animals and …
Darwin in letters, 1863: Quarrels at home, honours abroad
Summary
At the start of 1863, Charles Darwin was actively working on the manuscript of The variation of animals and plants under domestication, anticipating with excitement the construction of a hothouse to accommodate his increasingly varied botanical experiments…
Matches: 1 hits
- … At the start of 1863, Charles Darwin was actively working on the manuscript of The variation of …
Orchids
Summary
Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment A project to follow On the Origin of Species Darwin began to observe English orchids and collect specimens from abroad in the years immediately following the publication of On the Origin of Species. Examining…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Sources | Discussion Questions | Experiment A project to follow On the Origin …
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
- … Darwin's most famous book On the origin of species by means of natural selection (Origin) was …
Dining at Down House
Summary
Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment Dining, Digestion, and Darwin's Domestic Life While Darwin is best remembered for his scientific accomplishments, he greatly valued and was strongly influenced by his domestic life. Darwin's…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Sources | Discussion Questions | Experiment Dining, Digestion, and Darwin's …
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
- … Friendship | Mentors | Class | Gender In its broadest sense, a scientific …
Science: A Man’s World?
Summary
Discussion Questions|Letters Darwin's correspondence show that many nineteenth-century women participated in the world of science, be it as experimenters, observers, editors, critics, producers, or consumers. Despite this, much of the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Discussion Questions | Letters Darwin's correspondence show that many nineteenth …
Darwin on race and gender
Summary
Darwin’s views on race and gender are intertwined, and mingled also with those of class. In Descent of man, he tried to explain the origin of human races, and many of the differences between the sexes, with a single theory: sexual selection. Sexual…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin’s views on race and gender are intertwined, and mingled also with those of class. In …
Darwin in letters, 1864: Failing health
Summary
On receiving a photograph from Charles Darwin, the American botanist Asa Gray wrote on 11 July 1864: ‘the venerable beard gives the look of your having suffered, and … of having grown older’. Because of poor health, Because of poor health, Darwin…
Matches: 1 hits
- … On receiving a photograph from Charles Darwin, the American botanist Asa Gray wrote on 11 July …
Forms of flowers
Summary
Darwin’s book The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species, published in 1877, investigated the structural differences in the sexual organs of flowers of the same species. It drew on and expanded five articles Darwin had published on the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin’s book The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species , published in 1877, …
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: 1 hits
- … Charles Darwin married Emma Wedgwood in 1839 and over the next seventeen years the couple had ten …
