To Athenæum 18 April [1863]
Summary
Attacks the doctrine of "heterogeny" (spontaneous generation during each geological period) as completely lacking in evidence.
Defends natural selection as connecting large classes of facts in natural history. That certain forms have not changed since remote epochs is not an objection of any force.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Athenæum |
Date: | 18 Apr [1863] |
Classmark: | Athenæum, 25 April 1863, pp. 554–5 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4108 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … Circular 26 (1863): 216). Carpenter 1850 . CD’s copies of the Philosophical Transactions …
- … Society are in the Darwin Library–CUL; in them, Carpenter 1850 is lightly annotated. …
- … Bibliography Carpenter, William Benjamin. 1850. On the mutual relations of the …
- … vital and physical forces. [Read 20 June 1850. ] …
- … Transactions of the Royal Society (1850): 727–57. Carpenter, William Benjamin. 1862. …
From J. B. Innes 17 December [1863]
Summary
Suggests a new school for CD’s son [Horace].
Author: | John Brodie Innes |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 17 Dec [1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 167: 13 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4357 |
To J. D. Hooker 3 January [1863]
Summary
Indignant over Owen’s conduct as described in Hugh Falconer’s article on elephants ["On the American fossil elephant of the regions bordering the Gulf of Mexico", Nat. Hist. Rev. (1863): 43–114].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 3 Jan [1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 178 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3898 |
From Edward Cresy 27 April 1863
Summary
CD’s Linum paper [Collected papers 2: 93–105].
Sending up-to-date railway map of southern region.
Author: | Edward Cresy, Jr |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 27 Apr 1863 |
Classmark: | DAR 161: 241 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4130 |
From Isaac Anderson-Henry 26–7 January 1863
Author: | Isaac Anderson; Isaac Anderson Henry |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 26–7 Jan 1863 |
Classmark: | DAR 159: 61 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3948 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … the following Mem under date “27 April 1850 & May 9 th ” Discovered that the Short stamens …
- … but failed”. I find another Mem of May 1850 which refers to the cross in the article given …
- … of March in the immediately previous year 1850—and I have noticed this in an article I …
- … fully & sowed the ripened seeds on 18 June 1850 and had 4 young plants through on 10 Sept …
From Asa Gray 1 September 1863
Summary
Sees difficulties in adhering to the concept of design in nature.
Is surprised at Hooker’s and Daniel Oliver’s ignorance regarding spontaneous movements of tendrils.
CD should continue his work on climbing plants, "it will be fruitful in your hands".
Author: | Asa Gray |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 1 Sept 1863 |
Classmark: | DAR 157.2: 108; DAR 165: 139, 140 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4288 |
From Robert Monsey Rolfe [20 November 1863]
Summary
Sends annual cheque for Down parish charities.
Author: | Robert Monsey Rolfe, 1st Baron Cranworth of Cranworth |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [20 Nov 1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 161.2: 230 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4316 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … 1978 ). Rolfe was created Baron Cranworth in 1850; his country residence was a mile and a …
From J. D. Hooker [1 or 3 November 1863]
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [1 or 3] Nov 1863 |
Classmark: | DAR 101: 173–5 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4325 |
To J. D. Hooker 30 January [1863]
Summary
Naudin has not answered CD’s letter.
Reactions of Candolle, Naudin, Decaisne, and Gaston de Saporta to Origin.
CD’s new hothouse.
CD’s Linum paper.
JDH’s work on Welwitschia.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 30 Jan [1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 115: 180 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3953 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … his expedition to the Himalayas from 1848 to 1850, Hooker made a number of geological …
From Edward Blyth 7 April 1863
Summary
Has seen some curious hybrid ducks and geese of Bartlett’s. Bartlett will do experiments suggested by CD when he has time.
Author: | Edward Blyth |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 7 Apr 1863 |
Classmark: | DAR 160: 205 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4078 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of persons who have died since the year 1850. By Frederick Boase. 3 vols. and supplement ( …
From Ludolph Christian Treviranus 12 February 1863
Summary
Sends his paper ["Über Dichogamie nach C. C. Sprengel und Ch. Darwin", Bot. Ztg. (1863): 1–7, 9–16].
Author: | Ludolph Christian Treviranus |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 12 Feb 1863 |
Classmark: | DAR 178: 182 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3980 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of persons who have died since the year 1850. By Frederick Boase. 3 vols. and supplement ( …
To an editor 24 March [1863?]
