To J. D. Hooker [21 May 1867]
Summary
Glad to hear Wallace is contender for Gold Medal. Has highest esteem for his extraordinary talents.
Thanks for H. Barkly’s letter from Mauritius.
Glad to see HB takes same view as CD about bones of deer [see 5395].
Objections to continental extension theory.
Progress [on Variation] very slow.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | [21 May 1867] |
Classmark: | DAR 94: 26–7 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5543 |
To John Lubbock [1 November 1856]
Summary
Discusses arthropod structure and the nature of the corium.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury |
Date: | [1 Nov 1856] |
Classmark: | DAR 263: 5 (EH 88206454) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1980 |
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 …
From J. D. Hooker [26 June or 3 July 1856]
Summary
Can no longer make out story of NW. American plants; consulting Asa Gray.
Questionable validity of seed-salting experiments.
Aristolochia and Viscum seem to shed pollen before flower opens.
Ray Society should only do translations.
Thomas Thomson in India has rediscovered Aldrovanda, a rare relative of Drosera.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | [26 June or 3 July] 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 104: 197 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1911 |
Matches: 7 hits
- … 5 [July 1856] . See letter to J. D. Hooker, 22 June [1856] . CD was anxious to ascertain …
- … asking the same question (see letter to Asa Gray, 14 July [1856] ). Hooker was mistaken in …
- … to J. D. Hooker, 22 June [1856] . See letter to T. H. Huxley, 4 May [1856] , in which …
- … dates are the two Thursdays between the letters to J. D. Hooker, 22 June [1856] and …
- … and Hewett Cottrell Watson ( letter from H. C. Watson, 5 June 1856) whether these species …
- … annotations, above, and letter from J. D. Hooker, 10 July 1856 ). Ludwig Radlkofer was an …
- … 1856 ). Siebold overturned Richard Owen’s definition of parthenogenesis ( Owen 1849 ) by showing that the cells from which new organisms developed were true ova and not simply pre-existing ‘germinal’ cells contained within the parent’s body. Siebold demonstrated that these ova were capable of development without fertilisation. See Farley 1982 , pp. 100–5. See letter …
From Charles Lyell 3 October 1859
Summary
Praises the Origin: a "splendid case of close reasoning".
Objects to CD’s having ignored Lamarck and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire.
Thinks CD should omit mentioning problem of explaining the eye at the beginning of chapter 14. Suggests rewording several passages.
Thinks want of peculiar birds in Madeira a difficulty, considering presence of them in Galapagos.
Has always felt that the case of man and his races is one and the same with animals and plants.
Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 3 Oct 1859 |
Classmark: | DAR 98: B1–6 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2501 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … from Charles Lyell, 1–2 May 1856 , and letter to Charles …
- … and Correspondence vol. 6, letter from Charles Lyell, 1–2 May 1856 . Lyell refers to the …
- … 1856, Lyell had encouraged CD to publish his species theory (see Correspondence vol. 6, letter …
- … Lyell, 3 May [1856] ). For Lyell’s interest in CD’s pigeon work, see letter from Whitwell …
To J. D. Hooker 11–12 November [1856]
Summary
CD relieved by JDH’s positive response to his MS.
CD continues observations on means of transport.
JDH’s Raoul Island paper [J. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 22 (1857): 133–41], showing continuity of vegetation with New Zealand, best evidence yet of continental extension.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Date: | 11–12 Nov [1856] |
Classmark: | DAR 114: 181 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1986 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … by the relationship to the letter from J. D. Hooker, 9 November 1856 . Letter from J. D. …
- … Hooker, 9 November 1856 . See letter from J. D. …
- … and W. E. Darwin, 13 [November 1856] ). See letter to J. D. Hooker, [19 October 1856] …
- … 1856 , in which Hooker invited CD to dinner on Wednesday, 12 November, to meet John Lindley and John Stevens Henslow , or on Friday 14 November, to meet John Tyndall and Henslow. CD attended neither dinner but did go up to London on 13 November (see letter …
To W. B. Tegetmeier 19 October [1856]
Summary
African fowls from Sierra Leone are pugnacious and amorous.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
Date: | 19 Oct [1856] |
Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1976 |
From J. D. Hooker 22 November 1856
Summary
Continued debate on formation of species as a result of retreat from glaciers.
