To Asa Gray 1 January [1857]
Summary
Thanks AG for 2d part of "Statistics [of the flora of the northern U. S.", Am. J. Sci. 2d ser. 22 (1856): 204–32; 2d ser. 23 (1857): 62–84, 369–403].
Is glad AG concludes species of large genera are wide-ranging, but is "riled" that he thinks the line of connection of alpine plants is through Greenland. Mentions comparisons of ranges worth investigating.
Believes trees show a tendency toward separation of the sexes and wonders if U. S. species bear this out. Asks which genera are protean in U. S.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | 1 Jan [1857] |
Classmark: | Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (7) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2034 |
Matches: 8 hits
- … 24 November [1856] , and letter from Asa Gray, 4 November 1856 . …
- … 10 December [1856] , and letter from J. D. Hooker, 7 December 1856 . …
- … See also letters to Asa Gray , 24 August [1856] and …
- … In his letter to Asa Gray, 2 May [1856] , CD had asked Gray to examine the ranges of …
- … about this topic after having first mentioned it in his letter to Asa Gray, 2 May [1856] . …
- … by the relationship to the letter from Asa Gray, 16 February 1857 . A. Gray 1856–7 . …
- … letter from Asa Gray, 1 June 1857 . See letters to J. D. Hooker, 1 December [1856] and …
- … letter from Asa Gray, 16 February 1857 . CD refers to the section entitled ‘Comparison of the flora of the northern United States with that of Europe in respect to the similar or related species’ ( A. Gray 1856– …
To Charles Lyell 13 April [1857]
Summary
CD returns a letter from Wollaston.
Although opposed to the Forbesian doctrine [of continental extension] as a general rule, CD would have no objection to its being proved in some cases. Does not think Wollaston has proved it; nor can anyone until more is known about the means of distribution of insects – but the identity of the two faunas is certainly interesting.
His health is very poor and his "everlasting species-Book" quite overwhelms him with work. It is beyond his powers, but he hopes to live to finish it.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Date: | 13 Apr [1857] |
Classmark: | The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Gen.109/702) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2077 |
To J. D. Hooker 22 August [1857]
Summary
Tabulation of varieties goes on; very important as it shows the branching of forms. Mentions his principle of divergence.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 22 Aug [1857] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 208 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2134 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … A consignment had reached CD in November 1856 ( letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 3 November [ …
- … letters of Charles Darwin, including an autobiographical chapter. Edited by Francis Darwin. 3 vols. London: John Murray. 1887–8. Natural selection : Charles Darwin’s Natural selection: being the second part of his big species book written from 1856 …
- … 1856. There are numerous subsequent entries. Koch 1843–4 . Webb and Berthelot 1836–50. Ledebour 1842–53 . Grisebach 1843–4 is a catalogue of the flora of Rumelia, a Turkish possession in the Balkans that includes present-day Bulgaria. A. Gray 1856a and Henslow 1835 . See Correspondence vol. 5, letter …
To W. B. Tegetmeier 18 May [1857]
Summary
Lists pigeons and poultry he is forwarding to WBT.
Wants details of WBT’s Poultry book [1856–7]
and is anxious to purchase his long-winged runt.
Thanks him for help and information on fowl crosses.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
Date: | 18 May [1857] |
Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2093 |
To J. D. Hooker 5 June [1857]
Summary
Royal Society medals.
Correlation of variability and abnormal development is G. R. Waterhouse’s law. Relation of this law to polymorphism.
Colouring and marks of ancestral horse deduced from facts observed in pigeons.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 5 June [1857] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 201 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2102 |
To J. D. Hooker [after 20 January 1857]
Summary
CD finds Alphonse de Candolle very useful, though JDH has low opinion.
CD argues for accidental introductions explaining some odd distributions, e.g., New Zealand vs Australian plants.
CD’s method.
Diverging affinities in isolated genera.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | [after 20 Jan 1857] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 190 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2033 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … The review had been discussed by CD and Hooker in 1856 (see letter to J. D. …
- … Hooker, 9 October [1856] ). In his letter to the Hookers (see n. 3, above), Gray had …