Summary
Encloses a dialogue on species from a New Zealand newspaper [S. Butler’s First dialogue on evolution, from the Christchurch Press].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Unidentified |
Date: | 24 Mar [1863?] |
Classmark: | Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, New Zealand |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4058 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Assembly. CD may refer to the formation in 1850 of the Canterbury Settlement (of which …
From Francis Boott 23 January 1863
Summary
His son wants CD’s opinion about a cub supposed by Frank Buckland to be progeny of a lioness and mastiff.
Lyell working at last proofs [of Antiquity of man]; he is scornful of Owen.
Author: | Francis Boott |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 23 Jan 1863 |
Classmark: | DAR 160: 254 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3938 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … ancestors: palaeontology in Victorian London, 1850–1875. London: Blond & Briggs. Rupke, …
From G. H. Darwin [9–15 June 1863]
Author: | George Howard Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [9–15 June 1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 210.2: 1 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4209 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of persons who have died since the year 1850. By Frederick Boase. 3 vols. and supplement ( …
To John Scott 25 [July 1863]
Summary
Encourages JS to continue work on coloured primrose. No one has noticed this since Gärtner. CD will send his own data for JS’s use and will read MS when ready. Advises JS to repeat experiments if evidence is weak – for his reputation’s sake and for satisfaction at fully establishing a fact.
Treviranus made a slip of pen in writing of Primula longiflora as short-styled.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Scott |
Date: | 25 [July 1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 93: B45–6, B69 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4253 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … H. 1978. Carl Friedrich von Gärtner (1772–1850): Familie, Leben, Werk: ein Beitrag zur …
From H. W. Bates 2 May [1863]
Summary
His satisfaction at CD’s acceptance of book as well as total public acceptance. Murray has given him a £250 advance. His pleasure at Asa Gray’s words.
Next task will be to write on origin [of species] by segregation of local races.
Author: | Henry Walter Bates |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 2 May [1863] |
Classmark: | DAR 160: 76 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4138 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … together in South America from 1848 to 1850 ( Woodcock 1969 , pp. 32–3 and 67). Wallace’s …
To Thomas Henry Huxley 10 [January 1863]
Summary
CD overwhelmed by THH’s praise.
Agrees with his reservations about species theory but not wholly about sterility and gives his reasons for differing.
On Natural History Review, Hugh Falconer, and R. Owen.
Has written a review [Collected papers 2: 87–92] of H. W. Bates’s paper ["Contributions to an insect fauna of the Amazon valley", Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 23 (1862): 495–566].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Henry Huxley |
Date: | 10 [Jan 1863] |
Classmark: | Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine Archives (Huxley 5: 183) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3852 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … palaeontology in Victorian London, 1850–1875. London: Blond & Briggs. Marginalia : Charles …
From Emma Darwin to W. D. Fox [29 September 1863]
Summary
Thanks to WDF’s directions, Anne’s tombstone has been found.
CD improved, but recovery is slow. She describes treatment.
Encloses paper she and CD have written [see 4294, which was wrongly addressed by ED and had not reached WDF].
Author: | Emma Wedgwood; Emma Darwin |
Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
Date: | [29 Sept 1863] |
Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (Fox 141) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4312 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … 1851 ; Post Office directory of Birmingham 1850 and 1864). This individual has not been …
From Isaac Anderson-Henry 31 January 1863
Summary
Thanks for CD’s experimental suggestions. Will count seeds of hybrid crosses.
Requests suggestions for Edinburgh Botanical Society expedition to British Columbia.
Author: | Isaac Anderson; Isaac Anderson Henry |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 31 Jan 1863 |
Classmark: | DAR 159: 62 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3958 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … to British Columbia between the years 1850 and 1866, with remarks on the cultivation of …
From Joseph Wolstenholme to William Erasmus Darwin [27 March 1863?]
Summary
Responds belatedly with advice about Cambridge colleges with particular reference to mathematics. Of the large ones Trinity stands out. Of the small ones Christ’s or possibly Caius.
