To W. T. Thiselton-Dyer [19 December 1875]
Summary
CD’s attempts to get support for Lankester among Fellows of the Linnean Society. He has encountered opposition to the Council.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Turner Thiselton-Dyer |
| Date: | [19 Dec 1875] |
| Classmark: | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Thiselton-Dyer, W.T., Letters from Charles Darwin 1873–81: 52–5) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10308 |
Matches: 4 hits
To J. S. Henslow [22 January 1843]
Summary
Comments on JSH’s botanical work with his parishioners. Lyell will be pleased that he has done some fossil botanical work.
Describes a Geological Society meeting about Edward Charlesworth’s complaints.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
| Date: | [22 Jan 1843] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-660 |
To J. D. Hooker 1 August [1857]
Summary
Important issue at stake with new flora calculations: evidence that species are only strongly marked varieties. Planning large-scale survey.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 1 Aug [1857] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 206, 207 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2130 |
To C. S. Bate 30 August [1853]
Summary
Sends thanks for recent specimen, which gave him conclusive evidence that Verruca acts only on calcareous rocks.
Asks for a reference on carbonic acid.
Is glad CSB progresses in research on spider-like Crustacea.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Spence Bate |
| Date: | 30 Aug [1853] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1528 |
To Charles Lyell [November–December 1842]
Summary
Believes "absurd letter" hastily read at last Geological Society Council meeting was from Charlesworth’s solicitor. Suggests that it may have been sent to entrap the Council and that it should be read over carefully.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Date: | [Nov–Dec 1842] |
| Classmark: | The British Library (Surrogate RP 7381(i)) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-653 |
To Charles Lyell [September–December 1842]
Summary
Discusses relationship of subsidence to the formation of coral reefs.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Date: | [Sept–Dec 1842] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.30) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-605 |
From Hensleigh Wedgwood 25 September [1842]
Summary
Gives an account of his father’s illness.
| Author: | Hensleigh Wedgwood |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 25 Sept [1842] |
| Classmark: | V&A / Wedgwood Collection (MS W/M 258) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-644 |
To William Allport Leighton 26 November [1862]
Summary
For his work on dimorphism, CD asks WAL if he can send roots of two forms of Epilobium angustifolium. He doubts that they are reciprocally connected like the two forms of Primula, but will try the experiment.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Allport Leighton |
| Date: | 26 Nov [1862] |
| Classmark: | Milton D. Forsyth, Jr (private collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3832 |
Selwyn, George Augustus. 1844. New Zealand. Part I, Letters from the Bishop … with extracts from his visitation journal, from July 1842, to January 1843. Edited by C. B. Dalton. London.
To A. S. Horner [4 October 1842]
Summary
Emma recovering well from birth of third child, Mary Eleanor.
Sorry to hear Leonard Horner has been ill.
Has received high praise of Coral reefs from Lyell.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Anne Susanna Lloyd; Anne Susanna Horner |
| Date: | [4 Oct 1842] |
| Classmark: | DAR 261.11: 1 (EH 88206053) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-648 |
To John Stevens Henslow [25 July 1844]
Summary
Sends a specimen of rusty wheat from the banks of the Plata.
Asks for bits of peat he collected
and a bit of the paint used by Fuegians to colour themselves.
He will send these to C. G. Ehrenberg for analysis.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Stevens Henslow |
| Date: | [25 July 1844] |
| Classmark: | John Hay Library, Brown University (Albert E. Lownes Manuscript Collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-765 |
To William Lonsdale 6 May [1864]
Summary
Thanks WL for his MS on coral and suggests that it be sent to the Geological Society for printing or preserving in the archives.
Comments on his and WL’s bad health and recalls WL’s past kindness to him.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Lonsdale |
| Date: | 6 May [1864] |
| Classmark: | Murch 1893, pp. 436–7 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5080A |
Matches: 3 hits
- … 4, and letter to Charles Lyell, [5 and 7 October 1842] ). The specimen and manuscript have …
- … corals ( Correspondence vol. 2, letter to A. S. Horner, [4 October 1842] and n. …
- … letter from Lonsdale has not been found. Lonsdale had been curator and librarian, then assistant secretary and librarian, of the Geological Society of London from 1829 to 1842 ( …
To J. D. Hooker 16 [March 1858]
Summary
Thanks JDH for his objections; will respond by sending fair copy of MS when written.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 16 [Mar 1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 229 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2242 |
To Peter Martin Duncan? 18 July [1861]
Summary
He is no longer able to answer any of the correspondent’s questions concerning corals.
