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 |
To J. D. Hooker 2 March [1859]
Summary
Has finished geographical distribution chapter and asks JDH to read it.
Is it just to say embryological characters are of high importance in plant classification?
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 2 Mar [1859] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 5 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2422 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … distribution (see Correspondence vol. 5, letter from J. D. Hooker, 9 November 1856 ). …
To J. D. Hooker 11 September [1857]
Summary
Representative species may complicate tabulation of varieties.
Questions for Mr Anderson about horse colouring in Norway.
Has been writing an "audacious little discussion" to show that "organic beings are not perfect, only perfect enough to struggle with their competitors".
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 11 Sept [1857] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 211; DAR 115: 73a |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2140 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
From Charles Lyell to J. D. Hooker [31 May 1865]
Summary
Emcloses copies of correspondence concerning his dispute with John Lubbock.
| Author: | Charles Lyell, 1st baronet |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | [31 May 1865] |
| Classmark: | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (JDH/2/1/14 f.323); The University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections (Gen. 113/3650–3, 3813–20, 3821–4) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4844F |
To J. D. Hooker 5 March [1863]
Summary
Ill health.
At work on Variation.
Reading JDH on Welwitschia.
Letter from Lyell defends his position on species.
Anger at Owen.
John Lubbock’s lectures.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 5 Mar [1863] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 184 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4024 |
To J. D. Hooker 16 [May 1857]
Summary
Asks JDH’s opinion, and botanical evidence, on important law: parts that are highly developed in comparison to other allied species are very variable.
Interest in hairiness of alpine plants revived by reading A. Moquin-Tandon [Éléments de tératologie végétale (1841)]; correlation with dryness. CD seeks interpretation independent of direct environmental effect.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 16 [May 1857] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 197 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2092 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
To J. D. Hooker 28 February [1858]
Summary
JDH has confirmed CD’s opinion on the affinities of species in great genera. Is looking at large genera in several local Floras to find the "range & commonness of varying species".
Has been "beyond measure interested" in the construction instincts of the hive-bee.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 28 Feb [1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 225 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2228 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
To J. D. Hooker 6 October [1858]
Summary
Abstract growing to inordinate length.
Writing in support of S. Passell as assistant at Linnean Society.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 6 Oct [1858] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 248 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2335 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
To J. D. Hooker 20 May [1860]
Summary
Gives references to experiments on cowslip for W. H. Harvey.
Suggests possible sources of error in results. Feels evidence is overwhelming that cowslip and primrose are varieties.
Has received laudatory verses on the Origin from some botanist; suspects Francis Boott.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 20 May [1860] |
| Classmark: | Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2811 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
To J. D. Hooker 1 December [1879]
Summary
Movement of cotton plant cotyledons.
Thanks JDH for his praise of Erasmus Darwin.
Delighted that JDH is thinking about geographical distribution, wishes he would go over the New Zealand flora again.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 1 Dec [1879] |
| Classmark: | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Darwin: Letters to Thiselton-Dyer, 1873–81: ff. 193–4) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-12338 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … vol. 6, letter to J. D. Hooker, 8 [July 1856] and n. 3). CD and Emma Darwin stayed at 4 …
To J. D. Hooker [23 November 1855]
Summary
CD not sure that he can come to London.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | [23 Nov 1855] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 157 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1785 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of the council of the Royal Society in 1855 and 1856. The anniversary of the society was …
To J. D. Hooker [21 March 1857]
Summary
Ranges of species in large vs small genera: Asa Gray’s compilation fits CD’s expectation.
CD studies seedling mortality in his weed garden.
JDH’s work on Indian flora.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | [21 Mar 1857] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 192a |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2067 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … 1843 . See letter from J. D. Hooker, 7 May 1856 . A. de Candolle 1855 . See letter to …
To J. D. Hooker [10 June 1847]
Summary
Gives further details on peculiar Laburnum.
Can JDH lend him a full treatise on grafting?
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | [10 June 1847] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 94 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1095 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
To J. D. Hooker 28 June 1873
Summary
Thanks for Dionaea.
George Bentham’s last Linnean Society [Presidential] Address [Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. (1873): viii–xxix]. Admires it greatly.
CD’s recent work leads him to a different theory [from GB’s] on the separation of the sexes of plants.
Huxley has been at Down working with CD on Drosera – very helpful.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 28 June 1873 |
| Classmark: | DAR 94: 263–4 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8956 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
To J. D. Hooker [April 1852]
Summary
Questions on variation in nature: taxa varying in one region but not another. Variation between vs within species. Rarity of variation in important organs within a species. G. R. Waterhouse’s views on variation in highly developed organs, which CD relates to variation in rudimentary organs.
Asks for cases of obligate self-fertilising plants.
[CD annotation proposes using the Steudel Nomenclator botanicus (1821–4) to determine if variable species occur in genera with many species.]
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | [Apr 1852] |
| Classmark: | DAR 107: 66–7 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1496 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
To J. D. Hooker 5 July [1857]
Summary
Does JDH’s Wahlenbergia confirm CD’s law? Variations of one species assume the character of a distinct but allied species or genus.