Author: | Joseph Wolstenholme |
Addressee: | William Erasmus Darwin |
Date: | [27 Mar 1863?] |
Classmark: | DAR 181: 140 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4062F |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Cambridge, in 1846; he graduated BA in 1850 as third wrangler (that is, third in the …
letter | (29) |
Darwin, C. R. | (8) |
Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
Anderson Henry, Isaac | (2) |
Anderson, Isaac | (2) |
Gray, Asa | (2) |
Darwin, C. R. | (19) |
Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
Athenæum | (1) |
Aubertin, J. J. | (1) |
Darwin, W. E. | (1) |
Anderson Henry, Isaac | (2) |
Anderson, Isaac | (2) |
Athenæum | (1) |
Aubertin, J. J. | (2) |
Bates, H. W. | (1) |
Blyth, Edward | (1) |
Boott, Francis | (1) |
Cresy, Edward, Jr | (1) |
Darwin, C. R. | (27) |
Darwin, Emma | (1) |
Darwin, G. H. | (1) |
Darwin, W. E. | (1) |
Falconer, Hugh | (1) |
Fox, W. D. | (1) |
Gray, Asa | (2) |
Hooker, J. D. | (6) |
Huxley, T. H. | (1) |
Innes, J. B. | (1) |
Rolfe, R. M. | (1) |
Scott, John | (1) |
Treviranus, L. C. | (1) |
Trimen, Roland | (1) |
Unidentified | (1) |
Weddell, H. A. | (1) |
Wedgwood, Emma | (1) |
Wolstenholme, Joseph | (1) |
Syms Covington
Summary
When Charles Darwin embarked on the Beagle voyage in 1831, Syms Covington was ‘fiddler & boy to Poop-cabin’. Covington kept an illustrated journal of his observations and experiences on the voyage, noting wildlife, landscapes, buildings and people and,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Covington still assisted Darwin in his work: in 1850 he sent a box of barnacles to London , some …
Have you read the one about....
Summary
... the atheistical cats, or the old fogies in Cambridge? We've suggested a few - some funny, some serious - but all letters you can read here.
Matches: 1 hits
- … ... the atheistical cats, or the old fogies in Cambridge? We've suggested a few - some funny, some …
What is an experiment?
Summary
Darwin is not usually regarded as an experimenter, but rather as an astute observer and a grand theorist. His early career seems to confirm this. He began with detailed note-taking, collecting and cataloguing on the Beagle, and edited a descriptive zoology…
Matches: 1 hits
- … the best observers’ ( letter to C. H. L. Woodd , 4 March 1850 ). He made the point more …
Darwin’s study of the Cirripedia
Summary
Darwin’s work on barnacles, conducted between 1846 and 1854, has long posed problems for historians. Coming between his transmutation notebooks and the Origin of species, it has frequently been interpreted as a digression from Darwin’s species work. Yet…
Matches: 1 hits
- … occasions in his correspondence with Hooker. On 13 June [1850] , for example, Darwin wrote: …
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
- … state of indecision’ (Darwin to W. D. Fox, 10 October [1850] ) as he and Emma tried to choose …
Scientific Practice
Summary
Specialism|Experiment|Microscopes|Collecting|Theory Letter writing is often seen as a part of scientific communication, rather than as integral to knowledge making. This section shows how correspondence could help to shape the practice of science, from…
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
- … when he first wrote out his species essay in full. In 1850, he had written to Hooker ( …
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: 26 hits
- … Memoirs of Plumer Ward by Hon Phipps [E. Phipps 1850] L d . Harveys Memoirs [Hervey 1848] …
- … & will lend me— Pickering Races of Man [Pickering 1850]. (has a good chapter). …
- … Collins R.A. [Collins 1848] Phases of Faith [Newman 1850] Burnetts Hist. of own time …
- … Miss. Fennimore Cooper. Rural Scenes in N.A [Cooper 1850] G. Cummings South African Huntsmans …
- … Dana’s Geology. U.S. Expedition [J. D. Dana 1849] 1850 March Forbes Cystideæ & …
- … [Harvey 1849] —— Agassiz Lake Superior [Agassiz 1850] Nov. Memoirs of Pal. Soc [ …
- … 12. Sedgwicks Discourse on Study of Univers [Sedgwick 1850] 28 Steenstrup on …
- … Feb. 3 d . Hutchinson on Dog-breaking [Hutchinson 1850] 27. Chambers. Sanatory Reform [Anon …
- … 5. Collin’s Autobiography [?Collins 1848]. good 1850 . Jan 15 th Lives of …
- … March 16 th . Newman Phases of Faith [Newman 1850] excellent —— Lord Cloncurry Memoirs …
- … 1846] May 20 G. Cumming S. African Hunter [Cumming 1850] goodish July 1 st . …
