To William Bernhard Tegetmeier 31 August [1855]
Summary
Thanks for WBT’s offer to supply carcasses of good poultry breeds. Encloses list [missing] of birds in which he is interested.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
| Date: | 31 Aug [1855] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1751 |
To W. D. Fox 26 April [1855]
Summary
Explains more clearly what he is looking for in his work on poultry: relative variation at different ages, the effect of disuse on different parts, breeding between wild and domestic, and degree of fertility of "mongrels of very diverse races".
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
| Date: | 26 Apr [1855] |
| Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 89) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1675 |
To J. D. Hooker 5 June [1855]
Summary
Seeds: worried they will turn into another barnacle job.
Studies plants colonising abandoned field.
Experiment on plant sleep movements.
CD objects to "Atlantis" because no evidence; does not affect species theory.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 5 June [1855] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 135 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1693 |
To Syms Covington 28 February 1855
Summary
Pleased to hear that SC is prospering.
News of FitzRoy, Sulivan and J. L. Stokes.
The Crimean War is badly mismanaged, but Englishmen are behaving nobly.
Wishes he knew what to do with his boys.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Syms Covington |
| Date: | 28 Feb 1855 |
| Classmark: | Sydney Mail, 9 August 1884, pp. 254–5 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1637 |
To J. D. Hooker 18 [July 1855]
Summary
Has read a paper, presumably by JDH, using the Madeiran flora to argue against Forbes’s doctrine.
JDH asked how far CD will go in attributing common descent; he intends to show "the facts & arguments for & against the common descent of species of same genus; & then show how far the same arguments tell for or against forms, more & more widely different".
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 18 [July 1855] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 142 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1719 |
To J. D. Hooker 11 May [1855]
Summary
JDH to be appointed Assistant Director at Kew.
On where to publish seed-salting paper. Floating problem perhaps more important than germination.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 11 May [1855] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 131 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1680 |
To W. D. Fox 22 [July 1855]
Summary
Describes his method of putting young poultry to death.
Asks questions arising from WDF’s reply about crossed mongrels.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
| Date: | 22 [July 1855] |
| Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 95) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1728 |
From H. C. Watson 8 November 1855
Summary
Artificiality of orders and genera in botany.
Difficulties in numerical analysis of close species in large and small genera.
HCW has "pretty strong bias towards the view that species are not immutably distinct".
| Author: | Hewett Cottrell Watson |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 8 Nov 1855 |
| Classmark: | DAR 181: 31 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1775 |
From [J. B. Innes] [after 8 February – August 1855]
Summary
Provides another case of apparently pure bred pointers producing litter with one setter puppy. Correspondent was told that this occurred in several litters; gives names of owners and others who can corroborate the information.
| Author: | John Brodie Innes |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [after 8 Feb – Aug 1855] |
| Classmark: | DAR 163: 5 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13870 |
From H. C. Watson 11 October 1855
Summary
Sends London catalogue of British plants with close species marked.
Charges E. Forbes with fraudulent appropriation of others’ work.
Comments on, and cites possible cases of, CD’s imagined rule that individuals of one or more species in a genus vary in some of those characters by which the species of that genus are distinguished.
| Author: | Hewett Cottrell Watson |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 11 Oct 1855 |
| Classmark: | DAR 47: 163a–b |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1764 |
From Charles Lyell 23 April 1855
Summary
CL would like to put Joachim Barrande on the Royal Society’s foreign list. Of French geologists and palaeontologists, he is the man who has made the greatest sacrifices and produced the greatest results.
| Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 23 Apr 1855 |
| Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Archives (Huxley 6: 7) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1672 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Histoire des progrès de la géologie de 1834 à 1845. 8 vols. Paris. Barrande, Joachim, et …
To T. C. Eyton 25 October [1855]
Summary
Unable to give information on Mrs Shaw of Crayford.
Mentions TCE’s interest in dog- and pig-skeleton researches.
Interested in seeing the Eyton Museum.
Reminisces about entomology [at Cambridge].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Campbell Eyton |
| Date: | 25 Oct [1855] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.114) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1769 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Surrey and Sussex. London: W. Kelly & Co. 1845–78. Variation : The variation of animals …
To T. C. Eyton 9 December [1855]
Summary
Vexed he cannot find head of [Chinese] dog.