Places "much trust" in J. D. Dana.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Peter Martin Duncan |
| Date: | 18 July [1861] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.257) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3212 |
To Susan Darwin [late July–August 1842]
Summary
Has made an offer for house at Down, renting having been refused. Discusses price, risks involved, and Edward Cresy’s advice.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Susan Elizabeth Darwin |
| Date: | [late July–Aug 1842] |
| Classmark: | DAR 92: A16–17 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-634 |
To H. E. Strickland [19 February 1842]
Summary
CD saw Andrew Smith, who is interested in the subject [of zoological nomenclature], but CD thinks he differs from HES on some points. Sends Smith’s address.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Hugh Edwin Strickland |
| Date: | [19 Feb 1842] |
| Classmark: | Museum of Zoology Archives, University of Cambridge (Strickland Papers) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-620 |
To W. D. Fox 10 August [1853]
Summary
Thanks WDF for writing so soon after his misfortunes, and again expresses sympathy.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
| Date: | 10 Aug [1853] |
| Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 85) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1527 |
From Thomas Blunt 11 August 1842
Summary
Gives the height of Shrewsbury above sea-level.
| Author: | Thomas Blunt |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 11 Aug 1842 |
| Classmark: | DAR 5: B17–18 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-639 |
From J. D. Hooker [late February 1845]
Summary
Previous letter [missing] on Edinburgh position was ill-tempered. Friends assure him that he ought to be thankful for opportunity to try for professorship.
Reports meeting with Humboldt in Paris.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [late Feb 1845] |
| Classmark: | DAR 100: 165–6 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-832 |
To William Kemp 7 April [1843]
Summary
CD will sent seeds to specialists for identification.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Kemp |
| Date: | 7 Apr [1843] |
| Classmark: | Cambridge University Library (MS Add. 10252/14) (gift of Ruth Cramond and David Cramond) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-667F |
Matches: 3 hits
- … Strickland and Daubeny 1842; see also Correspondence vol. 2, letter from J. S. Henslow, …
- … on 14 September 1842 (see Correspondence vol. 2, Appendix II). Kemp’s letter has not been …
- … letter to John Lindley, 8 [April 1843] ). From 1841 to 1857, Charles Giles Bridle Daubeny served on a committee of the British Association for the Advancement of Science experimenting on the growth and vitality of seeds. In the committee’s report to the British Association meeting in 1842, …
| letter | (245) |
| people | (10) |
| bibliography | (4) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (167) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (16) |
| Lyell, Charles | (7) |
| Gray, Asa | (3) |
| Harvey, W. H. | (3) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (78) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (30) |
| Lyell, Charles | (14) |
| Henslow, J. S. | (7) |
| Gray, Asa | (5) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (244) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (46) |
| Lyell, Charles | (21) |
| Gray, Asa | (8) |
| Henslow, J. S. | (7) |
| 1838 | (4) |
| 1839 | (3) |
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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 …
Natural Selection: the trouble with terminology Part I
Summary
Darwin encountered problems with the term ‘natural selection’ even before Origin appeared. Everyone from the Harvard botanist Asa Gray to his own publisher came up with objections. Broadly these divided into concerns either that its meaning simply wasn’t…
Matches: 1 hits
- … I suppose “natural selection” was bad term but to change it now, I think, would make confusion …
Darwin & coral reefs
Summary
The central idea of Darwin's theory of coral reef formation, as it was later formulated, was that the islands were formed by the upward growth of coral as the Pacific Ocean floor gradually subsided. It overturned previous ideas and would in itself…
Matches: 1 hits
- … No other work of mine was begun in so deductive a spirit as this; for the whole theory was …
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: 1 hits
- … In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to …
Darwin in letters, 1837–1843: The London years to 'natural selection'
Summary
The seven-year period following Darwin's return to England from the Beagle voyage was one of extraordinary activity and productivity in which he became recognised as a naturalist of outstanding ability, as an author and editor, and as a professional…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The seven-year period following Darwin's return to England from the Beagle voyage was one of …
Darwin’s Photographic Portraits
Summary
Darwin was a photography enthusiast. This is evident not only in his use of photography for the study of Expression and Emotions in Man and Animal, but can be witnessed in his many photographic portraits and in the extensive portrait correspondence that…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin was a photography enthusiast. This is evident not only in his use of photography for the …
Darwin’s observations on his children
Summary
Charles Darwin’s observations on the development of his children, began the research that culminated in his book The Expression of the emotions in man and animals, published in 1872, and his article ‘A biographical sketch of an infant’, published in Mind…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Charles Darwin’s observations on the development of his children,[1] began the research that …
Bibliography of Darwin’s geological publications
Summary
This list includes papers read by Darwin to the Geological Society of London, his books on the geology of the Beagle voyage, and other publications on geological topics. Author-date citations refer to entries in the Darwin Correspondence Project’s…
Matches: 1 hits
- … This list includes papers read by Darwin to the Geological Society of London, his books on the …
Fake Darwin: myths and misconceptions
Summary
Many myths have persisted about Darwin's life and work. Here are a few of the more pervasive ones, with full debunking below...