- … command of Matthew Flinders . A. Gray 1856–7 . See letter to Asa Gray, 1 January [1857] . …
- … and letter from J. D. Hooker, [6–9 June 1855] ). Wollaston 1854 and 1856. As Thomas …
- … letter from Asa Gray addressed to both William Jackson Hooker and Joseph Dalton Hooker dated 5 January 1857 ( Asa Gray , Kew Correspondence 1839/73 (137/8), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew). CD refers to Hooker’s criticism of Alphonse de Candolle’s Géographie botanique raisonnée ( A. de Candolle 1855 ) in his review of the work ([J. D. Hooker] 1856). …
To J. D. Hooker 2 June [1857]
Summary
Qualifications of John Lindley, Huxley, Albany Hancock, Joseph Prestwich, J. C. Ross, and Francis Beaufort for Royal Medal.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 2 June [1857] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 199 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2099 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … CD had supported his nomination (see letter to Edward Sabine, 23 April [1856] ). …
- … for the Royal Medal’ ( letter to Edward Sabine, 23 April [1856] ). See letter to William …
- … selected that year (see letter to J. D. Hooker, 8 April [1856] ). The previous year, CD …
- … letter to William Sharpey 2 June [1857] . John Richardson had received one of the Royal Medals in 1856. …
To Alfred Russel Wallace 1 May 1857
Summary
Reports long preparation of work on how species and varieties differ. Agreement with Wallace’s conclusions as reported in Annals and Magazine of Natural History and in his letter to CD of 10 0ct [1856]. On distinction between domestic varieties and those in "a state of nature".
On mating of jaguars and leopards, the breeding of poultry, pigeons, etc.
Requests help for his experimenting on means of distribution of organic beings on oceanic islands.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Alfred Russel Wallace |
Date: | 1 May 1857 |
Classmark: | The British Library (Add MS 46434) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2086 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … as he states in the letter. Wallace’s letter of 10 October 1856 has not been found. …
- … Natural History and in his letter to CD of 10 0ct [1856]. On distinction between domestic …
- … been preserved, but see letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 29 November [1856] and n. 4. Wallace …
- … 1856 to request specimens of domestic and wild fowl from Malaysia (see Correspondence vol. 5, CD memorandum, [December 1855]). James Brooke , raja of Saráwak, Borneo (see letter …
To W. D. Fox 30 October [1857]
Summary
Has come to think his brains were not made for thinking – he immediately feels better when at Moor Park.
News of his family.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
Date: | 30 Oct [1857] |
Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 104) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2161 |
From William Henry Harvey 3 January 1857
Summary
Sexes of algae.
Author: | William Henry Harvey |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 3 Jan 1857 |
Classmark: | DAR 166: 115 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2035 |
To J. D. Hooker 14 [November 1857]
Summary
Rule that species vary most in larger genera seems universal.
Response to Gardeners’ Chronicle note on "Bees and kidney beans" [Collected papers 1: 275–7].
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 14 [Nov 1857] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 215 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2170 |
To Laurence Edmondston 19 April [1857]
Summary
Thanks for pigeon.
Are there Shetland birds chequered with black marks, as Carl Julian Graba states are in Faeroes [Reise nach Färö (1830)] and Col. King in the Hebrides?
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Laurence Edmondston |
Date: | 19 Apr [1857] |
Classmark: | L. D. Edmondston (private collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2079 |
Matches: 3 hits
To W. D. Fox 8 February [1857]
Summary
Birth of his sixth son [C. W. Darwin]. It is dreadful "to think of all the sendings to school and the professions afterwards".
CD is not well but has not the courage for water-cure again; trying mineral acids.
Working hard on the book [Natural selection]; is overwhelmed with riches in facts and interested in way facts fall into groups.
To his surprise [Helix pomatia] has withstood 14 days in salt water.
Pigeons’ skins come in from all parts of the world.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Darwin Fox |
Date: | 8 Feb [1857] |
Classmark: | Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 110) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2049 |
To Bernard Peirce Brent 7 February [1857]
Summary
Sympathises with Brent’s legal difficulties. Declines offer of a cock silk fowl, but accepts offer of a German old fashioned pouter pigeon.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Bernard Peirce Brent |