First took up skeletonising to see how much young pigeons and poultry differed from the old.
Wishes to ascertain differences in skeletons of pigeons, poultry, covey birds, and rabbits. William Yarrell has shown CD breastbones. W. B. Tegetmeier has shown him skulls of fowls.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Campbell Eyton |
| Date: | 9 Dec [1855] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.117) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1793 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … A history of British birds in 1839 (2d ed. 1845). CD had earlier read the first volume of …
To Armand de Quatrefages 20 November [1855]
Summary
Thanks for gift of Souvenirs d’un naturaliste (Quatrefages 1854).
Can AdeQ ask M. J. P. Flourens about experiments which show that hybrid offspring of dogs, wolves and jackals are sterile between themselves in the third generation.
CD cannot obtain a copy of Dureau de la Malle’s work on breeds of horse: can AdeQ assist?
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Jean Louis Armand (Armand de Quatrefages) Quatrefages de Bréau |
| Date: | 20 Nov [1855] |
| Classmark: | Bibliothèque nationale de France, département des Manuscrits (Collection d’autographes formée de la correspondance reçue ou acquise par Étienne de Jouy, Jules Lacroix, Paul Lacroix MS-9623 (2035)) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1782F |
Matches: 1 hit
- … By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1845. Natural selection : Charles Darwin’s Natural …
To Roderick Impey Murchison 3 June [1855]
Summary
Accepts invitation for the 20th.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Roderick Impey Murchison, 1st baronet |
| Date: | 3 June [1855] |
| Classmark: | Cleveland Health Sciences Library (Robert M. Stecher collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13831 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … viz. , Essex, Herts, Kent, Middlesex, Surrey and Sussex. London: W. Kelly & Co. 1845–78. …
To J. W. Lubbock 10 January [1855]
Summary
Reports that his intercession with Folliott Baugh [Rector of Chelsfield, Kent] has had no effect. Baugh still believes Farnborough’s rights have not been attended to if entire fund is applied to the school at Down.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John William Lubbock, 3d baronet |
| Date: | 10 Jan [1855] |
| Classmark: | The Royal Society (LUB: D21) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1628 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … viz. , Essex, Herts, Kent, Middlesex, Surrey and Sussex. London: W. Kelly & Co. 1845–78. …
From Thomas Carew Hunt 2 July 1855
Summary
Answers queries on Azores fauna and flora.
| Author: | Thomas Carew Hunt |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 2 July 1855 |
| Classmark: | DAR 166: 282 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1709 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … the islands from time to time— In 1844 or 1845 I made out a short account of S t Michaels, …
From C. J. F. Bunbury 10 April 1855
Summary
Responds to CD’s questions about mountain vegetation of the Cape of Good Hope. The distribution of some plants provides problems for both migration and special creation hypotheses.
| Author: | Charles James Fox Bunbury, 8th baronet |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 10 Apr 1855 |
| Classmark: | DAR 205.4: 95 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1664 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … See Zeyher 1846 and Zeyher and Burke 1845–6. A genus in which it was considered very …
To William and Julius Fairbeard [October 1855 – May 1856]
Summary
Five questions on variability in peas.
W & JF recommended to CD by Mr Cattell.
CD planted an experimental pea garden this summer.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William & Julius Fairbeard |
| Date: | [Oct 1855 – May 1856] |
| Classmark: | DAR 206: 38 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1467 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … viz. , Essex, Herts, Kent, Middlesex, Surrey and Sussex. London: W. Kelly & Co. 1845–78. …
From Edward Blyth 22–3 August 1855
Summary
Gives extracts from a letter by Thomas Hutton.
Rabbits are kept (generally by Europeans) in the NW. provinces and breed freely. Canaries are not well adapted to the climate. Reports on domestic cats and pigeons of the area. EB gives references to further information on cats, pigeons, and silkworms.