Matches: 1 hits
- … Many myths have persisted about Darwin's life and work. Here are a few of the more pervasive ones, …
Darwin in letters, 1874: A turbulent year
Summary
The year 1874 was one of consolidation, reflection, and turmoil for Darwin. He spent the early months working on second editions of Coral reefs and Descent of man; the rest of the year was mostly devoted to further research on insectivorous plants. A…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The year 1874 was one of consolidation, reflection, and turmoil for Darwin. He spent the early …
Living and fossil cirripedia
Summary
Darwin published four volumes on barnacles, the crustacean sub-class Cirripedia, between 1851 and 1854, two on living species and two on fossil species. Written for a specialist audience, they are among the most challenging and least read of Darwin’s works…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin published four volumes on the crustacean sub-class Cirripedia between 1851 and 1854, two on …
Darwin in letters, 1844–1846: Building a scientific network
Summary
The scientific results of the Beagle voyage still dominated Darwin's working life, but he broadened his continuing investigations into the nature and origin of species. Far from being a recluse, Darwin was at the heart of British scientific society,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The scientific results of the Beagle voyage still dominated Darwin's working life, but …
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: 1 hits
- … Darwin began ‘sorting notes for Species Theory’ on 9 September 1854, the very day he concluded his …
Darwin in letters, 1851-1855: Death of a daughter
Summary
The letters from these years reveal the main preoccupations of Darwin’s life with a new intensity. The period opens with a family tragedy in the death of Darwin’s oldest and favourite daughter, Anne, and it shows how, weary and mourning his dead child,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The letters from these years reveal the main preoccupations of Darwin’s life with a new intensity. …
Controversy
Summary
The best-known controversies over Darwinian theory took place in public or in printed reviews. Many of these were highly polemical, presenting an over-simplified picture of the disputes. Letters, however, show that the responses to Darwin were extremely…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Disagreement & Respect | Conduct of Debate | Darwin & Wallace The best-known …
Alfred Russel Wallace
Summary
Wallace was a leading Victorian naturalist, with wide-ranging interests from biogeography and evolutionary theory to spiritualism and politics. He was born in 1823 in Usk, a small town in south-east Wales, and attended a grammar school in Hertford. At the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Wallace was a leading Victorian naturalist, with wide-ranging interests from biogeography and …
Darwin in letters, 1858-1859: Origin
Summary
The years 1858 and 1859 were, without doubt, the most momentous of Darwin’s life. From a quiet rural existence filled with steady work on his ‘big book’ on species, he was jolted into action by the arrival of an unexpected letter from Alfred Russel Wallace…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The years 1858 and 1859 were, without doubt, the most momentous of Darwin’s life. From a quiet …
1.2 George Richmond, marriage portrait
Summary
< Back to Introduction Few likenesses of Darwin in his youth survive, although more may once have existed. In a letter of 1873 an old Shrewsbury friend, Arthur Mostyn Owen, offered to send Darwin a watercolour sketch of him, painted many years…
Matches: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction Few likenesses of Darwin in his youth survive, although more …
About Darwin
Summary
To many of us, Darwin’s name is synonymous with his theory of evolution by natural selection. But even before the publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859, he was publicly known through his popular book about the voyage of the Beagle, and he was…
Matches: 1 hits
- … To many of us, Darwin’s name is synonymous with his theory of evolution by natural selection. But …
About Darwin
Summary
To many of us, Darwin’s name is synonymous with his theory of evolution by natural selection. But even before the publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859, he was publicly known through his popular book about the voyage of the Beagle, and he was…
Matches: 1 hits
- … To many of us, Darwin’s name is synonymous with his theory of evolution by natural selection. But …