JDH suggests internal powers of species modification, which he knows CD abhors.
Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 22 Nov 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 100: 111–12 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1995 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … Hooker, 23 November [1856] ). See letter from Asa …
- … Hooker, 18 November [1856] . CD did not communicate this information (see letter to J. D. …
- … See letter to J. D. Hooker, 18 November [1856] and n. 2. Thomas Thomson was …
- … 4 November 1856 , which CD had sent to Hooker to read. The remainder of the letter is …
To Samuel Birch 6 February [1856]
Summary
Is grateful for SB’s note and assistance. Will call upon him in London in a fortnight.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Samuel Birch |
Date: | 6 Feb [1856] |
Classmark: | British Museum (Department of the Middle East, correspondence 1826–67: 1492) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1829A |
To W. B. Tegetmeier 24 June [1856]
Summary
Now has 89 pigeons. The laughing pigeons are safe at Down. Can WBT spare a pair of Mr Gulliver’s runts?
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
Date: | 24 June [1856] |
Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1909 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … to W. B. Tegetmeier, 21 September [1856] . See letter to W. D. Fox, 3 January [1856] , …
- … June 1856 (‘Journal’; Appendix II). The pigeons were probably the ones mentioned in letter …
- … the relationship to the letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 25 April [1856] , in which laughing …
- … 1856] . For CD’s description and history of this breed, see Variation 1: 155, 207. See Variation 1: 142–3. See letter …
To M. J. Berkeley 18 March [1856]
Summary
Thanks MJB for information which he is including in his article for the Linnean Society.
Refers to the peas "which produce the black or intensely purple pods". [See 1834 and 1836.]
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Miles Joseph Berkeley |
Date: | 18 Mar [1856] |
Classmark: | Joseph R. Sakmyster, ADS Autographs (dealer) (no date) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1843A |
Matches: 5 hits
- … November [1855]. In his letter to Berkeley of 29 February [1856] ( Correspondence vol. …
- … M. J. Berkeley, 29 February [1856] and n. 3, and letter from M. J. Berkeley, 7 March …
- … to impregnation’, and asked for a sample ( letter from M. J. Berkeley, 7 March 1856 ). …
- … this letter and the letter from M. J. Berkeley, 7 March 1856 (see Correspondence vol. …
- … 1856; Journal of the Linnean Society ( Botany ) 1 (1857): 130–40, Collected papers 1: 264–73). CD referred to Berkeley several times in his account of their joint experiments; see also Origin , pp. 358–60. CD’s notes for and manuscript of this paper are in DAR 27.1 E and F. See also Correspondence vol. 5, letter …
To T. C. Eyton 5 October [1856]
Summary
Offers TCE dog’s skin and skull received from W. F. Daniell in West Africa.
Mentions his experiments involving hawk pellets in seed distribution.
Reminds TCE about pig crosses and incisors.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Thomas Campbell Eyton |
Date: | 5 Oct [1856] |
Classmark: | American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.139) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1968 |
Matches: 4 hits
- … of Wight (see letter from W. F. Daniell, 8 October – 7 November 1856) . Letter to T. C. …
- … Eyton, 31 August [1856] . See letter to J. D. Hooker, [19 October 1856] . An entry in CD’ …
- … the relationship to the letter from W. F. Daniell, 8 October – 7 November 1856 . William …
- … feather? —planted. ’ See letters to T. C. Eyton, 21 August [1856] and 31 August [1856] . …
To S. P. Woodward 18 July 1856
Summary
Thanks for information about variability in shells.
Comments on Harvey’s Seaside book [1849].
"I am growing as bad as the worst about species and hardly have a vestige of belief in the permanence of species left in me".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Samuel Pickworth Woodward |
Date: | 18 July 1856 |
Classmark: | DAR 148: 378 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1931 |
From Joseph Beete Jukes 27 February 1860
Summary
Believes in the "perfect indefiniteness & frequently the vast length of the interval" between consecutive geological formations. Thus has little respect for arguments against CD based on the absence of transitional forms in the geological record. States that species found through series of beds do vary: some Silurian species have many synonyms which are really varieties of greatly differing ages. CD’s theory accounts for the progressive inprovement, multiplication and increase in complexity that can be seen, but which may often be only relative.