[CD’s notes are an abstract of this letter.]
| Author: | Edward Blyth |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 22–3 Aug 1855 |
| Classmark: | DAR 98: A79–A84 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1746 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Salt 1814 , Appendix IV, p. xlviii. Rüppell 1845. Rüppell 1838–40. Huc 1855 , 2: 120: ‘The …
| letter | (23) |
| Blyth, Edward | (4) |
| Bunbury, C. J. F. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (13) |
| Hunt, T. C. | (1) |
| Innes, J. B. | (1) |
| Lyell, Charles | (1) |
| Watson, H. C. | (2) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (10) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
| Eyton, T. C. | (2) |
| Fox, W. D. | (2) |
| Covington, Syms | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (23) |
| Blyth, Edward | (4) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
| Eyton, T. C. | (2) |
| Fox, W. D. | (2) |
Darwin in letters, 1847-1850: Microscopes and barnacles
Summary
Darwin's study of barnacles, begun in 1844, took him eight years to complete. The correspondence reveals how his interest in a species found during the Beagle voyage developed into an investigation of the comparative anatomy of other cirripedes and…
Diagrams and drawings in letters
Summary
Over 850 illustrations from the printed volumes of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin have been added to the online transcripts of the letters. The contents include maps, diagrams, drawings, sketches and photographs, covering geological, botanical,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … and anticlinal lines of a geological formation, 3 March 1845 Edward Forbes's " …
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: 8 hits
- … his Journal of researches for a second edition in 1845, having already provided corrections in …
- … vice-presidents in 1844 and remaining on the council from 1845 onwards; he was a conscientious …
- … attacked the work vehemently in the Edinburgh Review (1845), while other colleagues like Edward …
- … his cousin William Darwin Fox in a letter of [24 April 1845] , he felt he ought to be both …
- … of his Journal of researches for a second edition in 1845. At Lyell’s recommendation, …
- … the original publisher, to John Murray, and throughout 1845 Darwin worked hard to provide manuscript …
- … on board the Beagle back to Tierra del Fuego. By 1845, Darwin was in full command of a …
- … Distribution’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, [10 February 1845] ) and quick to make use of the young …
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
- … vol. 3, letter to Charles Lyell, 8 October [1845] ). Having indulged his senses, Darwin …
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
- … he was working (Darwin to his wife Emma, [7-8 February 1845] ). Although Darwin did not usually …
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: 19 hits
- … on Instinct [F. G. Cuvier 1822] read Flourens Edit [Flourens 1845] read L. Jenyns paper on …
- … 1834–9] Carlyles Oliver Cromwell [Carlyle 1845] (read) Keppells(?) voyage to Borneo …
- … Exploring Expedition towards the Rocky Mountains [Frémont 1845]. (amusing extracts). perhaps for …
- … America by A. Downing Wiley & Putnam. 14 s . [Downing 1845] (Brit. Museum) (read) good …
- … [DAR *119: 22] Eyeres Travels [E. J. Eyre 1845] very amusing Tschudi’s Travels in …
- … Campbells Lives of Chancellors [J. Campbell 1845–7] last vol. Ludlows Memoirs …
- … Murchisons Russia [Murchison, Verneuil, and Keyserling 1845] (read) Agassiz’s Works …
- … Wilkes Expedition. £ 3. 3 s [Wilkes 1845] order at L. Library. read Botanical Soc. of …
- … Soc. of Neuchatel on Jura. 1846, or 7, or 8 [?Marcou 1845]. 46 Morris good for me.— …
- … 1853] Vol. V of Campbells Chancellors [J. Campbell 1845–7] Lives of the Lindsays …
- … [I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire 1832–7] Wilkes [Wilkes 1845]. Voyage Vol I. to V Apr …
- … May. Blanco White. Auto-biography [Blanco y Crespo 1845].— 24 Improvisatore [Andersen 1845] …
- … Aug. 5 th Lyells Travels in N. America [Lyell 1845] Oct. Cosmos [A. von Humboldt 1845–8]. …
- … Dec. 10 Ray. Society. Vol I. Reports [Ray Society 1845].— 20 D r Badham insect Life …
- … Feb 6 Explanations by Author of Vestiges [Chambers 1845] —— Bronn’s Gesickte [Bronn 1842–3] 2 …
- … [Twamley 1844] —— Whewell on Education [Whewell 1845–52]. Dec: 26. Watson History of …
- … [Heber 1828] —— 31 Kitto on Deafness [Kitto 1845] —— the French in Algiers [Lamping …