Date: | 7 Feb [1857] |
Classmark: | Richard Brent (private collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2048F |
Matches: 3 hits
- … Correspondence vol. 6, letter to W. D. Fox, 3 January [1856] , and letter to W. B. …
- … letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 11 February [1857] ). CD had begun writing his species book, or what he sometimes called his ‘Book on Variation’, in 1856, …
- … 1856] ). See Variation 1: 270 for CD’s interest in the flight of silk fowls. Brent was a regular contributor to the Cottage Gardener. For CD’s request to William Bernhard Tegetmeier for German pouter pigeons, see Correspondence vol. 6, letter …
To W. B. Tegetmeier 12 [May 1857]
Summary
Accepts a dozen eggs of rumpless Polands. Having so many enables him to see whether the breed "comes true".
Asks what colour turbits have dark tails – "it is just the class of facts which interest me".
Do fowls when crossed throw odd and unexpected colours like pigeons?
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
Date: | 12 [May 1857] |
Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2090 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … true. CD had sent Tegetmeier a pair of Scanderoons in August 1856 (see letter to W. B. …
- … Tegetmeier ed. 1856–7, issued in parts. Dixon 1848 . See letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 18 …
- … 1856] ). According to Eaton 1852 , it was not easy to tell Scanderoon cocks from hens: ‘in this point the best and oldest Fanciers have been sometimes deceived’. See letter …
To Asa Gray [after 15 March 1857]
Summary
Urges AG to generalise from his observations on the flora of the northern U. S.
Expected to find separation of sexes in trees because he believes all living beings require an occasional cross, and none is perpetually self-fertilising. The multitude of flowers of a tree would be an obstacle to cross-fertilisation unless the sexes tended to be separate.
The Leguminosae are CD’s greatest opposers; he cannot find that garden varieties ever cross. Could AG inquire of intelligent nurserymen on the subject?
Thanks AG for information on protean genera; much wants to know whether their great variability is due to their conditions of existence or is innate in them at all times and places.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Asa Gray |
Date: | [after 15 Mar 1857] |
Classmark: | Archives of the Gray Herbarium, Harvard University (8) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2060 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … Asa Gray, 1 January [1857] . See letters to George Bentham , 26 November [1856] and …
- … 30 November [1856] . See letter to Syms Covington, 22 February 1857 . William Macarthur …
- … December [1856] . CD refers to his anecdote about Louis Agassiz related in the letter to …
- … 61–2, and Origin , pp. 99–100. See also letters to J. D. Hooker, 1 December [1856] and …
- … 15 March [1857] . Letter from Asa Gray, 16 February 1857 . A. Gray 1856–7 was published …
From James Tenant 31 March 1857
Author: | James Tenant |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 31 Mar 1857 |
Classmark: | DAR 205.2: 257 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2069 |
From Asa Gray [c. 24 May 1857]
Summary
Discusses difficulties involved in deciding which genera are protean in the light of some comments by H. C. Watson.
Author: | Asa Gray |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [c. 24 May 1857] |
Classmark: | DAR 165: 97 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2104 |
From Asa Gray 7 July 1857
Summary
Believes, with CD, that extinction may be an important factor in explaining plant distributions, but sees no reason why the several species of a genus must ever have had a common or continuous area. "Convince me of that, or show me any good grounds for it … and I think you would carry me a good way with you". It is just such people as AG that CD has to satisfy and convince.
Feels that the crossing of individuals is important in repressing variation and perhaps in perpetuating the species, but instances some plants in which it cannot, apparently, take place.
Author: | Asa Gray |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 7 July 1857 |
Classmark: | DAR 205.9: 381; DAR 165: 98 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2120 |
To W. B. Tegetmeier [19 July 1857]
Summary
Has acquired some runts. Thanks WBT for information. Lists pigeons he is sending.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
Date: | [19 July 1857] |
Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2115 |
letter | (65) |
Darwin, C. R. | (48) |
Gray, Asa | (4) |
Hill, Richard | (2) |
Watson, H. C. | (2) |
Christy, Alfred | (1) |
Darwin, C. R. | (15) |
Hooker, J. D. | (10) |
Gray, Asa | (8) |
Tegetmeier, W. B. | (8) |
Fox, W. D. | (5) |
Darwin, C. R. | (63) |
Gray, Asa | (12) |
Hooker, J. D. | (11) |
Tegetmeier, W. B. | (8) |
Fox, W. D. | (5) |