Author: | Joseph Beete Jukes |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 27 Feb 1860 |
Classmark: | The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Lyell collection Coll-203/A3/5: 125–7) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2716A |
To W. B. Tegetmeier 29 November [1856]
Summary
Has received some poultry from various parts of the world.
CD is glad that WBT is describing the birds that he acquires.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | William Bernhard Tegetmeier |
Date: | 29 Nov [1856] |
Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2004 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … to Celebes. From there, in a letter dated 21 August 1856 ( Cambridge University Library ( …
- … for CD referred to a letter from Wallace, dated 10 October 1856, when he wrote to Wallace …
- … relationship to the letter from W. F. Daniell, 14 November 1856 . CD had asked Charles …
- … were mentioned in letters to W. B. Tegetmeier, 3 November [1856] and 19 November [1856] . …
- … Edmund Gabriel . See letter from W. F. Daniell, 14 November 1856 . Alfred Russel Wallace …
To A. C. Ramsay 19 October 1871
Summary
Thanks ACR for papers.
Glad present situation of our continents has been confirmed.
Wishes ACR would prove his view of origin of Red Sandstones, which many dispute.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Andrew Crombie Ramsay |
Date: | 19 Oct 1871 |
Classmark: | DAR 261.9: 9 (EH 88205982) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8019 |
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 |
From P. L. Sclater 17 April 1861
Summary
Corrects CD’s statement [Origin, 3d ed.] that Madeira does not possess one peculiar bird. There is one, out of the 99.
Author: | Philip Lutley Sclater |
Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Date: | 17 Apr 1861 |
Classmark: | DAR 205.3: 292 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3121 |
To Walter Baldock Durrant Mantell [before 10 April 1856]
Summary
CD asks whether New Zealand tribes have an idea of beauty in women which is "like ours"; WBDM answers, "Yes".
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Walter Baldock Durrant Mantell |
Date: | [before 10 Apr 1856] |
Classmark: | DAR 85: A99 |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6520 |
Matches: 5 hits
- … 6). In his letter to Mantell of 10 April [1856] , CD wrote, ‘I fear you cannot answer my …
- … In his letter to Mantell of 5 June [1856 –9] ( Correspondence vol. 6), CD wrote, ‘I think …
- … this letter and the letter to W. B. D. Mantell, 10 April [1856] ( Correspondence vol. …
- … volume, Supplement, letter to C. J. Andersson, 25 March [1856] , for a similar query. …
- … Correspondence vol. 6, letter to W. B. D. Mantell, 3 April [1856] , for CD’s request …
To H. W. Bates 4 April [1861]
Summary
CD urges HWB to write on his travels;
asks for facts on domestic variations;
is pleased by HWB’s acceptance of the theory of sexual selection.
He still believes in migration from north to south during glacial age.
Hopes Bates will publish a paper on mimicry.
Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
Addressee: | Henry Walter Bates |
Date: | 4 Apr [1861] |
Classmark: | Cleveland Health Sciences Library (Robert M. Stecher collection) |
Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3109 |
letter | (684) |
people | (4) |
bibliography | (2) |
Darwin, C. R. | (455) |
Hooker, J. D. | (40) |
Gray, Asa | (12) |
Blyth, Edward | (10) |
Lyell, Charles | (9) |
Darwin, C. R. | (215) |
Hooker, J. D. | (97) |
Tegetmeier, W. B. | (49) |
Lyell, Charles | (31) |
Gray, Asa | (25) |
Darwin, C. R. | (670) |
Hooker, J. D. | (137) |
Tegetmeier, W. B. | (53) |
Lyell, Charles | (40) |
Gray, Asa | (37) |
1822 | (1) |
1836 | (1) |
1844 | (1) |
1848 | (1) |
1852 | (1) |
1853 | (4) |
1855 | (35) |
1856 | (227) |
1857 | (65) |
1858 | (56) |
1859 | (32) |
1860 | (46) |
1861 | (34) |
1862 | (18) |
1863 | (16) |
1864 | (16) |
1865 | (26) |
1866 | (26) |
1867 | (17) |
1868 | (18) |
1869 | (1) |
1870 | (3) |
1871 | (4) |
1872 | (5) |
1873 | (2) |
1874 | (6) |
1875 | (4) |
1876 | (2) |
1877 | (3) |
1878 | (4) |
1879 | (4) |
1881 | (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 …