- … 1841] April 10 Wagners Anatomy by Tulk [Wagner 1845] (half through) —— 24 Steenstrup …
- … th Elie de Beaumont Lecons Geologie [Élie de Beaumont 1845] skimmed. June 17 th . Downing …
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: 4 hits
- … hundred letters from Darwin, from his first negotiations in 1845 until his final years. Although …
- … came to discuss a second edition, probably at the end of 1845, Darwin was not happy with Colburn’s …
- … Colonial Library in three monthly parts (July to September 1845) before being reissued in a single …
- … you have transacted the business with me’ (27 August [1845] Letter 908 ). Thus began the business …
Richard Matthews
Summary
Richard Matthews was 21 years old when he stepped aboard the Beagle, destined for a lonely career as a missionary in Tierra del Fuego. The Church Missionary Society had arranged for him to accompany the three Fuegians (Fuegia Basket, Jemmy Button, and York…
Darwin in letters, 1878: Movement and sleep
Summary
In 1878, Darwin devoted most of his attention to the movements of plants. He investigated the growth pattern of roots and shoots, studying the function of specific organs in this process. Working closely with his son Francis, Darwin devised a series of…
Orundellico (Jemmy Button)
Summary
Orundellico was one of the Yahgan, or canoe people of the southern part of Tierra del Fuego. He was the fourth hostage taken by Robert FitzRoy, captain of HMS Beagle, in 1830 following the theft of the small surveying boat. This fourteen-year old boy was…
Matches: 3 hits
Journal of researches
Summary
Within two months of the Beagle’s arrival back in England in October 1836, Darwin, although busy with distributing his specimens among specialists for description, and more interested in working on his geological research, turned his mind to the task of…
People featured in the Dutch photograph album
Summary
Here is a list of people that appeared in the photograph album Darwin received for his birthday on 12 February 1877 from scientific admirers in the Netherlands. Many thanks to Hester Loeff for identifying and researching them. No. …
People featured in the Dutch photograph album
Summary
List of people appearing in the photograph album Darwin received from scientific admirers in the Netherlands for his birthday on 12 February 1877. We are grateful to Hester Loeff for providing this list and for permission to make her research available.…
4.51 Frederick Holder 'Life and Work'
Summary
< Back to Introduction A popular biography of Darwin for young readers by the American naturalist Charles Frederick Holder, published in 1891, sought to present him as ‘an example to the youth of all lands’ (p. v). Thus ‘our hero’ was shown to have…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Captain Fitz Roy, R.N. , 2 nd ed. (London: John Murray, 1845), pp. 22, 90, 182, and 384. Francis …
Second species sketch
Summary
Darwin finishes an expanded sketch of his species theory, first drafted in 1842
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin finishes an expanded sketch of his species theory, first drafted in 1842 …
George Darwin born
Summary
The Darwins' son George Howard Darwin born
Matches: 1 hits
- … The Darwins' son George Howard Darwin born …
Yokcushlu (Fuegia Basket)
Summary
Yokcushlu was one of the Alakaluf, or canoe people from the western part of Tierra del Fuego. She was one of the hostages seized by Robert FitzRoy, captain of HMS Beagle, after the small boat used for surveying the narrow inlets of the coast of Tierra del…
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
- … In the course of discussions about species in the autumn of 1845, his close friend Joseph Dalton …
Introduction to the Satire of FitzRoy's Narrative of the Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle
Summary
'a humble toadyish follower…': Not all pictures of Darwin during the Beagle voyage are flattering. Published here for the first time is a complete transcript of a satirical account of the Beagle’s brief visit in 1836 to the Cocos Keeling islands…
Matches: 4 hits
- … in roman numerals. Others relate to Darwin’s 1839 or 1845 volumes and Belcher’s Narrative of the …
- … The British press was decidedly unsympathetic. Recalled in 1845, he returned home in humiliation as …
- … world, and had copies of both the 1839 Narrative and the 1845 second edition titled Journal of …
- … Borneo, and the Philippines in HMS Samarang from 1842 to 1845, and ended his naval career with …
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…
