To J. D. Hooker 8 [June 1858]
Summary
Pleased with JDH’s reaction to MS on large and small genera.
Confident of soundness of principle of divergence.
CD experimenting on pollination mechanism of Leguminosae. Asks JDH to investigate Fumariaceae.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 8 [June 1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 237 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2282 |
To W. E. Darwin [20 June 1858]
Summary
Relates domestic affairs.
Thinks his bees’ cell theory will hold good.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Erasmus Darwin |
| Date: | [20 June 1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 210.6: 28 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2267 |
To J. D. Hooker 2 November [1858]
Summary
On moving the natural history collection of the British Museum to Kensington.
Subscription for John Ralfs.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 2 Nov [1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 252 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2351 |
Matches: 2 hits
- … Correspondence vol. 6, letters to W. E. Darwin, [26 February 1856] , to J. D. Hooker, …
- … 1856]). Robert Monsey Rolfe and his wife Laura (Lord and Lady Cranworth) lived at Holwood Hill, Keston, Kent. Lord Cranworth was lord chancellor, 1852–8. Miss Carr was probably a sister of Lady Cranworth (née Laura Carr). Hooker evidently intended to circulate a printed list of subscribers to potential donors. The addition of CD’s name, would explain why the circular was to be sent to the people named in the letter. …
To W. E. Darwin [30 October 1858]
Summary
Glad WED has begun under George Henslow in the way that he has. CD wishes he had had such practice under J. S. Henslow.
Has had luck in his search for striped horses.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Erasmus Darwin |
| Date: | [30 Oct 1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 92: A29–30 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2350 |
To Charles Lyell 26 April [1858]
Summary
Comments on letter from Georg Hartung to CL dealing with erratic boulders.
Discusses migration of plants and animals.
A letter from Thomas Thomson on heat endured by temperate plants.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Date: | 26 Apr [1858] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.151) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2262 |
From Frederick Smith 26 February 1858
Summary
Identifies an ant described by CD and discusses the predatory habits of Formica sanguinea.
Describes some wasps’ nests.
| Author: | Frederick Smith |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 26 Feb 1858 |
| Classmark: | DAR 177: 191 (fragile) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2226 |
To J. D. Hooker 14 November [1858]
Summary
Hermaphrodite trees are enough to "knock" CD down. Can JDH observe Eucalyptus to see whether pollen and stigma mature at same time?
JDH’s facts showing European plants are more common in southern Australia than in South America are disturbing because they are improbable on CD’s views of migration.
JDH said he would give examples of Australian forms that have migrated north along the mountains of the Malay Archipelago.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 14 Nov [1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 254 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2361 |
To W. B. Tegetmeier 16 November [1858]
Summary
Wants WBT’s advice on poultry breeding experiments. Are certain birds true to their kind, and what should he pay for them?
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
| Date: | 16 Nov [1858] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2362 |
Matches: 1 hit
To J. D. Hooker 26 [April 1858]
Summary
Confidential revelation concerning W. F. Daniell.
Georg Hartung confirms CD’s supposition from flora of Azores that icebergs had been stranded there.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 26 [Apr 1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 232 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2263 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … 1856, Daniell had asked CD whether he would support an application to the Royal Society for a grant to collect natural history specimens in Africa. At the time, Hooker had expressed doubts about Daniell’s capabilities and CD declined to support the application. See Correspondence vol. 6, letters …
To J. D. Hooker 13 [July 1858]
Summary
JDH’s letter to Wallace perfect. CD’s feelings about priority. Without Lyell’s and JDH’s intervention CD would have given up all claims to Wallace. Now planning 30-page abstract for a journal.
Observations on floral structure
and slave-making ants.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 13 [July 1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 242 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2306 |
To T. C. Eyton 4 October [1858]
Summary
Comments on TCE’s skeletons.
Must get advice from Hugh Falconer on names of some bones.
Preparing his abstract [Origin].
Asks about colours of horses and stripes on asses.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Thomas Campbell Eyton |
| Date: | 4 Oct [1858] |
| Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.158) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2333 |
To J. D. Hooker 5 July [1858]
Summary
Thanks JDH for his report on the reading of the Wallace and Darwin papers at the Linnean Society [read 1 July 1858; Collected papers 2: 3–19]. Considers how to publish his work. Offers to forward a note from JDH to Wallace.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 5 July [1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 241 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2303 |
To W. B. Tegetmeier 24 December [1858]
Summary
Thanks for some poultry breeds.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
| Date: | 24 Dec [1858] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2383 |
To J. D. Hooker [5 August 1858]
Summary
Working on abstract, which now is to consist of a number of sections each to be read at Linnean Society and to be published as a unit. Has finished section on variation under domestication.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | [5 Aug 1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 246 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2313 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter to J. D. Hooker, 13 [July 1858] ). Hooker’ s plans however, changed, and he was able to visit CD at Down, in the company of William Henry Harvey , from 28 to 31 August 1858 ( Emma Darwin’s diary). Mary Jenyns , Frances Harriet Hooker’s aunt, died after a long illness on 1 August 1858. From 1856 …
To J. D. Hooker 10 April [1858]
Summary
Asa Gray’s criticism of Buckle and his comments on large and small genera.
CD suspects glacial epoch immensely long. Rates of organic change too variable to make them a good measure of geological time.
Bees’ cells are a difficulty for theory.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 10 Apr [1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 231 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2254 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter to J. D. Hooker,6 May [1858] . CD’s views on the effects of a former cold period on the geographical distribution of animals and plants are given in Natural selection , pp. 534–66. CD had consulted Hooker frequently on the topics covered in the chapter on geographical distribution (see Correspondence vols. 4, 5, and 6), and Hooker had read a fair copy of CD’s manuscript on the subject in the autumn of 1856 ( …
From Andrew Crombie Ramsay 29 December 1858
Summary
Responds to CD’s queries about the thickness of various geological formations. [See Origin, p. 284.]
| Author: | Andrew Crombie Ramsay |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 29 Dec 1858 |
| Classmark: | DAR 205.9: 398 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2387 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … 1856 . E. Hull 1857 . Henry William Bristow had been a geologist with the Geological Survey since 1842. His map of the geology of the Isle of Wight was issued in 1855 ( Flett 1937 , p. 63). Joseph Prestwich studied the Isle of Wight formations in 1846 (see Prestwich 1846 ). Ramsay also refers to Forbes 1853 . Edward Best was appointed assistant geologist with the Geological Survey in 1855. CD used the information given in this letter …
| letter | (56) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (41) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (6) |
| Baikie, W. B. | (1) |
| Blomefield, Leonard | (1) |
| Coe, Henry | (1) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (17) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (15) |
| Tegetmeier, W. B. | (6) |
| Lyell, Charles | (4) |
| Blomefield, Leonard | (3) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (56) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (23) |
| Tegetmeier, W. B. | (6) |
| Blomefield, Leonard | (4) |
| Jenyns, Leonard | (4) |
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 …