Seed-salting: old ones float and germinate.
Owen’s "grand paper" [? J. Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Zool.) 2 (1858): 1–37].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 5 July [1857] |
| Classmark: | DAR 114: 203 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2117 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
To J. D. Hooker 14 May [1861]
Summary
Henslow’s long suffering.
Donald Beaton’s articles in Cottage Gardener clever but not to be trusted.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 14 May [1861] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 99 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-3149 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
To J. D. Hooker 7 June [1860]
Summary
Floral anatomy of Goodeniaceae: although flowers seem to fertilise themselves by pistil moving to anther, CD shows that insect agency is necessary. Wants JDH to check his interpretation of stigmatic surface.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 7 June [1860] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 61 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2823 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
To J. D. Hooker 5 June [1860]
Summary
CD’s response to criticism of natural selection. Exasperated at not being understood. He tries to narrow the gap between himself and JDH.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 5 June [1860] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 60 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-2821 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858. Edited by R. C. Stauffer. Cambridge: …
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
- … return to England from Sierra Leone late in 1856, Daniell had asked CD whether he would …
| letter | (137) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (134) |
| Darwin, Emma | (1) |
| Lyell, Charles | (1) |
| Watson, H. C. | (1) |
| Wedgwood, Emma | (1) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (137) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (134) |
| Darwin, Emma | (1) |
| Lyell, Charles | (1) |
| Watson, H. C. | (1) |
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: 21 hits
- … On 14 May 1856, Charles Darwin recorded in his journal that he ‘Began by Lyell’s …
- … Charles Lyell and Joseph Dalton Hooker, who were joined in 1856 by Hooker’s friend the American …
- … only source of information about his preoccupations during 1856 and 1857. They reveal little noticed …
- … might work in nature ( letter from Charles Lyell, 1–2 May 1856, n. 10 ). He was surprised that no …
- … remarked to Hooker ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 8 September [1856] ). I mean to make my …
- … on plants. Expanding projects set up during 1855 and 1856 (see Correspondence vol. 5), he tried …
- … first two chapters of his species book, completed by October 1856 (‘Journal’; Appendix II). …
- … Gray, vary in the United States ( letter to Asa Gray, 2 May 1856 )? What about weeds? Did they …
- … hermaphrodite’ ( letter to to T. H. Huxley, 1 July [1856] ), which became a source of amusement in …
- … that Asa Gray and Hooker confirmed during the course of 1856. Science at home: the botanical …
- … many different experiments on plants through the summers of 1856 and 1857, particularly with garden …
- … have grown well.’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 10 December [1856] ). His faith in his ideas …
- … trees (see letters to William Erasmus Darwin, [26 February 1856] and to Charles Lyell, 3 May …
- … Waring Darwin, the sixth and last, was born on 6 December 1856) was a constant worry, particularly …
- … in New South Wales ( letter to Syms Covington, 9 March 1856 ). Many other topics, …
- … the geological phenomenon of cleavage, still unresolved in 1856, with John Phillips and entered into …
- … visited the Darwins at Down House for several days in April 1856, and Darwin took this opportunity …
- … made in a letter written by Lyell from London on 1–2 May 1856. Darwin took the suggestion seriously …
- … him to write up his views ( letters to J. D. Hooker, 9 May [1856] ). Darwin had also …
- … At a second weekend party held at Down on 26 and 27 April 1856, he had discussed the question of …
- … doctrine.’ ( letter from Charles Lyell, 1–2 May 1856, n. 7 ). The excitement and intellectual …
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: 4 hits
- … were built to the area (Darwin to J. D. Hooker, 8 April [1856] ). This meant that most of the …
- … family duties (Darwin to W. B. Tegetmeier, 19 November [1856] ) made him unable to travel to many …
- … his son William, [30 October 1858] ). In one letter in 1856, he explained his paternal feelings …
- … in this world.’ (Darwin to Syms Covington, 9 March 1856 ) In the late nineteenth century, …
Dramatisation script
Summary
Re: Design – Adaptation of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin, Asa Gray and others… by Craig Baxter – as performed 25 March 2007
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…
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: 5 hits
- … Many of the dates of letters in 1856 and 1857 were based on or confirmed by reference to Darwin’s …
- … as Natural selection ). This manuscript, begun in May 1856, was nearly completed by June 1858. At …
- … 2 13 October 1856 [Variation under domestication] [2] …
- … 11 13 October 1856 Geographical distribution (DAR 14; …