Darwin in letters, 1856-1857: the 'Big Book'
Summary
In May 1856, Darwin began writing up his 'species sketch’ in earnest. During this period, his working life was completely dominated by the preparation of his 'Big Book', which was to be called Natural selection. Using letters are the main…
Matches: 1 hits
- … On 14 May 1856, Charles Darwin recorded in his journal that he ‘Began by Lyell’s advice writing …

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 …
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 …

Origin
Summary
Darwin’s most famous work, Origin, had an inauspicious beginning. It grew out of his wish to establish priority for the species theory he had spent over twenty years researching. Darwin never intended to write Origin, and had resisted suggestions in 1856…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin’s most famous work, Origin, had an inauspicious beginning. It grew out of his wish to …

Six things Darwin never said – and one he did
Summary
Spot the fakes! Darwin is often quoted – and as often misquoted. Here are some sayings regularly attributed to Darwin that never flowed from his pen.
Matches: 1 hits
- … Spot the fakes! Darwin is often quoted – and as often misquoted. Here are some sayings regularly …
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: 1 hits
- … Many of the dates of letters in 1856 and 1857 were based on or confirmed by reference to Darwin’s …
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 …

Descent
Summary
There are more than five hundred letters associated with the research and writing of Darwin’s book, Descent of man and selection in relation to sex (Descent). They trace not only the tortuous route to eventual publication, but the development of Darwin’s…
Matches: 1 hits
- … ‘ Our ancestor was an animal which breathed water, had a swim-bladder, a great swimming …

Species and varieties
Summary
On the origin of species by means of natural selection …so begins the title of Darwin’s most famous book, and the reader would rightly assume that such a thing as ‘species’ must therefore exist and be subject to description. But the title continues, …or…
Matches: 1 hits
- … On the origin of species by means of natural selection …so begins the title of Darwin’s most …

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, 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
- … In 1882, Darwin reached his 74th year Earthworms had been published the previous October, and …

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 …
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 …

Thomas Henry Huxley
Summary
Dubbed “Darwin’s bulldog” for his combative role in controversies over evolution, Huxley was a leading Victorian zoologist, science popularizer, and education reformer. He was born in Ealing, a small village west of London, in 1825. With only two years of…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Dubbed “Darwin’s bulldog” for his combative role in controversies over evolution, Huxley was a …

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 …

Darwin in letters, 1872: Job done?
Summary
'My career’, Darwin wrote towards the end of 1872, 'is so nearly closed. . . What little more I can do, shall be chiefly new work’, and the tenor of his correspondence throughout the year is one of wistful reminiscence, coupled with a keen eye…
Matches: 1 hits
- … ‘My career’, Darwin wrote towards the end of 1872, ‘is so nearly closed. . . What little more I …
4.16 Joseph Simms, physiognomy
Summary
< Back to Introduction In September 1874, the American doctor Joseph Simms, then on a three-year lecture tour of Britain, sent Darwin a copy of his book, Nature’s Revelations of Character; Or, Physiognomy Illustrated. He was seeking a public…
Matches: 1 hits
- … < Back to Introduction In September 1874, the American doctor Joseph Simms, then on a …

Language: key letters
Summary
How and why language evolved bears on larger questions about the evolution of the human species, and the relationship between man and animals. Darwin presented his views on the development of human speech from animal sounds in The Descent of Man (1871),…
Matches: 1 hits
- … The origin of language was investigated in a wide range of disciplines in the nineteenth century. …

Hermann Müller
Summary
Hermann (Heinrich Ludwig Hermann) Müller, was born in Mühlberg near Erfurt in 1829. He was the younger brother of Fritz Müller (1822–97). Following the completion of his secondary education at Erfurt in 1848, he studied natural sciences at Halle and Berlin…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Hermann (Heinrich Ludwig Hermann) Müller, was born in Mühlberg near Erfurt in 1829. He was the …

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 …