- … Sept 12 th . B. Franklins life by Sparks [Sparks ed. 1850] very good Oct 3 Martineau …
- … Podrome de Paleantologie stratigraphique [Orbigny 1850–2] 24 fr: 3. vols. The Vegetation of …
- … Danicorum Mammalium Domesticorum by Prof. Benddz [Bendz 1850]— Plates very expensive Coll. of …
- … Anat. der Wirbellosen Thiere. 1848 [K. T. E. von Siebold 1850].— [DAR *128: 180] …
- … Botany, Horticulture, Floriculture and Natural Science ] (1850? 1851?) must positively be read …
- … to aid me on skeletons Knox Races of Mankind [R. Knox 1850] a curious Book. (Blyth). in …
- … of the Horticultural Society of London ]. Vol I. to V. (1850) VI & VII May 27 th . …
- … [Agassiz 1835] —— 30 Bairds Entomostraca [Baird 1850] May 22 d . Madras Journal of …
- … 1853. Jan. 27 th Life of D r . Coombe [Combe 1850]. good Feb. 6. Letters of Ray …
- … Histoire du Pommier, Poirier, Pêcher [Duval 1852, 1849, 1850] —— 27 th . Hist. Nat. Gen. de …
- … Sept. 4. Nunn’s Shipwreck in the Favorite [Nunn 1850] —— 16 Pepys Diary. Vol 1. 2. 3 d …
- … Facultes Interieurs des animaux invertebres [Macquart 1850]. —— 8 th Gosse Naturalist …
- … 1854] —— Johnston Physical Atlas [A. K. Johnston 1850]. March 28 th Sebastian …
- … [DAR 128: 13] Aug. 20 Weber der Taubenfreund 1850 [Weber 1850] Sept. 1 st . Puvis …
- … [Veith 1856].— 3 d Knox Races of Man.— 1850 [R. Knox 1850] 7. Willughby by Ray …
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…
Darwin and the Church
Summary
The story of Charles Darwin’s involvement with the church is one that is told far too rarely. It shows another side of the man who is more often remembered for his personal struggles with faith, or for his role in large-scale controversies over the…
Matches: 1 hits
- … (Moore 1985; letter to J. S. Henslow, 17 January [1850] and n. 6; and letter to J. B. Innes, …
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: 6 hits
- … 1853 . Preparing for publication Until 1850, Darwin had probably expected the Ray …
- … I have not yet thought’, Darwin told Bowerbank in January 1850, ‘ your mentioning the Palæont. Soc. …
- … was accepted by the Palaeontographical Society by February 1850 , and in the end, Darwin was …
- … many parcels I have no doubt they wd aid me’. By April 1850, he reported to Steenstrup that he had ‘ …
- … and after requiring late changes by Sowerby in September 1850, told him, ‘ I hope to God I have now …
- … the first fossil volume approached completion in September 1850, Darwin had reported on his progress …
Suggested reading
Summary
Contemporary writing Anon., The English matron: A practical manual for young wives, (London, 1846). Anon., The English gentlewoman: A practical manual for young ladies on their entrance to society, (Third edition, London, 1846). Becker, L. E.…
Matches: 3 hits
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,…
Barnacles
Summary
Sources|Discussion Questions|Experiment Darwin and barnacles Darwin’s interest in Cirripedia, a class of marine arthropods, was first piqued by the discovery of an odd burrowing barnacle, which he later named “Mr. Arthrobalanus," while he was…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Letter 1370 —Darwin to Syms Covington, 23 Nov 1850 In this letter, Darwin thanks his …
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. …
Darwin in letters, 1882: Nothing too great or too small
Summary
In 1882, Darwin reached his 74th year Earthworms had been published the previous October, and for the first time in decades he was not working on another book. He remained active in botanical research, however. Building on his recent studies in plant…
Matches: 1 hits
- … myself on you’ ( letter to Wilhelm Dunker, 3 March [1850] ). In the mid-1850s, Darwin was …
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.…
1.3 Thomas Herbert Maguire, lithograph
Summary
< Back to Introduction This striking portrait of Darwin, dating from 1849, belonged to a series of about sixty lithographic portraits of naturalists and other scientists drawn by Thomas Herbert Maguire. They were successively commissioned over a…
Leonard Darwin born
Summary
The Darwins' eighth child and fourth son, Leonard, is born
Matches: 1 hits
- … The Darwins' eighth child and fourth son, Leonard, is born …
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…