- … 3 16 December 1856 On the possibility of all organic …
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
- … research notes, including letters going back to at least 1856 . Among them were accounts of …
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
- … undefinable’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 24 December [1856] ). The idea that sterility was a test …
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: 27 hits
- … [DAR *128: 160] Mansfield’s Paraguay [Mansfield 1856] } read Chesterton Prison Life …
- … Hutchison Dog Breaking 3 d . Edit [Hutchinson 1856] new information on Pointer & Retriever …
- … Annal des Sc. Nat. 4 th Series. Bot. Vol 6 [Naudin 1856]. Read Notes to Jardine & …
- … 1855 Sept. Tegetmeier on Poultry [Tegetmeier 1856–7] —— 27 th . Mem. de l’Acad. …
- … Das Ganze der Landwirttschaft [Kirchhof 1835].— 1856. Jan 10 th G. Colin Traite de …
- … [Rudolphi 1812] [DAR 128: 16] 1856 Jan 21. Huc’s Chinese Empire [Huc …
- … Mar 1 Veith Naturgeschichte Haussaugethiere [Veith 1856].— 3 d Knox Races of Man.— 1850 [R …
- … 1741–55] d[itt]o [DAR 128: 17] 1856 . Jan 28. Watt’s Life by Muirhead …
- … [Pepys 1848–9]— April 21 Sandwitt Kars [Sandwith 1856]. [DAR 128: 18] March …
- … 1851–6] —— Wollaston on Variation [Wollaston 1856] F. Smith on Apidæ [F. Smith 1855] …
- … 1835 [H. C. Watson 1835] [DAR 128: 20] 1856 June 26. Davis J. Barnard. …
- … 1855] —— 19 Von Tschudi Alpine life [Tschudi 1856] 30. Brehm Handbuch Vogel …
- … 1857 Nov. 15. Andersson Lake Gnami [Andersson 1856] —— 26 Slightly skimmed Forbes …
- … 1765] Oct. 23. Tracings of Iceland Chambers [Chambers 1856]. —— Mansfield Travels in …
- … 2 vols July D r . Kane’s Arctic Voyage [Kane 1856] Sept. 12. Ch. Napiers Life …
- … rubbish yet amusing Nov. 15. Tender & True [Spence] 1856]: H. Coverdale [Smedley [1854–6] …
- … Travels I ever read) Sept. Froude Henry VIII [Froude 1856]. 4 vols very interesting. …
- … —— 16 Zoologist [ Zoologist ]. up Vol. 14. 1856 May 9 th Voyage au Pol. Sud. Consid. Gen …
- … 1859 Feb. 28 Olmstead S. States [Olmsted 1856] (excellent) March 21. Mill on Liberty …
- … The revised edition of Johnston’s Physical atlas (1856) included ‘Map of the distribution of …
- … 113 The Cottage Gardener ceased publication in 1856. 114 CD marked this entry …
- … vols. London. 119: 14a Andersson, Carl Johan. 1856. Lake Ngami; or, explorations and …
- … [Darwin Library.] 119: 20a; *128: 173 ——. 1856. Tracings of Iceland and the Faröe …
- … [Other eds.] 119: 9a Chesterton, George Laval. 1856. Revelations of prison life; …
- … 128: 5 Davis, Joseph Barnard and Thurnam, John. 1856–65. Crania Britannica. …
- … Three visits to Madagascar during the years 1853, 1854, 1856 . London. 128: 24 …
- … . Lundæ. *119: 5v. Froude, James Anthony. 1856. History of England from the fall of …
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: 9 hits
- … naturalist Edward Forbes. Darwin declared to Hooker in July 1856 ‘y ou continental extensionists …
- … of his old friend, the geologist Charles Lyell, who, in May 1856, twenty months after Darwin had …
- … urgency to publish and, following Lyell’s advice in May 1856, began to write a sketch his theory. ‘I …
- … without full details. ’ Writing to his cousin Fox in June 1856, Darwin openly confessed his fears …
- … work ’ he had ‘desisted’. By November 1856, he had both good and bad news to report to Lyell: ‘ …
- … press. Although Darwin had decided in the autumn of 1856 to write only from the materials he …
- … wrote ten and a half chapters of his Big Book between May 1856 and June 1858. With a total of …
- … length ’, he had complained to Hooker in December 1856. By mid-1858, only the first chapter on …
- … being the second part of his big species book written from 1856 to 1858 (Cambridge University …
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…
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…
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
- … of the human form’, Quarterly Review , 99:198 (Sept. 1856), pp. 452-491. Joseph Simms, Nature’s …
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
- … to me’ ( letter to E. W. V. Harcourt, 24 June [1856] ). In a follow-up letter, Darwin hinted at …
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
- … it was the subject of his first scientific paper (Müller 1856). In the autumn of 1855, Müller …
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
- … Letter 1979 — Darwin, C. R. to Lubbock, John, 27 Oct [1856] Darwin provides detailed …
Correlation of growth: deaf blue-eyed cats, pigs, and poison
Summary
As he was first developing his ideas, among the potential problems Darwin recognised with natural selection was how to account for developmental change that conferred no apparent advantage. He proposed a ‘mysterious law’ of ‘correlation of growth’ where…
3.2 Maull and Polyblank photo 1
Summary
< Back to Introduction The rise of professional photographic studios in the mid nineteenth century was a key factor in the shaping of Darwinian iconography, but Darwin’s relationship with these firms was from the start a cautious and sometimes a…
Begins 'Natural Selection'
Summary
Darwin begins writing his 'big book', Natural Selection. The book was never finished, but later formed the basis for On the Origin of Species
Matches: 1 hits
- … Darwin begins writing his 'big book', Natural Selection. The book was never finished, but …
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. …
